GU Rear Door Table

[Ray!]

Well, I finally got around to making the rear door table for the Patrol, after lots of planning and sourcing of materials. The total build time was around six hours, but there was also a bit of waiting for glue to dry and running around for bits and pieces, so the whole project took about three days.

I wanted to make something slightly different to what others have made, so that the look is as close to factory as I could reasonably achieve with my limited workshop facilities (read basically none). This project was literally created on a Black and Decker foldout work table, and the kitchen and dining room tables (what I wouldn't give for a proper workshop.

Here's the final result and I'll post the stages in a separate post. The only thing that I'm not satisfied with is the closing mechanism (currently a spring drawing together the wires that support the table); I'll be looking for something neat that I can use for a better lock. I'm also still tossing around what I want for the top of the table. The splashback is intentionally white so that it will reflect light onto the table. The total cost of this table is $91.51 in materials and consumables.

This is what it started with, a sheet of 3mm thick aluminium:

Then it was off with the existing liner to trace out the shape and mark the holes for the plugs:

Once the shape and holes were marked (I used a pin vice first to mark the holes through the vinyl, so that it didn't leave any marks on the liner, and then centre punched the pin marks), then I outlined the cutout for the table:

Once the holes were drilled and the centre cut out, I was ready to start the lining. Cutting out the centre piece was the most frightening thing, as one slip and it was start again. I used a 4" grinder with one of those 1mm thick cutting wheels to cut out the table. A note for those who may try this, when using one of these thin cutting wheels, don't try and cut through immediately, just gently move the wheel along the cutting mark, using a piece of staright steel or timber as a guide, and let the weight of the grinder work its way through:

Time to test the farme on the door to ensure I got everything right. Spot on:

Time to position the hinge and table on the frame. This was just a test to ensure that everything fitted correctly:

The final stages involved gluing the matching vinyl to the frame and table. This took a bit of planning, as again, I didn't have any second chances to get it right. Yes I could have cut more vinyl, but then there was a huge mess of contact glue to clean off. This is how the frame came out and the table was much the same, so not point in additional shots:

I stuffed around with various loking mechanisms, including velcro, but eventually ended up with this:

It all works a treat.

Cheers

Ray

[bigrig77]

That's awesome ray , nice work, got me keen to do mine. Cheers.

[oncedisturbed]

That is sweet

[carnaby]

Hi Ray ,

thats the best door table ive seen very neat tidy gob

love it

Alan

[sa_on_patrol]

that looks great ray, might have to do something similiar