Jimny hacks on the cheap

Here's some improvements I've made on the cheap to my Jimny 'Lite' while the bank balance recovers. 

1/. Increased the load rating of the tie down points simply by painting them red.  Cost $0 (I had the paint spare).
2/. Fitted rubber backed front matts. Cost $18.  

• Bought two rubber backed carpet tiles and cut to fit.
• On the drivers side, used plastic plaster anchors and brass eye screws to create tie down points. Tied tile to eye screws with a loop of para cord.  
• In hindsight I needed to etch prime and paint the brass to match the carpet.

3/. Anti slip matt in luggage area. $10. Bought ~5mm anti slip rubber and cut to size, with cut-outs for seat beats. The thickness is good because its squishy enough for the load to sink in and bite, but not too thick that the matt cant be folded into quarters for storage. 
4/. Maglite holder. $2. Used spare heavy duty shock cord to create loops to slide the torch into. Needed to add some self adhesive foam to the wall of the car to stop torch rattling. Also needed a small bit of foam wrapped around the tie down point for the same reason. 
5/. Door reflectors. $10 used reflective tape on all three doors so they are more visible (than grey) when open. Not visible from the inside when doors closed. 
6/. Installed a 12v socket in the rear. Jimny Lite doesnt have the rear socket. Bought $35 socket from Suzuki dealer. When installing rear speakers, Popped out the cover over the hole, snapped socket into the panel and plugged into the as yet unused connector in the wiring loom. 5 min job. 
7/. Improved Dashtray $5. To stop the phone moving around whilst driving I applied high strength Velcro to the face of tray and then to the back of phone case. Works brilliantly. Phone can be quickly placed and removed. Phone can be poked and prodded with full force without it moving, unlike the clasp based holders. 
8/. Installed CarHome Ultra app on phone. Jimny Lite doesnt have the nice head unit so I installed this on the phone configured to automatically launch when it senses the Jimny on the other end of the USB cable. Provides digital speedo, compass, street address. One touch access to apps, including the really helpful 'GPS to SMS' app. Click the icon, confirm the recipient and the app sends them a default SMS such as  "This is where I am <Google map URL>. See you soon, GreyJimny". 
9/. Folding sleeping bench and mattress. $90. Completely rigid and as comfortable as the mattress you choose. 

• Used 18mm Form-Ply (cheap, inflexible, smooth), shaped so as to allow gear and handbrake to still be used. Cut into halves and joined with a piano hinge so that bench can be folded and stored on a single folded rear seat, leaving 3 seats functional. 
• Used router to round off the edges. Fixed very flexible rubber backed carpet with contact adhesive and staple gun. This is important as it prevents the ply cutting anything it touches and allows me to slide the unit in. 
• Cut and routered 2 holes for tying down to child seat restraint anchors. I use the front passenger seat belt to tie down the front end if bench is kept in place whilst driving. 
• I used an old foam mattress and cut it down to fit inside a sleeping bag that I bought from the charity shop for $7. Mattress is easily foldable despite being about 15cm thick.
• Finally, to support the front end I used a pilates roller trimmed to get correct height and to stop it rolling. 
• The mid section is supported by the back of passengers seat. Trick is to not fully recline the seat, otherwise its too low and the bench bends in the middle. 

Let me know if you have any questions or improvements.
 

Some nice little mods there, thanks for sharing.

Function doesn't have to cost a fortune. Nice work.

Love #1 !!!