Just a thought, does the whole hull have to fit in there - with the front seat down and the rear seats flat - from the dashboard to the tailgate, the length is xxxx.00mm, how much would stick out the rear, with a solid construction vertical bar that plugs into the tailgate bottom connection and the tailgate lock mechanism, rendering the tail gate immobile, you could have the box for the hull sticking out without damaging it or it being damaged by the weather.
If you have the resources, and the technical knowhow the following could be done (the following is tongue in cheek but still a valid idea, that I believe no one has ever done).
1. a visit to a scrap yard to purchase a rear door / boot off a similar car van, also whilst there, ask for the bottom sill of the boot from which the door came from that includes the lock mechanism (the bit should have a cable connection that runs from the drivers seating area, you need the boot release lever as well).
2. Two steel tubes, one that slides into the other, both at least 1.5m long, plus some steel plate various thickness up to 5mm.
3. A sheet of leather / water proof material - whose length or size will become apparent shortly.
4. First - remove the window from the rear of the recycled door, remove the top and side portions that surrounded the window, mark and cut out the side parts so that the top edge looks square and neat, but only for the drivers side, the effect to aim for is a tailgate as found on a landrover.
Now, if it was fitted as is, it would not hold in place so a plate suitably rounded and deburred would need to be welded to the exposed inside top edge of the drivers side, angled and sufficiently enough to hold the right side using the inside profile of the boot plastic.
The passenger side of the rear tailgate is not needed - anything left of the lock (providing the boat box is no wider), so the gate is cut from the bottom of the gate to the window sill vertically, deburred and made good, except don't cut out all of the left, leave the bottom structural beam at the bottom and up the left side, remove the top part (or leave if the hull box will fit through i.e. cut a hole through the gate) repeat the retaining plate as for the right side but now for the left side.
So now the gate is locked in to the existing boot mechanism and stopped from falling outwards by the plate on the left and right, remember the cars tail gate is still above you (like when you see people taking the stuff to the tip). we have to secure the existing door to the new inserted tailgate, but not by rope, this is solid and mimics what the rope would do.
Take the old scrap sill from the other car and cut away all but the area around the locking mechanism, removing most of the cable but enough so that it can be used by the lever, two options, a single bar to the fixing position or a roll bar frame, I think the later would be better, fashioned from the smaller diameter bar (so more than the 1.5m) mitre joins or have bent into a roll bar the same widths as the gate, the larger diameter is cut into two equal lengths and each is welded to the top of the gate where the widow sides were, the angle at which they are fixed can be fixed or better still on brackets that allow them to go up to vertical, they have holes drilled in at equal distances for pins that will lock the roll bar tube to lock into - obviously the roll bar will slide into these tubes, so now we have a roll bar fixed to the top of the new gate and that can be swivelled up and will meet the existing door, as the existing door is brought down mark where on the roll bar the door mechanism would latch onto the sills lock, take the old sills lock and attach it by welding or bolting, using some 5mm plate create a pad for the lever to be attached.
The above means the cars existing door is now locked into a door mechanism, which is also locked into the cars existing mechanism, both should be secure, using plate create a locking support strap that will hold the hull box so that it moves up and down effectively with the car, that wont allow the box to slide out of the car.
The above could be done with a single bar with plates welded to hold the door mechanism, both can swivel so that they remain in the same position as the door would, and in place at the top and bottom, holding the door in many different stages of openness and adjusted by the sliding tube locked in different positions.
and the waterproof material
well it would cover any holes, like a open top car, trailer, shaped and secured with similar ways - bungee or poppers, tailored to suit.
any comments would be greatly received - as said this is tongue in cheek.
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Topic: HMS Agincourt build project (Read 183965 times)