Design Evolution Series: Talon XR-h under hood cargo box

The finished all aluminum XR-h with a plastic screw-in sealed hatch. Store link here for purchasing.

This project began with a cardboard version. I originally wanted to cover the area as you see because it looked good but that was not too fabrication friendly.

The top got trimmed down to this size.

The cardboard version was used to measure and cut panels for an aluminum prototype that I could hack on and further refine.

The aluminum box fit nicely but I was not excited about the rear tab mounting to plastic only. I experimented with a tab that would attach to the metal brake reservoir mounting. The tab was kinda weird and I didn't like it sticking out for this attachment point.

The mounting locations were revised as shown below. The rear tab was relocated to land on the very sturdy metal mounting for the plastic. The existing Honda bolt is long enough to reuse also. The front tab was widened for stability and included two secure anchor points. New holes must be drilled for these two front anchor points.

The original prototype had a corner cut out to clear brake lines. While finalizing the design for fabrication this corner proved to be a problem. I decided to simplify this further by sloping the entire front side of the box from top to bottom to miss the brake lines. This design allowed for a much easier two piece fabrication with minimal welding and bending complications.

It took all those steps to get to this very first laser cut and bent prototype ready for welding.