Usually when I'm driving alone, the passenger seat becomes my personal storage bin. Phone, sunglasses, wallet, flashlight—whatever happens to be in my pockets gets tossed over there without a second thought. That system works great...until someone actually wants to sit in the passenger seat.

Then everything migrates to the cup holders. Which works fine—until we stop for drinks. At that point I'm playing musical chairs with all my everyday carry gear just to make room for a Coke.

I finally decided this little dance had to end. Enter the Victory 4x4 MOLLE Center Console Panels. I'll admit, I looked for alternatives for quite a while before settling on these. I wasn't really after the tactical look. I'm not trying to turn the 4Runner into an armored personnel carrier—I generally prefer modifications that blend in and look like they could have come from the factory. I was also pretty opposed to drilling holes into perfectly good interior panels. Unfortunately, there just aren't many options.

Of the available choices, the Victory panels seemed to be the cleanest and least "tacticool." Plus, they gave me exactly what I wanted: a platform to design and 3D print custom holders for my everyday carry gear. I also have to admit I appreciate the dedicated storage for what Victory lovingly refers to as the "banana." Once the panels arrived, I wasted no time heading out to the garage.

The driver-side installation was straightforward. I spent a little time adjusting the placement until I was happy with the alignment, marked the mounting holes with a Sharpie, and then came the painful part...Drilling into perfectly good factory trim. Thankfully there wasn't anything important hiding behind the plastic, and once the holes were drilled the installation was simply a matter of installing the supplied spacers and tightening everything down. A few enthusiastic shakes later and the panel felt much more solid than I expected.

The passenger side wasn't quite as cooperative. Even though these panels are designed specifically for the 3rd Gen 4Runner, they're perfectly flat. The driver's side panel is mostly flat as well, so that's not an issue. The passenger side, however, has a noticeable curve to the factory trim. Victory includes spacers to compensate, and after a little experimenting I ended up using two spacers at the rear and none at the front to get everything sitting reasonably straight. It works, but I was expecting a slightly more custom fit than what I ended up with.

Once both panels were installed, I got to the part I was actually looking forward to. Designing accessories. Within an hour I already had Blender open and was designing a custom phone holder. I printed it in ASA, lined the contact surfaces with felt, and mounted everything using some 4 mm hardware and a few custom brackets of my own design.

That's really what sold me on these panels. The MOLLE system itself is useful, but having a sturdy mounting platform for custom 3D-printed accessories opens up all kinds of possibilities. I'm sure this won't be the last thing I design for them.

Overall, I'm happy with the purchase. I wish the passenger panel matched the contour of the interior a little better, but once installed it's sturdy, functional, and finally gives all the random items I carry a permanent home. And best of all...

My passengers get their seat back.