$150 Flip Pac Build (sort of)

[Seth Kendall]

It's a Christmas miracle!

I was really sad when I saw the broken post. I know what it's like being a student, broke and still wanting to get off-road. It would have never happened for me if it weren't for ExPo members, and I'm glad to see it happening for you too. Thanks ExPo for being the community that cares.:wings::victory:

 

[ntsqd]

Second one!

Today coming out of the Post Office I spotted a Flip-pac on a (white) Taco and I got there just after the guy had gotten in it. I said "Cool!!" pointing to the Flip-pac and then noticed that his was also broken in the same spot, but short yet. He told me that he's ordered the parts and plans to fix it himself rather than spending the $500.

 

[red87]

That's funny, I saw a guy with a silver Frontier yesterday with a Flip-Pac and his shell had broken there too. I never saw anyone else with one until I got mine and now I've seen like four in the past week.

 

[CYi5]

I saw a wildernest on a mini truck the other day....or is wildernest a bad word in the flippac world ?

 

[red87]

haha I think we're equal opportunity pop-up shell lovers here

 

[ddawson]

So I have a couple of questions. In the photo it appears that the metal sheath is what broke causing the fiberglass damage. Is this what happened? If so, is the sheath piece available from FRP? Do you know if this is a common problem? I have noticed some flex on that same hinge on my flippac (mine is really old also), and I am thinking that I should just replace it to avoid a huge blowout like yours. I really hope you are able to fix it.

Thanks,

Danny

 

[ntsqd]

The assembly is that the arm bolts(?) into a steel tube that is glassed into the top piece (lid?). The tube appears to extend quite a ways down the length of the lid. At least on Red87's that is the way that it is built. Given the other unique things about his Flip-pac it may not be a good sample of how they all are built. dunno.....

The one that I saw on the Taco that was broken, broke just an inch or so in from the forward facing edge of the top piece. Much shorter than red87's break. I looks to me, based on all two samples that I've seen, that when the seal between the arm and the fiberglass fails and allows water to get in is when the problem starts. I'd encourage all owners to really be diligent about keeping that seal water tight, even if the unit is just sitting by the wayside.

I wish that I'd thought to tell the Taco owner about this forum.

 

[red87]

exactly what ntsqd said

 

[Dave Bennett]

I'm interested to see how this turns out! :lurk:

 

[ddawson]

The assembly is that the arm bolts(?) into a steel tube that is glassed into the top piece (lid?). The tube appears to extend quite a ways down the length of the lid. At least on Red87's that is the way that it is built. Given the other unique things about his Flip-pac it may not be a good sample of how they all are built. dunno.....

The one that I saw on the Taco that was broken, broke just an inch or so in from the forward facing edge of the top piece. Much shorter than red87's break. I looks to me, based on all two samples that I've seen, that when the seal between the arm and the fiberglass fails and allows water to get in is when the problem starts. I'd encourage all owners to really be diligent about keeping that seal water tight, even if the unit is just sitting by the wayside.

I wish that I'd thought to tell the Taco owner about this forum.

Thanks for the info. I hope you guys are able to fix Red's shell!

 

[ntsqd]

I told Red87 about this firm, but I thought that I'd post the URL here for future reference.

http://www.fibreglast.com/

 

[red87]

I've been looking at that place, its a good reference for someone like me who doesn't know the first thing about fiberglassing

 

[red87]

While I'm in the midst of accumulating the stuff I need to tackle the big fix, I decided it was time my shell had a legit front window. ntqsd gave me a new one so I had the front part of a shell just hanging out in my garage waiting for the install. I didn't take too many pictures as I was attempting to beat sundown. That didn't happen due to some unforeseen difficulties.

Here you can see the old window with all the rivets drilled out. 34 of them. I learned today that I HATE drilling out rivets. It wouldn't be so bad but I was drilling them out from the backside as I can't really access the front of the shell without taking it off the truck. I did get to battle 4 stubborn rivets that didn't feel like be drilled out. Mr. Dremel made short work of them.

Luckily, the donor window was attached with screws and some not-so-strong adhesive so my sanity wasn't lost.

Of course, the holes in the donor window were consistently around 1/8" off so I got to drill all new holes in the shell to rivet it back in. It also turned out to be slightly larger than the stock window so I also had the joy of trimming about 1/8" off most of the window hole in the shell.

Now I don't have to worry so much about water getting inside the bed when I'm driving. I did lose the functionality of a slider but I can live with that when the solid window was free. All that changes is that I need to plan ahead before I go to sleep.

 

[Cacher]

$150.00? You are a lottery winner. Extremely nice grab for the money. I would tint the back windows, so nobody wants what they can see inside.

 

[red87]

The back windows actually are tinted a little. Not limo tint by any means but definitely not clear.