I saw one person with that problem and I think they got some sheet metal and made a gap filler for the area between the topper and the back of the cab.

 

My plan was to cut it in half and rivet a piece of metal inside with some heavy rivets and then either fiberglass or bondo over the outside.I got the topper for free so its worth a shot I guess.

 

I would like to remove the small windows on my topper and fiber glass the holes up. Is that hard to do?

 

no, especially since it's not structural

basically:
-remove the windows
-sand the inside of the shell, about 1-2 inches around the opening
-(sand it well, tapering to about 1/2 the original thickness)
-clamp a flat surface (covered in tin foil) on the outside of the opening. this will keep the outside nice and flat.
-epoxy and fiberglass the hole, overlapping where you sanded
-keep pressure on both sides of the patch, wiping away excess epoxy
-once dry, sand away sharp edges and smooth with body filler

 

Thats good information, thanks! I'm not sure how I would clamp a flat surface though?




Also got my 4.88 3rd member in today and it looks good. Lots of dirt particles to clean out. Gonna try and get pictures soon.

 

I bought these tonight:



Tired of my drivers side speaker barely working. I like me some country radio while I'm cruising in the truck. I mainly got these because they come with new speaker grilles that are plain ones like the factory had. I will use them in case the new speaker holes don't line up with the factory speaker grille holes.

 

my plan was to rivet a piece of metal inside then fiberglass it and then drill out the rivets and patch the holes. might not be the best way, but I'm going to give it a try. I've never worked with fiberglass before tho, but my dad is good with it so hopefully I can learn from him. its all a learning experience lol

 

that's actually a great idea! to get it flat on the outside, you might want to rivet the sheet to the outside using as few rivets (or even bolts/washers) as possible (less holes to fill). maybe even use a thicker piece of metal, like a cookie sheet, to reduce warp and flex

 

Installed my the new door speakers today. They sound good, I ended up using the stock speaker covers for now. I couldn't figure out how to use the new covers with these weird clips they came with and after I finished putting them on, I realized how I was supposed to do it. Problem is they use screws and factory covers use bolts to mount the speakers to the door panel. The speakers don't actually screw into the door frame itself. So I'm going to go buy some bolts to replace the screws with and put the new covers on hopefully tomorrow. If anyone is interested in the stock speaker covers PM me or they are gonna end up on eBay.





I also have this if anyone is interested. I'm not going to use it. PM me if interested or its going on eBay too.






Also cleaned the new 3rd member with brake cleaner today. Looks pretty good to me.







Last thing I did today was put the winch controller back on. Still have to hook the main leads up to my battery. I'm going to try and go tomorrow morning to Auto-Slut and see if I can find a battery with top and side/front terminals. I want the top for the normal connections and the front/side for the winch leads. The front/side terminals are usually bolt terminals and not the studs, so that's helpful to hook the winch up with.

This is my side project right now.



This was also my grandfathers, same as my truck. I bought a tune up kit and did all of that today. Got a few cut wires to figure where they go and needs a new battery and a serious bath. Probably gonna put some sea foam in it.

 

So funny seeing this picture. My topper is held on the exact same way after picking up one last weekend. Mine was 55 bucks so close to being free. I will take a pic when i get home.

How do you intend in attaching it to the bed fulltime ?

 

Well the one my truck used to have was bolted down through the lip of the truck bed. This one was the same way. I don't see any other way to do it. We can't use modern clamps for toppers since the bed lip is reversed from modern beds.

I would love to see some pictures of your topper. Especially the rear window. Do you have a build thread? If not post the pics here.

 

Yeah . I dont want to put holes in the bed but i would like to get something fabricated that works with the way the bed lip is reversed.

I will put up a build thread this week. I have not had the toyota for long and so far i spent most of my time getting it registered as i bought it out of state.

Will post a link when i set it up. Will keep an eye on your thread .

 

I will get around to a build thread but in the meanwhile here is 2 photos of the back window of my canopy.

 

That back window will be hard to replace . I'm missing the whole piece. Thanks for the pictures.

 

Dug into rear brakes today to get ready to do the gear swap. Looks like my parking brake might have been dragging a little. I measured the inside thickness of the drum and it's fine so I don't have to buy new ones. Now I have to figure out how to slide the axle shafts out to be able to pull the chunk out.

 

Ordered new front rotors and loaded calipers from Rock Auto using my monthly 5% discount email. Also ordered the small squishy breather things and a new 22R sticker from low range off-road.

 

Axle shafts slide out really easily. There are 4 bolts on axle housing (right behind the drum back plate) that attaches the bearing cup to the axle housing. Unbolt those bolts and the axle shaft will slide right out with a good tug. Be careful not to loose the o-ring that goes between the bearing cup and axle housing - you'll see it.

 

Thanks for the tip on the o-ring. If my kids cooperate tonight I may try and do it today. The only other problem I see is supposedly the flange on the new 3rd member has bigger holes and bolts so I was thinking about drilling a second set of holes on the flange on the new 3rd to match the size of the existing bolts. Thinking about trying to remove that leaf in my rear springs too while the wheels are off.

 

it should be a fairly common size, since most bed caps (over multiple years) have the same windows. try going to a place that sells them (like a truck-cap dealer, not a sam's-truck-accessory-palace) and take a few measurements between your topper and theirs, seeing if anything will line up.

 

Ya know I thought about that. Once I get this other truck bed on an the topper back on mounted I was thinking about driving it to our camper place and seeing what they have.