Nice SnugTop for $60, I'm still in disbelief

I've been searching pretty fervently for about 3 months now. I've asked so many "I don't know what truck it's for" ads if there's an emblem with a serial number. That finally paid off.

The facebook marketplace ad had the camper shell a little over an hour away. Not much info, rough dimensions. Woman answered reiterating not knowing anything about it. I asked if it had a plaque anywhere and she said no. I circled it in the photo, sent it back, and she took a close up.

When I called SnugTop with the serial # they had an odd answer. They said to my luck Toyota Tacoma, 01-04 only, (I have a 00 but figured it would prob fine) but that it would fit extended cab, or double cab, but not regular cab. I asked to clarify since extended and regular cab have the same size bed and double cab is shorter, he repeated himself, so I said thank you and moved on.

In the ad's photos I couldn't see if the cap had the recess for the third brake light at the cab, since in the pics it was in grass. I ordered clamps on Amazon, 3 days later I rolled a doob and set out. It was exactly what I was hoping for! Shell was in decent shape, had been repainted from silver to green and the glass was covered in overspray. $60 later I spent the rest of the day yesterday in awe that all those stars aligned. Today I scraped the overspray off with a razor blade and cleaned the glass.


I have a few questions and it needs a few things- no key, lock mechanism seems damaged, shocks are bad. I haven't started googling where to find those things yet. My big question is if the rear hinges are damaged? Is it supposed to be that far away from the cap? It doesn't even make contact with the weatherstripping.

Also my leaf pack was already tired, with the cap I can really feel it. I think 4 Bilstein 5100's are in my future, need to figure out what leaf springs and front coil springs/coilovers to lift up 2" or so.

Stopping by my friendly body shop this week for a paint quote

 

Nice work! Very rare to find a used cap that fits. 2021 is looking up! You are 100% correct about regular cab and Extra cab beds being the same length; I can't explain what Snug Top said. A possible difference ( I am not certain) between '00 and '01 is the profile of the rear of the cab; the curve of the front of the shell should follow the curve of the back of the cab, but it is not functionally essential as long as the cap fits the bed. Profile on yours looks perfect.

 

Yep that's the difference. Reg cabs are more vertical. Some people have made it work, but it looks funky.

 

Great deal on a used Snug Top shell! I would replace the shocks. You don't want the door to drop on your head while getting things in the truck bed. Fix the lock mechanisms. I would contact Snug Top directly to see if they have replacement hardware. A nice paint job to color match your truck would look real nice than the way it looks right now. I'm glad to hear that it fits properly with your extra cab and bed length.

 

A regular cab specific shell will fit on an extended cab but you’re right, it’ll have a weird looking gap. An extended cab specific shell like the OP’s won’t fit a regular cab because it’ll hit the back of the cab.

Why Toyota made that angle different between cab styles is beyond me.

 

Exactly. This is what a regular cab shell looks like on an xtra cab

 

Unless you're 'friendly' equates to 'budget friendly', consider a DIY exercise. Especially since you have a black truck.

www.monstaliner.com would provide a very durable product for a decent price.

 

My truck is that "black sand pearl" paint code, I don't think I'd be able to replicate it from a can and I don't have a compressor/gun. I also don't have a garage and it's 25 degrees outside heh.

Hoping for something in the $400 range from a bodyshop. My old business partner worked there on the mechanical side of things, they offered me the job managing front of house, we've got a good relationship. They did some paint work on my old Alfa and only charged me $100, seem reasonable. Plus if I'm only into this shell for $60, ~$400 for a nice spray job still keeps my total investment pretty low

I used monstaliner for my bedliner though, it was great. The exact texture I was looking for, and application wasn't bad. I chose the roll on method

 

Knew it wouldn't 'match', but it would be complimentary. Many folks use bedliner type products to refinish aged caps with. As you already know it would be very rugged in terms of scratching, fading, etc.

Of course you are right, in that if you want a color 'match' it isn't going to happen. All depends on your goals.

 

I recently refinished my snugtop with new latches and raptor liner

 

Aww, it doesn't match your wheels and badges anymore!
Nice job tho!

 

i didn't mind it being silver to be honest.
The gelcoat was getting rough however and i wanted a trial spraying raptor liner.
@coldaccord
check etrailer.com. They can get snugtop parts easier than snugtop. I tried called and emailed snugtop with no success. E-trailer had the parts i needed

 

Gas strut answer and more:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/snugtop-topper-modifications.672274/

 

Yeahp.. there is no such thing as the $60 camper shell!!

Still a good find!

 

you mind writing a quick "how to" on the camper shell prep and paint? I'm looking to do the same thing

 

That looks really sharp, and would go great with any black (or any other color, for that matter) Tacoma. Nice job.

 

As always prep is the key. i have sprayed A LOT of DIY bedliner/undercoating over the last 15 years and Raptor liner on a fiberglass topper was the easiest. i removed everything that i could minus the three windows that would require re-sealing.
PREP:
i hit everything with 60 grip sand paper to essentially remove the factory paint and gel coat. This was very easy to do compared to metal. After i was happy with a roughed texture everywhere, i washed it, washed it, and washed it again to remove all sanding residue. after that, i began the tape and masking. think through the taping in reverse if you haven't done much automotive painting. How will you be able to remove the tape and paper in a clean manner to lay a nice line in the still-soft paint? After it was masked, i wiped the entire surface with a clean cotton rag and some alcohol. After a few minutes (i waited 30 min) the alcohol will have evaporated leaving a clean, ready to spray surface. I used this time to setup the compressor and air pressure, and prep the adhesive promoter.
SPRAYING:
since i was applying raptor to non traditional surface (fiberglass), i used two cans of duplicolor adhesion promoter to prep the surface to receive the raptor liner. You can used any adhesion promoter, not just the Upol product. follow the can instructions on application rates and times.
Once the adhesion promoter had sat its instructed time, you're ready to spray the raptor. I used the 20 minute window to measure and mix my first two bottles of raptor and setup a test panel of plywood to adjust for the gun nozzle, PSI, etc to get the desired texture. I setup for 70 psi for a finer texture and made the small adjustments with gun nozzle. From here, follow the instructions and spray away. i bought the $75 professional gun and had zero issues with irregular spraying or spraying at odd angles (holding the gun sideways and upside down).
One piece of advice, spray more than you think you need. the texture of raptor gives the user a false sense of coverage when wet. once it dries, you can see thin spots, spray lines, etc. i noticed thin spots on the roof and have seen similar results for people who have sprayed the vehicles and missed roof coverage as well. I ran out of time and was spraying it at night, in my driveway, using a headlamp. Let me know if you have any other questions

 

Thanks! Do you think most of this translates to paint as well? Is there a special primer needed for fiberglass?

 

Got a low of snow today

Stripped the paint in my driveway and had a shop paint it factory color, black sands pearl maybe iirc

I put a lift and wheels/tires on last year too. Love this dang truck so much