Has anyone ever fitted a boot box?

[DIY-Si]

As part of my ongoing idle thoughts about fitting a roll over bar, I've been thinking about how to access the area under the rear bodywork. Given how the rear curls under the lower edge of the pontoons, and ideally needs two people or much faffing to get it to fit, plus rear stays possibly going through the bodywork, I've been thinking about not having to open it at all.

 

My thoughts, and they're not overly practical yet, would be to first glass in stiffening ribs under/around the proposed opening, before slicing an opening and then using that panel as a bootlid. I'm thinking of something akin to a Midget bootlid. The exposed opening would then have a bootbox formed from aluminium and secured to the chassis.

 

All this is merely a mental exercise for now, but fitting a roll over bar properly requires welding on the chassis so is not something that is easily done without the risk of ruining the sexy lines of the XI.

 

Your thoughts on my thoughts?

[Morris]

The Ronart W152 has a (loosely termed) boot lid, but I personally think it looks a bit naff.

 

With hidden hinges it would be a bit easier on the eye!

 

On an XI the panel lines would need to match up exactly to prevent spoiling the look of the curves.

 

Wasn't the head fairing on the original Eleven removable?

 

I know yours is a flat back but it could be your solution without having to hack away into the moulding.

 

[robhume]

Hi Simon,

I remember we had a PM conversation, particularly about roll bars and the first thing I would say is

I have a left and right hand mounting plate on a shelf in the garage if you decided to go that way.

One thing I kicked myself for afterwards was not taking a mould of the rear body around the area

where a roll bar would cut through the body.

The style of roll bar I used was really dictated by the MSUK regs but if you are not bothered about those

I would not adopt that style now and look for something more in keeping with the period but with a decent

tube spec.

The boot box is a good idea as you are quite correct in saying it is a pain opening the rear clip, especially

if you have a diagonal tube in your roll bar style.

Just a few thoughts

[DIY-Si]

Morris, 

 

That Ronart isn't too far off what I had in mind but with internal hinges. I wouldn't want to make the lid any more obvious than it would need be.

 

Rob,

 

I would like, if possible, to have an approved roll bar as I'd like to do the odd sprint, but I suspect it may end up looking too different to what I want. A lot of my ponderings revolve around how to get rear facing stays that are worth having, without having an ugly/chopped to hell rear clam.

[robhume]

Simon, more thought via PM

[DIY-Si]

Further to my pondering on this subject, I have decided that I may be worrying about something that is unlikely to be much of a realistic consideration.

 

As much as I have visions of jetting around the vineyards of Europe in my XI, obviously looking quite the dashing young gent, I suspect that the reality may be a tad different. I honestly think I may get the odd long weekend away in the XI, and as such access to the hidden space under the rear bodywork will be unnecessary for 95%+ of the time. I am therefore starting to look towards fitting a more permanent ROPS that will probably prevent the rear clam being opened without tools. The storage issues will be solved instead by either a small overnight bag in the footwell, as the other half can't reach the bottom panel anyway, or a larger bag that I'll look at getting made to suit that will sit in between the rear stays of the ROPS.

 

This is, of course, all subject to a trial run of the planned ROPS with some waste pipe. It may be it looks ridiculous and I bin the whole idea in a strop yet!