Truck Cab Caddy Cube

It’s kind of neat to own an antique truck, but they certainly didn’t make them back in 1976 the way they do now. The comfort of the driver seemed to have been of little interest: aside from the glove compartment, there is no storage in the cab. Especially egregious is the lack of cup holders!

So I finally decided to address this problem with a multi-use storage cube that sits on the floor. It has a large storage space with a lid and a smaller storage space for my phone. There is a cup holder and an additional cup holder for a passenger that has its own storage area.

This was pretty simple to make. I started with a basic box made out of 1/2″ ( 12mm) plywood held together with glue and tacks.

Then I added the dividers.

I used 3/4″ (18mm) plywood for the cup holders and drilled a hole using a hole saw. I made the passenger cup holder by gluing together three squares.

I eased over the edges using a roundover bit on my router.

I used a little strip of wood as a cleat to hold the passenger cup holder in place or to prop up my phone.

Finally, I could attach the face of the box with a cutout for additional storage, plus, it stores the passenger cup holder when not in use.

Two more thin cleats hold the lid in place.

The lid is just a board with a half-circle finger pull.

I added a piece of leather to the top of the lid using contact cement. This gives the box an “automotive” look and it matches the color of my truck.

I panted it with a “hammered steel” spray paint and added some decorative studs to make it look more industrial.