bluAM2

My buddy found an old camper shell for about $100 on craiglist that fit my '93 ext cab. It was bright red at the time and the truck is navy blue so I obviously had to paint it. A couple cans of satin black later I had a nice 'new' camper shell for my truck. The one thing I didn't like about it though was the mounting system. It uses four approximately 3-4" long bolts with a threaded clamp that threads on the bottom and pulls the cap down tight to the bed. This works great and everything, but it's too slow. I'm the kind of guy that will take the cap off and on quite frequently because I'm always using the bed for something different (supplies, firewood, furniture, drive-in movies, etc). So I decided to come up with a quicker solution. I'll post pictures later, but I'm in the works of making a bracket system that uses wing-type Dzus fasteners for easy, 'tool-less' removal. It's actually looking pretty slick if you ask me.
I bought a 36" piece of 1/8" x 1 1/2" aluminum angle from the Home Depot, drilled a bunch of holes in it and will be mounting my Dzus fasteners to this for easy removal. It'll all make sense once I post the pictures, but I'm really liking the idea .

Sensei

I'll be waiting for the pics and write-up. I'm not happy with my current mount system ( Threaded J hook contraption ). I'm all for tool-less install and removal.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

I guess Dzus would work for a canopy..used them once to hold a One piece front end on a Baja bug once but honestly don't see how using a socket to undo 6-8 canopy clamps could be that slow.
Curious to see what to came up with.

irab88

iTrader: (4)

s'cribed

dzus fasteners are used a bunch in the aviation world. mainly, they hold on the front cowlings, and they are fast. 1/4 turn and you're done. and you can use a coin, screwdriver, or they make 'em with thumb-twists

good luck. i'm anxious to see some pics!

bluAM2

Honestly, it's not THAT slow. The problem is that the way my place is set up I have my tools in a shed outside my house that is under lock and key. It wouldn't be so bad if I had a garage or the shed was on the same side as my driveway, but it's on the other side of the house. You know all that extra walking and stuff. I guess my excessive laziness makes me want to start interesting projects ...

bluAM2

I'll have pics up by this weekend for sure. If not by tonight or tomorrow ... just remember ... I consider walking to the far end of my house to be a tedious task haha

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

I can relate to laziness

bluAM2

... and I know for a fact Dzus fasteners will hold. I raced this thing for years and nothing ever fell off ... well ... not without some nudging at least.

BMcEL

I have the 4 j-hooks in the corners and I just use an air ratchet...definitely interested in a quick release though.

Fambugee

I think it's a great idea, can't wait for the pics. What are you gonna do like 4 or 5 per side? Used to work aviation back in the day and always liked dzus fasteners...........as long as they are installed correctly though!! We always had guys that put too short of a fastener in and you'd be killin' yourself in the winter trying to get that thing locked in...........anyway post pics!

AZ89LONGBED

iTrader: (3)

I bought 1/2 dozen c-clamps at a hardware store to latch my camper down. Has worked great for years now...

bluAM2

Alright, so I'm not completely done. I still need to cut to length three more brackets, but at least I have some pictures now so everyone see's what I see. My apologies for how sloppy they are. My original plan was to mount each Dzus fastener on the centerline of each leg of the angle, which worked great in my head. It wasn't until after I already drilled the holes that I figured out: "... Wait a minute, butthead, the wing nuts are gonna hit each other ... hell there probably wont even be any room to rivet them on!!" So my next idea was to (since I had 36" to play with and only needed 18") move from a 3" bracket to a 6" and offset the Dzus fasteners. I was fairly happy with this idea, but then decided against it because I wanted the smaller 3" bracket I had originally thought of. This meant re-drilling some holes and cutting out part of some already drilled holes as you'll see below.
Anywho ... to make an already long story stop ... if I was to make another set of these (which I will down the road) there wont be any "oops"es because I already made them all. So, without further ado ... here's the line-up:


Alright here's the tools I used (sorta). I got sick of the hack saw so I grabbed my jig saw. If I had a band saw, a bench grinder and either a drill press or hole punch, this would have been much neater/quicker. From left to right: Drill, Countersink, tiny 'pilot hole' drill bit (for accuracy), #28 Drill Bit, 3/4" Drill Bit (7/8" would be perfect), Rivet Gun, Pipe/Tubing Deburring Tool, Rasp, File, Sharpie, Vise Grips, Hack Saw, and some sort of measuring device.





