Decided to combine two things I really like to do - mod my MINI and woodworking. I got the idea from another thread where someone had put a photoshoped picture of an R56 with a boat cabin sole in place of the usual rear seat delete kit. Thought I would try it out.

It turned out not too bad. There is a pine framing system under this tongue and grooved deck panel. The panel was made from 5/4's cherry and maple which was ripped to give 1/2" x 1" maple strips and 1/2" x 2 3/4" cherry strips. Cut the tongue and groove with my router, then glued together to give a left and right panel. I cut the pattern into them then ran them through a big surface planer to smooth them out. Final thickness is 3/8".

I was going to put a hatch or two in the deck but decided to stop at this point for now. I put some old pillows under the deck (along with lining everything with FAT MAT) to cut down on the noise. That has worked well.

Just for grins I did a model of the whole thing in SolidWorks. Selecting mahogany for the cherry (no cherry in SolidWorks) it tells me the whole shooting match comes under 20 lbs.

Cheers,
Greg

 

Pretty cool and well done.

 

Very nice, love it! I love putting unexpected materials in obvious places.

 

thats tight !!!!!!!!!! looks great against the red paint.

 

Looks truly fantastic.

 

Damn....I've been thinking of something like that. Looks great.
May never get around to doing it myself, but....

 

Good job! Would have hit 2 birds w/ 1 stone to delete & save some weight simultaneously though.

 

Killer job!