Doghouse hold-all

January 31, 2005, 09:07:18 pm

Hi all,

A bit over a month ago, someone posted info about a nice seat-back holder from (I think) Duluth Trading, to fit the doghouse. I ordered one from my '05 MB Yonder. Unfortunately it wouldn't quite fit as it was too tall. There's a little "love bump" at the bottom rear of the newer doghouses and it put the top of the holder too high. There's also a diagonal brace under the stock cup-holder tray that gets in the way too. Oh, I'm sure it could be made to work as is, but it wouldn't look neat (and neat is important!!).

Firstly, this seat back holder is very well made, so it was with some trepidation that I attacked it with a razor knife (g). The results are shown in a couple of pictures in the "Yonder" album.
Look for the photos labeled "doghouse".

The first shows an overall view and the second, details of the attachment using LD's original bracket and screws that hold the cup tray.

To make this mod, it's necessary to cut off the upper straps, slice off 1 3/4" off the top (this is fabric on both sides with a layer of foam and hard plastic inside. Cuts easily with a sharp razor knife (so do fingers - be careful). I also cut off the large back pocket, the side that faces the doghouse, as there's no way to use it when it's mounted. A flame is used to singe the cut nylon edges so nothing unravels. This is done also across the cut off top.
The original cup holder is removed by removing the screws that go up into the bottom of the shelf (do not remove those going into the doghouse (yet). To get the tray off, you'll also have to remove one screw that goes into the doghouse near the bottom of the angle support.

With the tray out of the way, remove one each outboard screw from each bracket. Now stick a felt tip pen into the hole to mark the carpet around the screw hole (otherwise it can be most difficult to relocate the original holes in the carpet.

Now I cheated a bit. I have a "hole locating" tool that is normally used for aligning new holes in an aluminum aircraft skin. This tool consists of two spring steel blades, fixed together at one end. One blade has a small tit and the other a hole that precisely alignwith each other. I inserted the tit into the vacant screw hole in the aluminum bracket and then held the hold-all in place between the tool blades to drill a hole through the hold-all. This was done on each side and then the aluminum brackets were both removed. Holder then mounted with the aluminum bracket on the outside (as shown in pic) using the pre-drilled hole. Second hole lined up automatically.
Diagonal brace goes into main pocket which has enough slack to allow original screw to be re-installed.

ta-da

bumper