Maximising Pentair centre console box space Perodua Axia (DIY)

Self DIY after market centre console box for 250% space improvement

The main motive of Perodua cars is always focusing on practical and economical.

Practical in terms of small and lightweight cars for easy to maneuver and parking while economical due to its super efficient fuel burning engine.

But there is always lack of space due to its small cabin and instead of this everyone also find very little storage space inside the car.

This is my second Perodua car after the Perodua Kancil and one same thing I find is there is no centre console box in between the 2 front seat or in the other simple name, arm rest.

It is a headache for me as the glove box compartment under the dashboard is also very small in space and is not enough for me to store my items so I definitely wanted to install the centre console box.

The journey to find the suitable box also took me half year when I have went to all accessories shop in Penang and couldn't find the type that I wanted to perfectly fit onto the centre console nicely.

I have seen some people posting on internet of the type of console box that blend in very nicely to the centre console and enhancing the interior appearance but that was sold in KL.

No way I should go to KL just to buy a centre console box by wasting toll money, petrol and time so I told myself to stick to my place here and for the second time I had to came back to this accessories shop located in Bandar Perda asking for console box.

Inside here sold a lot of console boxes but all of it are made from wood with boring design (squarish shape) but this time I specifically requested for a more expensive console box.

Then the promoter have taken me to a rack and mentioned that this is OEM type console box.

"Yes! Finally"

Price for this is RM99 and tested fit in handsomely onto the centre console before I pass them my money.

The base of this console box sit on top the existing cup holder and fit in it firmly without any gap to move and play around.

One thing annoying me is that the storage compartment inside is very small with only 8cm deepness.

I cannot imagine how on earth they purposely make this box look very beautiful on the outside but inside contain very tiny little space.

So I have to initiate a task to enlarge the space inside the storage compartment by modifying and cutting the necessary layer to the maximum as possible. 

First, I have to examine the box on how does it assembled and the build structure and it certainly was not ideally designed to utilise space to the maximum.

The three screws fastening the cover was opened to reveal the top tier but there is another 2 hidden screw beneath the silver magnet.

For your info, there is no latch to secure the top cover to the head of the console box but just by simply using magnet sticking the screw under the top cover on to it.

The magnets was inserted very tight and I need to use power drill to make some hole in order to pry out the magnet and after that only I am able to open the remaining screw to access into the console box.

But then it was just another plastic tray beneath the top tier partition tray.

"Layer of layer of small plastic of a big unusable space under it. What the heck?"

Next, I proceed to open another 4 screws holding the second tier tray to the base and this time I am able to see a big deep space which is enough to store 2 cans of drink in it.

From this moment, I am determined to cut a hole on the floor of the first and second tier tray in order to gain access to the bottom of the base of the console box and also recycle back the plastic floor to covering the ugly hole on the base.

It is not an easy job to begin with all the tools that I have and I don't have an small electric cutter to ease my job.

"I have a Bosch grinder but that was too powerful and may cause serious injury to my tissue"

After 2 hours of manual sawing using steel saw and finally the hole was completed.

And now use back one of the severed plastic and place it inside base to cover up the assembly point to the centre console cup holder due to it is very ugly in it.

Silicone glue was used to stick the plastic layer and suddenly my wife intercepted my work and wanted to perfecting my workmanship. Haha!

After this all was assembled back and there is small gap between the first tier and second tier of plastic which I was supposed to fill it up using silicone glue but I also come up with some plan to add in lighting into the console box in the future.

So I plan to leave it as it is at the moment until my next project take place.

Measurement taken and now the centre console box had improved significantly by as much as 250% storage space!!!

"20 divide by 8 is equals to 2.5 times!"

At last, the console box was installed back to the car and currently I am able to keep a lot of things inside due to its deep floor although inside is a little bit imperfect to look at.

Now me and my wife are a happy owner of our Perodua Axia with so much self DIY done to the car but no matter how much we could do, the Perodua Axia will not beat my Proton Persona in every aspect.

The centre console box that come originally new with the car 10 years ago is as deep as 27cm.

For addition, I have also DIY my own door side step due to accessories shop only selling those with LED illuminated and cost nearly RM100 which for me is a little bit money wasting.

From here I am only posting tons of picture without describing much and the cost of doing this is only less than RM20 with material bought from Mr. DIY.

The carbon fibre effect sticker act as a cosmetic layer and the red headlight film will serve as a protective layer on the side step at every door so as not to let anyone sitting on my car to scratch including the edge of the door side step.

Mocking sample of the measurement was cut following the size that I want.

Perodua Axia logo download from the internet and printed according to the size that I want.

Carbon fibre sticker cut out for 4 doors with long for front doors and short for rear doors.

Axia logo cut out from the carbon fibre sticker.

Then the final carbon fibre sticker paste on top of the red protective sticker.

At the end all was stick on all door side step and the red extra portion was to protect the edge of the door step as you may find it very hard to notice on the pictures below.

Invidual pictures by doors and I regret doing the "Axia" logo upside down.

The logo was suppose to read from the car outside and also notice the DIY floor mat which I will not post as this is only some simple job.

That's all about my DIY job this time and again the wonderful feeling doing some DIY cannot be explained.

Thanks for reading and if you have anything to say then please feel free to leave it down on the comment section below.

Or continue reading about my next article about lighting project for my Perodua Axia stage 1 HERE.