SA cargo cover

[t_g_farrell]

First I cleaned the cover with warm soapy water on the bottom side and covered it
with Goop hand cleaner on the top side. I used a soft bristle brush and some
water to scrub and rinse both sides. Then let it dry for a week or so in my garage
while I collected what I needed to do the rest.

I decided I would replace all the snaps and got 2 of these snap kits at Lowes
that are meant for repairing boat covers and such. It contains tools to install the
female part of the snap in the canvas and a male snap piece with a sheet metal
screw to allow for easy installation. These are almost identical as the old ones
I removed from my car when I realized I had lost the cover.



I also got some stainless steel S hooks of the right size to replace the 3 hooks
at the rear and I bought 2 cans of Duplicolor flat black vinyl paint to use on the
bottom side. To fix the crumbled plastic reinforcement in the cover I picked up
a sheet of plastic ceiling tile at Lowes.

Heres the bottom side painted with the flat black. Makes a world of difference and
will look nice when the hatch is opened. I had replaced the snaps at this poing as well.



Doing the snaps



Slit open the wings and dumped out what was left of the reinforcing plastic.





I cut out the plastic sheet to fit the wings and inserted it into the wings using the
slit I cut to empty it. I then slipped some duct tape upsidedown under slit to
keep it closed. A more permanent solution will be to use some iron-on patches from
a sewing store but I wasn't thrilled with the way the platsic worked out and will
be replacing it with some thick vinyl sheet which won't crack or crumble when
bent.