1st Gen camper shells

Aint too bad. My sides seal fine, i just need to redo the rear glass seal & i'll be dry as a popcorn fart.

 

I just prefer the overhang the Leer 100R offers. All you need is slides on the long rails, rather than double bubble, and you're golden.

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Yea, jelly of the lips. & consider my mind blown when you said sliders & i thought 'drawer sliders'.


I make a tarp/canopy tjat fits over the bed to the cab, and slide the cap back to the tailgate for a 'garage'. Be able to close the tailgate & seal on the front of the cap. Adjustable legs to hold the weight of the cap... this could be a thing with a bit more forethought. Dunno if anyone remembers voss's foodstand at go fast friday, but imagine that, but 6.5ft longer.

 

In my case, whoever carpeted this cap ran the carpet up under the edges, so the cap slides right on and off without rubbing fiberglass into the plastic caps. Makes install and removal easy. Just too bad, they did a clearly-at-home job installing the carpet. But I don't want to redo it.

 

I'd love to see someone jump on this. I'm particular enough that I couldn't live with green on white, otherwise it'd already be on my truck.

 

Unless you already have a back window for this, I wouldn't buy one with a busted back window. The back windows for Glasstite campers of this vintage are all discontinued and sold out, and over $600 if they were available.

 

I haven't seen a single topper in my price range with an intact rear window. It's kind of crazy. I'm just expecting to do a plexiglass replacement, and making sure they have the frame and hardware. If they don't have the frame, then it becomes unmanageably complicated. But I'm willing to cut a plexiglass window.

 

It took me a couple months of casually looking to find a truck for sale that had a cap, and ask the seller if they're willing to part with the cap, "I'll give a anywhere from $300-800 for the cap alone on a no-BS/no-hassle, depending on whether there's any cracks/damage, the locks and lights work, all windows intact and working, has keys, etc. If you're willing? I can bring an extra pair of hands to move it so you don't need to."

I think it was 3-800, maybe I said 3-700. At least 1 in 3 people replied. The guy who had the cap I ended up with replied and said he wanted to sell everything, but if nobody bites within 2-3 weeks, he'll get back to me. About 3½ weeks later he reached out, said, "I'll take $400" and I ran up there the ASAP to get it before he changed his mind.

Try searching your local FBMarketplace for "access cab tundra" and see what you can see.

 

Well I'll guarantee I didn't make shifty proud...but I did consider all the advice here and it kept me from going too far astray.

Generally, very decent exterior condition. A scrape or two and one small gouge, one missing piece of weather stripping, the top is just starting to lose its finish, which means it's actually in better shape than most of the toppers I saw in my price range, at least in terms of clearcoat/finish.

Interior carpeting is rotten and will come out, but no sign of water damage to anything other than the carpet. This is the arid west, but the thing sat in a junkyard for a while with no back window. And actually, though I'm sure what's in there is referred to as "carpeting", it's not true carpet compared to what I'm used to with previous toppers. More like a thin felt.




This was a bonus I didn't even notice till I got to a gas station to double check the clamps (which I guess might give you some idea of how closely I really looked before saying "sure I'll buy it!"...).



And thanks for the tip on the c-clamps and metal brace. Made the 2hr drive home at 80mph pretty much stress free. Real clamps will be here mid-week next week.



The next project...

 

Flip down window! Nice!

 

Didn't even know they existed until I saw a different one in an ad yesterday.

 

If the carpet isn't salvageable, pro tip:

Once you get the carpet out, hit the inside with a 10:1 solution of water:bleach after. Let it fully dry on there. Then pressure wash the inside really well. Don't go with too aggressive an agled tip, or too close. Let it fully dry and think about carpeting later. Inspect for any fiberglass damage.

Essentially using the bleach to kill any mildew spores, then pressure washing to blast out anything stubborn, potentially any loose bits of adhesive used for the carpet. You just don't want to use a tip that's aggressive enough to shred the fiberglass fibers.

 

Thanks, good call. You can kind of tell from the photos that it's wet in there now. On my way home I hit a car wash since it was so dirty inside. That's when I noticed even light spraying, without pulling the trigger on the wand, was shearing the felt off in multiple places. I'm thinking that'll be the easiest first step - take it back to the carwash and, without pulling the trigger, use the lower power spray to get as much felt off as possible. Then I assume it's elbow grease for the rest of it.

Then yeah, good idea, a weak bleach solution just to be sure. Mold and mildew is fairly rare out here, but it's good insurance regardless. Having owned an old camper for a few years now, I've seen that most rot is dry rot. I've chased down quite a few leaks in the camper, and only find fluffy white mold on things that are still actively soaking wet. Never found black mold or had mildew issues thankfully.

 

Check out this item on OfferUp. https://offerup.co/NrTkpkpV8Ib

soft topper $580 not mine , San diego

 

I'm just not a huge fan of the soft toppers. Not sure why.

 

Me2

 

They're great if you don't always want/need a topper on your bed. They're light and super easy to install and remove. Their only real disadvantages are they can be ripped, the rubber windows can be hard to see out of, and they are only water resistant.

 

If the clearcoat on this topper were mostly gone, I'd call it "gone". But this is the only spot with any issues, and that motivates me to save it. Is there a way to stop its progression? I'm guessing, like the trouble with some year Chevy's with white paint peeling off, the only solution is to fully strip it down and start over, but I figure it's worth asking...

Not ready to show my face

 

Is there only one size soft topper for 1st gen. This should fit a double cab right. Only options online are 6 or 8 ft bed

 

Thats a cool saturn.

 

Yeah it should fit fine. The AC and DC are only like an inch difference in length.

 

Said no one, ever? On my way home from grabbing the topper I passed a minivan with a ""Nice Minivan" - no one" bumper sticker. Yeah that Saturn is one of two abandoned cars next door. So long as they stay there, I don't need to worry about the temporary accumulation of junk in front of my porch...

 

The designer of the softopper rode dirt bikes in the desert. You can fold it up to carry the bikes out there in the bed and then fold it back down to sleep covered at night.

 

Makes a lot of sense for the right application. In the past I considered putting a custom flatbed on my truck, with a tube metal sort of cage forming parts of the sides, and kind of a rack/roll cage design over the top. Then, when needed, I could have a custom, heavy-duty tarp stretched over the whole thing for protection from some of the elements. Only practical for a very particular lifestyle, or for a truly recreational vehicle. No so much a daily driver, at least for me.

 

After a little research, sounds like the only do-it-yourself option for clearcoat restoration is beyond what I'm really willing to do for this topper, so I'll just live with it.

 

I dont let my failing clearcoat bug me. I might have everything repainted eventually, or a wrap, no hard plans. But i dont get enough rain to have to worry about it.

 

I think they're awesome on a 1st Gen 4runner.

 

Picked up the free shell posted a few pages back on friday. The seller held it for us and was super kind and helpful. Sold her truck and was moving and just wanted it gone. It's a leer 100xl in pretty decent shape. Needs some little stuff, and I don't love the frameless windows, but I can't really complain at all. Was thinking about trying to paint it but I don't think I'll bother.

 

Congrats! You may just want to vinyl wrap it. Or keep hunting, and sell that one for $600-800 when you find what you like. It looks to be in really great shape.

 

Yeah! I was considering vinyl as well, we shall see. For now I'm just excited to take it on some trips this summer!