Rear Spare Wheel Cover and Extinguisher

As mentioned, I have been keen lately to have a fire extinguisher in the car and I have seen too many infernos this year to let it alone anymore. It may be that I'm a bit superstitious but to ignore what is a simple modification would be heart breaking if the worst happened.

Fire Extinguishers come in a few flavours. Most are too small to be of any real use, having less than thirty seconds of powder. I decided to invest in as best I could and obtained a 50 kg unit, suitable for all fires.

The only problem with this is that it is going to be a Devil to actually mount in the car.

Naturally my first and only choice of location was the rear boot area. It was not feasable really, to stand it on end upright and would have to lay on the floor. Screwing into the soft carpet would simply not hold it in position and I didn't want it to cause access problems for the spare wheel.

As posted previously I had already decided to make a new cover for the spare wheel using the left over from when I made the speaker housings. As this simply drops into place I also made an additional shape to sit to the left of the cover.

To hold this in place I used some velcro. Strong enough to hold in place and yet removable with ease.

Plate made for fitting Extinguisher

This was simple enough and keyed perfectly with the new shelf. Finishing was not really a problem as this part will never actualy be seen.

New spare wheel cover in a leather cover.

The shape for the wheel cover I 'covered' in leatherette with some spray on glue. I really could not be buggered to make an immaculate job of it and confess I tided up the edges with Duck Tape.

Spare wheel cover drops in

The most ideal thing about my terrible covering of the bare wood is that it cushions the shelf perfectly eliminating rattles.

Finished product with extinguisher fitted

After dropping the cover back in, it was just a question of dropping the carpet into place.

Job done!