Saturday Work List

How many save up little projects until finally burning a Saturday to clean them up? A recent tailgate theft in the neighborhood reminded me that the hose clamp needed an upgrade. So I accumulated a piece of exhaust adapter tubing from O-Reilly's and fitted the hinge with a steel band. Tube was 1-5/8 ID and 1-3/4 OD and cut to just under 7/8.



At least now the thief will have to have time and tools....



Also fitted the tool box tarp rings - reinforced the inside with steel strap.

 

To fill up the remaining time - I fitted the spare tire lift with a guide tube made of 1-1/2" ID plastic pipe. Takes 12-1/2 inches of tubing and a hacksaw.




And finally got after the spare hanger with a grinder to make it fit the wheel right when inverted (with stem down).

 

At least your metal sleeve mod beats the PVC sleeve mod:

However, the sleeve mod is hard to undo if you wish to take off the tailgate yourself for whatever reason.

A possible better solution is a lock that performs like the sleeve, but is removable by the user if wanted, without a complicated process:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tailgate-anti-theft-device.428094

 

Too easy to remove the fancy rings (they are pretty) - and the steel sleeve cost me $3.00

 

Another Saturday rolled around and I was reminded that the "cabin air filter" still needed to be replaced. The big issue was that the well above the filter had now filled up over the past months - with all sorts of tree debris. Opened the plastic cowl cover for a look and spent a while with the shop vac getting the crud out. So then I pulled the glove box and tried to get the filter loose....... It had a heap of pack rat turds in it! (Sorry no pictures). On the advice of another TW thread, I decided to make an outside cover for the well.

Fairly easy access - and two handy holes in the forward lip.....

Made a template and bent a cover from a chunk of "screen door" guard - expanded mesh from Lowes.....
Be sure to paint this steel mesh - it rusts. Aluminum would be better.

Used some 1/4" stainless fasteners to clamp it on........ Hopefully the rats will back off a bit.

TW has enough good ideas to fill up more than a few Saturday's - at least some of this stuff doesn't cost an arm and a leg......

 

I've had locks become frozen shut because of salt and moisture. A metal sleeve may be better but it has it's drawbacks as well. PVC pipe will never rust and I have never needed to remove the tailgate so it works perfect for me. If I had to get the tailgate off it takes about five minutes at most with tools. Not a difficult or time consuming task. The real stealth mod would be to make a sleeve that fit between the two halves of the hinge. The thief would have to cut through the hinge to steal the tailgate. I may try to make such a sleeve but it's low on the list as the PVC has worked so far or maybe no one has tried to steal my tailgate.

 

My outfit still has the rear view camera on and working - would have to take that wiring apart too to actually remove the tailgate for myself. Not really any reason to take it off unless for some repair or maintenance work.
I put several coats of black engine paint on the locking ring to defeat the rust for a while.

 

Still another Saturday rolled around..... decided to do something about the horrible glare on the dash radio display. The face angle is just plain wrong for the location - too far out under the windshield. So I invested in a short strip of garage door seal (about $10) and after a bit of whittling made an insert to fit into the CD slot.

Screen is often obscured by glare.

Garage door seal from H.Depot - $10 for 9 feet

Trimmed to shape with long tab to insert into CD slot. Will fit with lip up or down.

I seldom use the CD player - so this works for me....