My father and I built a hard bed cover for my old
mazda B2200. We built a frame for the actual cover
out of angle iron and pop riveted to to the bed. We
then built a removable cross brace across the middle
of the bed with to pieces of angle iron butted
together. We then got a couple of pieces of 3/4"
plywood and built two separate lids, since one piece
of plywood isn't big enough. Once we got the lids
fitting the way we wanted them, we then drilled holes
through the lid and the angle iron frame to bolt them
together. We counter-sunk the bolt holes and used
wing nuts to fasten the lids to the frame and cross
brace.
To make the lids look appealing we got some carpet
padding and glued it to the top of the lids of course
we had the bolts aleady in, so the pad would lay over
the top of them. We put a nut, which we counter-sunk
on the back side of the lid to keep the bolts from
coming out. We then got some exterior vinyl from a
shop that re-did upholstery and stapled it to the
lids. It turned out real well and was pretty easy to
do with some basic tools. You can do it for about a
hundred bucks. It would support several hundred
pounds of weight, since I had several of my friends on
it at the same time. It wasn't perfectly water tight,
but would keep a majority of the water out. The most
expensive pieces were the vinyl and the plywood. In
hind sight two changes we should of made was putting a
cross brace across the rear of the bed, since over
time the board will sag a little. The other item we
should of changed would be using the zinc plated bolts
that won't rust. (We eventually had to cut one bolt
off, because the wing nut was rusted on and the whole
bolted started to turn.)
After putting it on we didn't do anything to it for 4
years, then I finally replaced the vinyl, since it had
lost some of its color. It was nice, since we could
just take half the lid off at a time. I could take
the lid off and on by myself, but with two people you
could have it on and off in 5 minutes.
Hope this helps.
>>Has anyone made a bed cover for their trucks? I
realy
want a fiberglass cover but for now can't afford one.
I want to relocate my speakers into my bed and put
factory seats back in because of the wife bitchin
about no where to put the groceries (don't go very
many places in her car cause I'm so damn proud of my
DAK). ~
=====
------------------------------------------
Derek Boss
99 Black CC w/ 5.2, 5 on the floor, and
posi-lock rear just hook everything up
------------------------------------------
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