Abstract: A vehicle body includes an undercarriage storage compartment for storing items such as a spare tire, tools and/or other types of equipment underneath a pick-up truck bed. The vehicle body includes a generally flat truck bed bottom member that extends in a longitudinal direction along the vehicle. The bottom member is mounted to a vehicle structure such as, a vehicle frame, chassis, or unibody member. The storage compartment has a support surface extending underneath the bottom member for supporting items such as the spare tire and associated tools. The storage compartment slides to an open position to allow access to the spare tire and tools and is then returned to a closed position to store the tire and tools within the storage compartment. In one embodiment, the support surface is tiltable to allow ramp access to the truck bed.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 13, 2000
Date of Patent:
December 11, 2001
Assignee:
Meritor Heavy Vehicle Systems, LLC
Inventors:
Steven Foster, Holly Giangrande, Roch Tolinski, Charlie Hopson, Nicholas Kalargeros, Rainer Grimm, Carmelo Mondello, Laurent Arquevaux
Abstract: An ornamental panel for automobiles has a synthetic resin cover. An attaching base is molded separately from the cover and disposed opposite a rear surface of the cover. The cover is molded of a translucent material. The cover has its outer surface made smooth and its inner surface formed with a fine rugged pattern such as crimps. The base has a surface with a rugged pattern of a dimension larger than a dimension of the crimps of the cover. The pattern of the base may be hemispheric concave fisheyes which are two-dimensionally arranged side by side, for example. A metallic film is coated on the pattern of the base.