Well, I've been delaying work on this project for one reason or another for too long, but I had a 4x4 camping trip come up that finally spurred me to get things done.
As I've said earlier, I want to impose some level of organization on the huge pile of stuff that winds up in the rear of my 4Runner.
I also want a sleeping platform. Since that will help get the wife out on camping adventures. The Centipedes here are really amazing.
Oh, I also want it to look good.
So in a
previous post, I had worked up a design for a system that I though met my requirements.
After letting things turn over in my mind for a while. I've made a plan, which includes some changes to the design shown previously.
- I'm changing the cabinet sites to be sheet metal
- I'm revising the sleeping platform design from hinged panels to lift-away panels.
- I've adjusted some material thicknesses.
Changing cabinet sides from wood sides (1/2" thick) to metal (1/16" thick) actually increases the storage volume significantly. (It allows each drawer to be 7/8" wider inside. The dimensions of the drawer side are 10.25 x 35.5. There are 2 drawers. Multiply all these number together, and you get 637 cubic inches of space back. That's about 2.75 gallons of space.)
The hinged panels were not really a great solution. In theory, they would have been able to be folded into place directly, but in practice it would be difficult to make them move nicely around the roof, C pillars, and various hardware while still making a nice wide platform. Moving away from the hinged panels reduces complexity, and reduces the need for additional structure to prevent the joint from failing when loaded. It also reduces hardware cost!
So, Here's a general list of parts and quantities:
- Starboard-side (large)
- Large Cabinet
- 1 x Left side (metal)
- 1 x Right side (metal)
- 2 x 36" drawer sliders
- 1 x Back panel (1/2" wood)
- 1 x Top panel (3/4" wood)
- 1 x Starboard platform wing panel (3/4" wood)
- 1 x Starboard wheel well panel (3/4" wood)
- 3 x "Sewing machine" hinges
- 1 x Long mounting flange
- Starboard side drawer
- 1 x Drawer Face panel (3/4" wood)
- 1 x Bottom panel (3/4" wood)
- 1 x Rear panel (1/2" wood)
- 2 x Side panel (1/2" wood)
- 2 x Drawer Face mounting blocks (3/4" wood)
- 1 x Starboard Extension panel
- Port-side (small)
- Small Cabinet
- 1 x Left side (metal)
- 1 x Right side (metal)
- 2 x 36" drawer sliders
- 1 x Back panel (1/2" wood)
- 1 x Top panel (3/4" wood)
- 1 x Port platform wing panel (3/4" wood)
- 1 x Port wheel well panel (3/4" wood)
- 3 x "Sewing machine" hinges
- 1 x Short mounting flange
- Small drawer
- 1 x Drawer Face panel (3/4" wood)
- 1 x Bottom panel (3/4" wood)
- 1 x Rear panel (1/2" wood)
- 2 x Side panel (1/2" wood)
- 2 x Drawer Face mounting blocks (3/4" wood)
- 1 x Port Extension panel
So the first decision was how HIGH to make the the drawers. I found that if I made the bottom side of the sleeping platform 12 inches up from the baseplate, it cleared the wheel wells with a bit to spare and the forward panels (sleeping platform extensions) would rest nicely on the folded up second-row seats, creating a level platform from front to back. This let me start cutting panels for the sleeping platform.
I started with the Starboard cabinet top pieces and bed extension panel:
Being picky really makes life complicated. I had decided that I wanted the platform to extend neatly to the edges of the available space (so that things can't drop down into crevices). This meant that some parts, like the extension and wing panels are highly contoured. Of course, there's no pattern available for these, so I needed to do quite a few cycles of "Test fit, mark, sand" to get parts to fit right.
After getting these pieces cut, sanded, varnished, and hinges installed...
...I really couldn't do more (useful) work until I had the cabinet sides. As I mentioned before, I had decided to go with metal sides. So I went to a local shop that specializes in HVAC and architectural metal parts, and had them whip up four pieces out of 16 gauge galvanized steel. A few days and $250 later, I brought the parts home:
Marked them:
Drilled them:
And then did some test assembly:
The next step was to get the drawer slides installed. This turned out to be more complicated than I thought. The drawer slides are designed to be attached to a wood or wood-like material, using wood screws. Since I was using a 1/16" thick steel panel, there wasn't room for much thread engagement, and I didn't want nuts or washers sticking out on the outside anyways. Plus, there wasn't much space on the inside either!
The solution: Solid rivets!
I'll be honest, I hadn't done much work with solid rivets before (I'm more used to pop rivets). I knew that you had to hammer them down some how, but how hard could that be. Combining this lack of practical experience with no restraint in material selection resulted in me having a box of Stainless Steel Rivets. It turns out that these are EXTREMELY hard to hammer down - most folks use a hydraulic press. So I want and talked to a guy at a local machine shop, who was willing to give this a try. There was the added complication that the tail end of the rivet was on the INSIDE, where the drawer slide is, so I was going to have to access this through the access holes in the drawer slide. So I made a little punch out of mild steel, which could be used to press down the rivets.
It didn't go well.
The rivets were significantly harder than my punch, and quickly destroyed it. The solution was to use a more suitable material, so I ordered a pack of ALUMINUM rivets.