Rear seat cubby storage - Aluminum sheet metal DIY?

Anyone do something similar DIY?

Thinking of taking out the plastic cubby behind rear seats and making one from aluminum sheet metal to get more room for storage

I would look into some quotes for laser cutting first then probably try to cut it myself in garage if unhappy, bends could probably be done with an aluminum brake if I can figure out the correct order and if I have the space after some of the bends

Also thinking of a small 1cm bend to the front edges to give it some rigidity, maybe spot weld it?

 

Polyvinyl Chloride PVC
1.38 g/cm3

Aluminium
2.7 g/cm³

I might go try this with a sheet of PVC and a heatgun/iron, I don't even know where the gutter brake is in the shed

 

Seems like a case of DI-Why...

I don't think the space gains are worth the effort. Not to mention the rattling of items in a metal cubby.

But keep us posted on the progress. Maybe you're on to something.

 

For the DI-WHY
I took my truck in for the child seat restraint recall and realized the plastic has a lot of dead space (in the red)
I want to go somewhere between stock and full rear seat delete, If I got rid of most of the plastic (in the red), I'd gain about a foot or more of space to keep a backpack, extra extinguisher, axe etc and retain the rear seat for passengers

I don't know how much those panels play in keeping the seat up, I'm sure there's some rigidity from the seat itself and it rests against the back of the cab
Will play around with it

Basically replace stock plastic with less plastic/metal to squeeze a little extra storage in the dry interior