My tramp stamp temporary fix for my powered tonneau

[OverZealous]

My tonneau recently broke for the second time. This time they just disabled it. While the tech worked on it, I had them remove the stops that prevent the tonneau from coming out, so I could figure out something temporary for a trip we have coming up soon.

When they "fixed" the tonneau this time, they just removed all the slats except one—the top/rear one with the weatherstrip on it. This one was left mostly locked inside the tonneau bay, with just the weather stripping sticking out. I decided to keep the remaining slats myself, so I knew they wouldn't get lost or broken.

A few days later, I had a genius idea, realizing I could just slide the slats back into the bed. Not only are they free and already fit, but they cover most of the bed and lock together. It takes about a minute to slide them in or out, and looks like this. It leaves me with about 3.5" of gap.

Covering the Gap
To fix the gap, I dug through my scrap wood pile until I found a piece of cedar that was long enough and just about the right width. I had to mill it down to exactly 1/2-inch (that's the height of the slats).

I also chamfered one side to help it nestle up against the last slat, since they have an angle to them. I just angled my table saw to match. It fit perfectly on the first try (no weatherstripping yet in this photo).

Adding a Logo
My wife gave me the idea to use my laser engraver to personalize the piece. I sat down and designed a logo for the truck ("Hyperion"), and I'm really proud how it came out. I think it's reminiscent of classic pinstripe logos.

Here it is right off the engraver, and with a coat of Danish oil on it to bring out the cedar. (Cedar doesn't need finish, but the oil just made it look nicer, even if eventually it'll turn silver. The oil doesn't leave a film, so it shouldn't peel off and look ugly.)

After the finish fully cured, I added some automotive weather stripping I found at Walmart of all places, and now the truck has a tramp stamp that I think looks pretty sharp. (It had rained the night before, so all the water inside is from _before_ the cedar was put on!)

I think it turned out excellent, and now I have a very practical, secure, easy-to-remove manual tonneau. It's honestly so close to perfect, I can't believe they didn't just modify the existing powered slats and use those as the manual tonneau solution. It seems a lot easier to move around and store the 9 (?) smaller slats, though they hilariously still like to slip sideways and jam when pushing them to the back.

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[WSea]

If you kept all the slats how were you one short or had the need to fill the gap?
Great to see this option works if my tonneau breaks before the replacement is available. Thought it would but wasn’t sure. Surprised people with broken tonneaus haven’t posted something like this yet

 

[OverZealous]

If you kept all the slats how were you one short or had the need to fill the gap?

Good question, I didn't explain this well. The final slat is almost completely inside the tonneau storage box, with just the rubber weather stripping sticking out. I thought this was very smart of the tech, because it has several benefits:

• The bed is almost completely open (save for about 1/2" of squishy rubber
• The tonneau box is protected from dirt and debris getting in and breaking it more
• I have a rubber edge to bump up against so I can make a pretty good seal on the bed with however I cover it.

But the one drawback is a little more than 3.5" of the tonneau slat is inside the vehicle, making the remaining slats slightly short.

 

[WSea]

Makes sense now, thx

 

[Quick]

I think this is a very elegant solution - great idea!

 

[TheHedgehog116]

Were you able to see how they took off the rail end caps? I need to take them off and I set up a mobile service for it, but it's a ways out and I need them off by end of this week.

 

[COdogman]

 

[OverZealous]

Were you able to see how they took off the rail end caps? I need to take them off and I set up a mobile service for it, but it's a ways out and I need them off by end of this week.

Yes, but it's not easy. It requires removing:

• The back panel (to access the side panels)
• The side panels
• The plastic caps over each side
  • And these are held on with dozens of horrible, easy-to-break clips and adhesives
• Detaching the rails (I believe, mine were off when he removed the caps)
• Unscrewing something like 4 screws for each cap, on the top and bottom of each rail

It's a shame, too, because if the caps were easily removable, it could aid in fixing certain cover jamming issues.

 

[agame32]

Were you able to see how they took off the rail end caps? I need to take them off and I set up a mobile service for it, but it's a ways out and I need them off by end of this week.

Without looking, could you use an angle grinder to cut + grind out some grooves?

 

[TheHedgehog116]

Yes, but it's not easy. It requires removing:

• The back panel (to access the side panels)
• The side panels
• The plastic caps over each side
  • And these are held on with dozens of horrible, easy-to-break clips and adhesives
• Detaching the rails (I believe, mine were off when he removed the caps)
• Unscrewing something like 4 screws for each cap, on the top and bottom of each rail

It's a shame, too, because if the caps were easily removable, it could aid in fixing certain cover jamming issues.

Oh man that sounds a lot more complicated than I originally thought.

 

[TheHedgehog116]

Without looking, could you use an angle grinder to cut + grind out some grooves?

Technically yes you can do this, but I'd prefer that to be the last option.

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