I finally got round to ‘finishing’ my tailgate interior.
Having looked like the picture to the right for a few months, uncovered and with a little too much gaffer tape on show, and the Ikea blind temporarily installed, and the top of the ply not fixed (because I was too scared to drill holes near the glass!) it was time to ‘finish’ it off properly and add a few extra features.
The ply is covered in carpet and attached using a combination of hidden Fir Trees and visible Stainless Steel bolts with a hex head into rivnuts (installed in the OEM holes).
I found the hidden fixings on the rest of the build not quite strong enough for my liking so rather than trying to hide screws or bolts I made them a feature by using attractive-looking bolts and a leather washer.
Since removing my tailgate plastic trim I have had no pull strap to close it. I sold the trim over 6 months ago and have been using a bit of paracord since! So it was well overdue to install something proper.
I wanted to keep the leather accessory theme going so I made a loop of leather 3cm wide by 56cm long.
As leather can stretch over time, I reinforced it with some 2.5cm wide nylon webbing.
Sandwiched between the 2 layers of leather is a washer so the majority of the force when pulling is on the washer, not the leather.
It’s attached to the tailgate via a rivnut as I could not find anything to fit the OEM holes (22.5mm apart and an unidentified captive nut that is bigger than m4 but smaller than m5!).
I also included a simple Tailgate Awning made from ripstop nylon sandwiched between the metal and plywood.
I like to make as much as possible have more than one main function, so I added some bungee cord to the ply that will allow things to be hung or stored on the door. It’s looped through the plywood mounting holes and then the plywood is attached using bolts and rivnuts with leather washers; it’s pretty strong and should take e.g. a dripping wetsuit no bother.
