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Another swap meet acquisition. An earlier Tuffy Center Console for
$15. Arm rest pad in good shape and it still has the key. When
test fitting it I felt that the console sat too low. I like a place to
rest the right arm when it's not shifting the T-18. So I came up with an
idea to not only raise the Tuffy but add much needed storage space. The
design was simple. Like putting a shoebox shaped galvanized steel box
under the Tuffy and mounting the Tuffy with 2 rear hinges and a pad lock in
the front.
I missed the boat on this one when it came to snapping pictures as I
assembled it. But then it's not all that complicated anyway and it assembled
quicker than I thought; before I had time to go get the camera. So what you
see here is a series of "after" pictures that hopefully detail the simplicity
of the "Under-the-Tuffy" storage box.
First of all, I decided how much height I wanted to make the Tuffy the
perfect arm rest. I came up with 4 1/2 inches leveled. That meant
that the front of the lower storage box was just about resting on the
transmission hump while the rear was raised up about 6 inches. That puts
the rear of the Tuffy up about 10 inches above the rear floor of the Jeep.
The 4 inch tall box was simply this: I found some "C" shaped galvanized
steel at my local source for scrape metal.
Measurements of the side pieces were 1" x 4" x 1" that looked like this
a [
I cut 2 sides, a front and a rear piece, then used self-tapping sheet metal
screws to secure the sides to the front and rear, overlapping the 1" top
and bottom and putting a sheet metal screw through the 1". Then for
strength, I cut 4 - 4" 1x1 90 degree angles to strengthen the corners.
The corners were drilled through the sheet metal and through the corner
pieces. With the 1x1 corner pieces inside the box, sheet metal screws were run
through from the outside into the box. Then I lined the bottom with a piece of sheet metal. That's kind of it
for the box. It looked like a metal shoebox with a 1 inch lip on top.
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Home-built
Serious Skid-Plate protection for the Oil Pan for under 20
bucks!
