concerns ab mounting safe under Driver's Seat

I'm considering mounting a slim safe for valuables under the Driver's seat. To be any good, I'd want to bolt it into the floor. But I'm not sure how best to figure out what's going to interfere. I don't have the DVD Navigation Package, so it's not in the way. But there are some flattened plastic openings that almost look like heater ducts for the blowing warm air to the back seat area. Can anyone confirm this? If they aren't ducts, could they be used to route wiring for the DVD Nav unit?

And if possible, I'd like to route 12V DC power there, to conserve batteries for the electronic digital keypad. I found a safe that will fit okay. But it would cover those (duct?) openings.

 

So they are Heater Ducts... Darn. That will complicate things. kk6pd, you have a good idea. If I make an inverted, flattened "U" shaped plate, heat could flow underneath it. I'm guessing the DVD Nav unit is narrow enough to not block the vent?

I have a particular safe in mind, that's 3.5" tall at the back, & 4.9" tall at the front (8" Wide). I plan on mounting it with door facing aft. It's not as convenient oriented this way. But the height limitations require it.

And Frayadjacent, you are spot on. I didn't want to bring that up. Because it's easy for the whole thread to run off topic. I've recently taken to defensive pistol ownership. And even with a CPL, there are many places where you can't carry. And IMHO, the only thing worse than loosing my pistol, would be to let it fall into the hands of a criminal. Hence the gun safe. I'm looking at a GunVault Mini. I actually made a cardboard mock-up of it, to see if it will fit. I think I can raise it a little, but I have to be careful about the wiring to the seat snagging on it if someone adjusts the seat.

If I'm able to do this mod, I'll post pictures to help others. Thanks for all the ideas.

 

I spent some time yesterday playing with different position options with the cardboard mock-up. And I discovered that the safe is narrow enough that by shifting it towards the outside of the car as far as possible (w/o interfering with sliding mechanism for seat), the heat vents are only "mostly" blocked (reminds me of a line from "The Princess Bride" movie). So I've ordered the safe. I'll update to this thread, as I make more progress.

As for the idea of mounting a holster under the seat: here in Seattle, in 2004, our chief of police (Kerlikowske) got his pistol stolen from under the front seat of his car. It was quite an embarrassment then. But he wasn't the most liked among law abiding gun-owners; because he was against 2nd amendment rights. Anyway, it's events like that, that have made me avoid anything short of a concealed lockable box. But one drawback with what I'm doing, vs the holster idea, is that it's much harder to stow/retrieve from the safe. I think I could open it if sitting in the passenger seat. But as the normal driver, I'll have to pull over short of my destination; and try to be discreet.

I plan on bolting the safe to the floor using washer like spacers. I've found one existing bolt that I can use. I'm guessing it 's there to hold the DVD Nav unit in place. I'd like at least one more bolt. But I'll have to try to figure out how to avoid drilling into something I shouldn't. Does anyone out there have access to Toyota's online shop manuals? if so, it'd be nice to know what's being routed through the area under the driver's side front seat.

 

BTW,
I did finish this mod several months ago. I found there's a tapped hole I could use to bolt it down with. And I glued Velcro hooks to the bottom of the safe, so it couldn't be rotated around to try to to loosen the bolt. I had to be careful in locating it, to avoid the seat hitting it when sliding it for/aft. And it only covers half the vent for the back seat area. I also had to move the external power supply jack lower. to avoid the slide for the seat. But I haven't tried to figure out a way to get 12V power to it. So I wasted a little money, by getting the deluxe model. The safe works great. But I have to get at it from thru the rear door.