I’ve had my 1991 Mitsubishi Montero for some time now. I’m happy with the way it looks and I don’t see myself ever selling this one. That said, I am itching to do a bit more with it. And that means I may have to add to it. Initially, I told myself I wouldn’t put a roof rack on top, but now I may need to do just that. And I don’t want to stop there.

My plan right now is to find the slimmest rack I put on the roof. It seems I’ll need to go with either the Slimline from FrontRunner or a custom rack from Gamiviti. Once that’s in place, I will add an arch or an awning and some extra auxiliary lighting as well. Up front, I’ll have an LED bar and I think I’d like to do a chase-light-style on the rear. Another upgrade to the outside involves adding a winch plate in the area of the current skid plate, and then a winch.

On the inside, my goal is to build out a rear sleep platform and storage space. It will be hinged so I can fold part of it up and continue to use the second row of seats. Then fold those seats down and the hinged portion when I am out camping. Under the platform, I’d like one side to be a sliding storage drawer and the other to be a sliding space for a fridge. It will need to be a fridge that’s not too tall so I can have good open space above the platform and not have it feel too claustrophobic. With the fridge, I’d also jump to a dual-battery setup and also store some solar panels in the storage space (along with recovery gear and other camping bits).

The biggest upgrade I’d like to do? Well, that one involves chatting with a California Smog Ref… because I believe a Cummins R28 would fit rather nicely in the nose of this thing. But that one is an upgrade for far further down the road.