no you're not a PITA, if someone had more info than me on getting a tonneau i'd be askin all sorts of ???s

Well i never got a close look at how is frame was, i have absolutely no idea what the place was called it wasn't even locally here, but he told me to do is go to a local truck outfitter and talk to them about it as that is why he had done (i myself have not done it cause i am not ready for the expense yet) but they'll have to custom measure it for the tonneau.

as far as getting the frame on..this is my thought, as I don't mind putting holes in the metal top part of the bed (well already have em) i would drill through the frame of the tonneau rail into the bed top..then bolt it on . yes you'd have to put some holes in the bed, but i think it might be the best (simplest) way to do it as you avoid putting rivets in your bed (F100SWB has it like that on his 81 the purple one, but they were put in that way before he bought the truck) heres a pic of them



I really don't like it that way because it puts too many holes in the bed.

 

I hate to drill any holes at all, but those snaps are way too many for me! I'd drill a few for rails if I had to. And I even thought of some ways that you wouldn't have to drill to mount rails, like the rubber things in the stake pockets attatced to the rails.

I also hear that if you mount the center bows right to the bed in this kind of truck, as opposed to them mounting to the bed frame, it can cause unwanted stress pushing the sides of the bed apart, especially with rain or snow on it.

I'll have to look into custom truck shops, there's only a handful around here.

I'd love to just make my own and then have the tonneau itself made to fit my frame, but I havn't perfected any design yet that I would feel comfortable enough to build. That's why I wondered if you had seen it, if I had some kind of plans it would help alot. I'm not sure how I would attatch the front and rear pieces to the sides, or the bows to the sides, although i have some ideas on that too.

I like the way your friends goes all the way out to the edge, that's the way it should be, but I havn't figured out how to do that yet unless the frame was wide to make up for the top of the bed.

 

I mean as far as the center supports, the ones i've seen just slide into slots in the mounting rail which makes sense. For our trucks i see only 2 issues:

Getting the correct measurment size (which a custom truck shop will be able to measure for you)

Mounting the rail. I think a standard clamp on rail setup would work but instead of using clamps just drill and bolt them in. and from what i've seen on the front and rear pieces on normal tonneaus is that they just slide into the side supports and just having the tonneau snapped on keeps them in place..(another friend has an s10 with tonneau and the front and rear pieces just slide in they aren't mounted to the bed at all)

 

That's what I figured, the way the front and rear rails attach to the sides. But if I made a frame myself I don't know how I would do that, not without some old rails to modify. And If I just used some old rails then they might be too tall to mount on top of the bed nicely.

 

Nickmobile; look in the J C Whitney catolog to get some ideas on how you want your tonneau to work

 

just get a piece of sheet metal, as long as the side of your bed, make a plate for under the stake hole, and bolt it on to the stake holes. then locate all your snaps onot that piece of metal. i am sure if u use 187 it will be plenty thick for this, add a nice piece of foam or rubber between it and the bed. I would personally put a 90 degree brake bend on it into the inside of the bed, to assure it wont bend up. then get the toneau made for it. where in new jersey are you located nickmobile? maybe i could offer a little assistance.

 

That's what I was starting to think about doing. Aluminum would probably be best. But then I've got to figure out how to mount the front and rear rails, and the bows, to the side rails. It shouldn't really be too hard. The only other problem is that the top of the bed sides extends out past the stake pockets by several inches, so the tonneau may not extend all the way to the edge of the bed. It might still look ok, and it should be fairly weather tight, but I don't know. Camper foam should work good between the homemade rails, I could probably mount those expandable rubber blocks to the corners to securely mount it without drilling, like tie downs often have.

And then again, I would like to have it so that I could quickly take the tonneau off and have the hooks still in the stake pockets, so if I have the frame mounted in there it wouldn't be as convinient. I guess it's not that big of a deal. I'm just not sure what I want yet.

By the way, I'm in atlantic county, about 20 minutes from AC.

 

nice, i got a buddy who lives in EHT. I am currently in camden county, like 15 minutes from atco raceway.

 

I'm pretty close to EHT (about 20 min, I guess it's 30 min. to AC), but it's about a 45 minute ride to atco from here.

I'm supprised you call it the garbage state, it isn't too bad in the south, there are some rural areas that are nice. The north is where you want to stay away from!

Anyway, I'll have to figure out what I really want before I go ahead with anything. Maybe come the spring I'll see about making a frame if I don't just have the shop drill the holes first. I guess the snap holes arn't that bad, I mean, after I have a tonneau, I'll probably always have one. It would be easier to just do that, and it would probably be easier to take it on and off, but I don't know, I still don't like the perminant snaps in the bed. I'll figure something out.

 

I just realized the 87 has the same bed as the 86. How are your rails attatched? Any pics? Thanks

 

Well, I picked up a regular snap on tonneau cover cheap. I'd still like to make the rails for it. Now my plan is to build the rails, and use the bows and top that I got in the kit. I think I'll have about $75 in it by the time it's said and done. The trick now is going to be building the frame. Any tips? Looks like the tonneau is wide, to go to the edge of the bed, like the ones in the pictures, so I'll need to make the frame flat. I'm just worried the flat aluminum won't be strong enough, but if I use thick enough metal it should be ok. Napa has some camper foam I'll stick on the bottom of the frame to protedt the bed. And I want to use pop up style tie downs to hold a plates on each corner. The plates will be semi-perminant. They could be removed by removing the pop up tie downs. Then the actual rails can be mounted to the plates. The next question is how should I mount the rails to the plate? The plate may not be strong enough to just tap for a screw.

I still have some bugs to work out, but I think I'm on to something.

I should have plenty of time to work this out, it's still too cold out to be doing a tonneau. It would probably be best to wait for a nice warm day and lay the tonneau out in the sun before it's first installation.

 

Where did you end up getting the Cover from?

as far as mounting the rail to the plate..maybe having bolts stuck up so that you just thread a nut onto the bolt and that would secure the rail to the plate?

 

I actually found one on ebay, it's as old as the truck is, but it's still in the sealed box. For the price I couldn't let it go! I'll let it lie out on the floor for a few weeks, I'm sure it's gonna have some wrinkles in it.

Theres another one on there now too! I've looked forever on there and never saw one, but in one week there are two!

That's an idea, to use a stud instead of trying to go down from the top. Maybe a stainless carrage bolt pushed up from the bottom. Might have to grind the head a little flatter on the bottom, but the foam coushion on the bottom should also give me some space to work with between the plate and the bed.

 

So that tonneau did it have rails cause i'm prob gonna try and get it :-) cause i found it..

 

You found it? It's 20 w/no bids, right? That's the one! Mine I got for $27 the other night, plus 12 shippping, so about $40. Same box and everything, but mine says bestop instead of waynne's or whatever that is. No, no rails included, that's what I gotta make, but the bows and snaps and all are there, not sure if they're stainless or not, I'll have to find out more before I put them on. I want it to be rustproof. Basically it comes with everything to put it on, if you want to drill the holes, but I figure I have a good start and with a little more work I can make what I want.

good luck with that auction! If you get the other, between the two of us we'll come up with a plan for some no drill rails!