finding/making interior room for goodies

[hydroxy]

Ok, I am looking for suggestions as to where I can find room to conceal electronics and other goodies on the interior.

ie, I have switches in my ash tray... someone has a PS2 in their glovebox, etc. I'm looking for concealed places to put stuff. However I dont want to lose functionality - ie, I dont want to take up the whole glove compartment, whole armest container, etc. I'd want something like behind the center console, in the rear quarter panel (already using that space...). I plan on putting a computer in over the summer and I want it to be hidden. I was thinking about under the rear seats, but I still want to be able to fold them down.

Sooooo if you have any suggestions as to where to find some space, no matter how big or small - let me know.

Places I've thought about so far:
-overhead console (maybe - expo, you have some inside pics of the one you did? as well as the place you're mounting it?)
-armrest container place
-under cup holders
-behind rear quarter panels
-behind hatch panel
-maybe behind door panels? does it get wet in there?
-driver's side panel under the steering wheel (maybe a little room there?)
-kick panels

 

[hydroxy]

I've also thought about putting some waterproof box somewhere around the frame and just running wires... however I'd want to do that as a last resort.

 

[SiLenZe]

behind the quarter panels has the most room, but still pretty tight for anything other then amps.

 

[Fish Man]

infront of the driver there is quite a bit of room if you take off that metal panel or just go behind it. under the cup holders theres alot of room if you cut up that plastic thing there that seemingly serves no purpose. inside the hatch theres a pretty good bit of room but water can get in there. all depends on what you wanna hide. ive taken off most every interior panel if you wanna know whats behind it

 

[410Fortune]

Cut the floor of the cargo area and build a shallow box to house all your junk.
Same goes for under the back seat, the only way to retiain the functionality of your rear seat and still mount stuff under it is to cut the floor and build a shallow box.

I have my music keg under my center console. Basically all the stuff in my truck goes under the dash or hidden inside the center console. You can fit alot of crap in a console if its built right!

If you take out the spare on an Explorer you can build a large deep box back there and cut out the floor, but then where does the spare go right?

 

[hydroxy]

infront of the driver there is quite a bit of room if you take off that metal panel or just go behind it. under the cup holders theres alot of room if you cut up that plastic thing there that seemingly serves no purpose. inside the hatch theres a pretty good bit of room but water can get in there. all depends on what you wanna hide. ive taken off most every interior panel if you wanna know whats behind it

Under the cup holders, that plastic piece is the vent to goto the rear air vents if I recall correctly. Maybe different on XLT - but my LTD is like that.


410: pic? I'm not going to cut up the floor... I want the chasis to remain as stiff as possible. Plus, if I went to sell it... I dont think people would be too wild about buying it w/ part of the floor missing.

 

[burgo]

If you don't have a passenger side airbag, you have quite a bit of room behind the panel in the dash, it simply pops out. My Dad had a 97 Ranger that I drove in high school, and I could fit quite a bit of booze back there. Comes in handy when your 16 years old! I saw a Pioneer Mustang demo car that had a 10 disc cd changer mounted flush there with a custom made fiberglass bezel, and that looked pretty nice.

 

[Fish Man]

hmm the vents...hmm...uh oh, wonder if they still work after i cut that up...