A vehicle rear panel includes a plate having one or more lateral notches formed in the bottom portion for allowing the plate to be folded. A board has a rear portion secured to the rear portion of the plate. The plate may be folded for preventing the plate from hurting passenger when shocks and vibrations are transmitted to the plate. The board may be tilted by the plate for protecting the passenger when the plate is folded. One or more resilient bars may be engaged in the lateral notches for ab...

A passenger car has a vehicle body with a passenger compartment and support structure including a collision responsive deformable front zone in front of the passenger compartment, a deformable rear zone behind the passenger compartment and at least one deformable center zone aligned to the passenger compartment and integrated in the vehicle body support structure and also effective in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The deformable center zone includes corrugations in passenger compart...

The application relates to an anchoring of end points of safety belts or safety belt buckle attachments for rear seats of motor vehicles with rear-wheel drive, especially passenger vehicles or estate cars, in the vehicle floor region. In order to stiffen such an anchoring so that the mounting points cannot travel in the direction of the tensile forces occuring in the case of stressing as a result of an accident, the invention provides for the end points, together with a bridge passing under a dr...

A hidden storage system is incorporated in the bed of a vehicle without altering the bed's external appearance. The storage system is located adjacent the wheel well sections of the bed, and uses hinges to open and close the fender/side panel of the bed. Since the storage system does not alter the truck's external appearance, it reduces the attraction for theft. Also, since the storage area does not extend inwardly beyond the conventional wheel wells, the storage system leaves most of the truck ...

A front pillar garnish adapted to cover a front pillar disposed between a front windshield and a side door in an automotive vehicle. The front pillar garnish comprises a main body section formed of plastic and generally channel-shaped. The main body section is to be fixedly connected to the front pillar and located at the side of a passenger compartment. A plurality of generally plate-shaped energy absorbing ribs are integrally formed at the inner surface of the main body section in a manner to ...

A structural module (hardware cassette) is provided suitable for use in the assembly of a vehicle door. The module includes a latch mounting member, a pair of door hinge assembly components (a lower door hinge component and an upper door hinge component) vertically spaced from one another when mounted in a vehicle, and tubes connecting the hinge components to the latch mounting member, one tube being connecting the upper hinge to the latch mounting member and extending substantially from the upp...

A vehicle door is designed to collapse in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle in such a way that in the case of a maximum longitudinal force slightly below that of the most serious accident, longitudinal deformation occurs and the axial supporting force of the vehicle door simultaneously remains as high as possible. To produce this longitudinal deformability, crimps running parallel in the vertical direction are provided in the structural members of the door and in a door well reinforcemen...

A member for a car body in which concave and convex beads can be positioned appropriately regardless of a complexity of a shape of the member, and the efficiency of energy absorption can be improved. The member includes side faces having concave beads provided on the side faces at positions corresponding to dip portions of a buckling waveform produced by an initial buckling load applied to the member in a state of having no bead; convex beads provided on the side faces at positions corresponding...

An improved structure for a motor vehicle and method of construction comprising surrounding the outer portion of a motor vehicle with an outer shell, an inner shell disposed away from the outer shell and a plurality of airbag-like structures positioned between the inner shell and outer shell to provide a resilient, impact-resistant portion of the motor vehicle.

An outer panel is made thinner than an inner panel, and a rear face facing a front door is folded so as to form a valley groove hollowed toward the interior of a tube constituted by true outer panel and the inner panel, whereby when a large magnitude of external force is applied to a front face in a rear ward direction, the outer panel is allowed to be deformed more largely than the inner panel to thereby collapse the valley groove, whereby the rearward travel of the rear face can be reduced.