I started with a piece of Aluminum 1 1/2" x 1/8" x 36" angle that I got from Home Depot. (I forgot to take a picture before I drilled any holes. All the holes you see are from me):





Here's the "Self Ejecting Winged Buttons with Springs". They come in packs of 5 and include the Dzus fastener and Dzus spring of your choice (you'll have to measure the thickness of your camper shell rails, truck bed rails and any seal you may have between the two to figure out the right spring height). The kits don't supply any rivets, but you can get some from the site. I ended up using a countersunk oversized 4-3 blind pop rivet for all these, because that's what I had on hand, but I ended up having to drill out the Dzus holes a little to fit them ... easy fix.





Once you get all the holes drilled, countersunk, and deburred, just rivet the Dzus fasteners to the angle. Be sure to get everything tight and without any slop or it wont have as strong a hold on your camper shell.





A view from the back. I originally had a 3/4" hole drilled for the fillet on the back side of the Dzus fastener, but that's just a little too small. You can see on the other side I used a 1" hole (which is actually a little too big). If you have a 7/8" bit or a countersink big enough for a 3/4" hole, that'll work perfect, but I didn't. I ended up having to notch half of the 3/4" hole out anyway so it worked out fine.





All that's left is to cut each bracket to length and clean up the burrs! I decided to save the cutting for the very last step in order to have something to put in the vise. 36" is a lot more "clampable" than 3".





I was actually thinking last night, "Once I make sure these things work ... I could actually make a bunch of these and sell them. There's plenty of people out there that don't have the means to make these that would want some. Just look at all those infomercials!!"

I'm not quite ready to attach everything because I still have to mount the Dzus springs to my truck and shell. I live in the Northwest without a garage so I'm waiting for a break in the weather ... you know how that goes . More to come!

drmix

Cant wait to see the finished pics. Looks great so far!

bluAM2

SUCCESS!! Alright, so I'm all done and they work AWESOME. Even when I just had the one on, it held so well I could literally push as hard as I could on that corner of the shell and the whole truck would shake, but the camper shell never budged. That being said ... I only used 4 out of the 6 brackets that I made. The other two would just be over kill and I'm trying to keep the amount of holes in my truck to a minimum believe it or not. I kind of missed on my Dzus spring height choice as mine were just a tad too tall (makes the Dzus buttons harder to lock by hand). That was an easy enough fix though by squeezing the 'coiled' ends of the spring with some pliers. This makes them a little harder to install though fyi. Anyway, here's the rest of the pics ... enjoy!!


Here's my six finished brackets, ready to go on.





But first I had to drill my holes and install the Dzus spring. I used a 5/8" bit to handle whats left of the fillet on the Dzus fastener assembly. A perfect fit. It especially helps in lining up the brackets. Once you get your rivet holes drilled just pop in the springs.





A view from below





Snug as a bug in a rug!!





All locked in





Like I said above, I decided to just use 4 total ... 2 per side. That's really all you need. I have two spares I guess if I ever lose them. I don't plan on that though












A fun lil' project that works better than I expected. Next time I take the cap off I'll go in and paint all the holes I drilled. And once I get my spray in bedliner done I'm sure I might need to "recalibrate."

Next up ... either my grille ... or my camper shell wiring idea involving an RV trailer plug a 2000W inverter, a 120V electrical outlet, and some in-dash controls for bed lighting.

Sensei

Not bad, what do you think you have in cost for parts alone ?

Unfortunately won't work for mine, my shell's bed rails wrap over the truck bed rails so an angle bracket system won't work. But I like your ingenuity. Very cool project...

bluAM2

Actually, yours might be even easier to do than mine was! If your shell's rails wrap over the truck's then that IS your angle bracket. All you would need would be the right length Dzus fasteners. Then just put the spring on the backside (truckside) and you're good to go.

As far as cost ... with my setup (2 Dzus assemblies per bracket x 4 brackets) you're looking at about $52 + a small priority mail box s/h fee. For you, all you would need would be the four Dzus kits so you're looking at about $20 + s/h because you don't need the aluminum angle either.

toyogus

sweet idea man thanks for the write up. looking good.