…or…
Adventures in Truck Canopydom
I’ve intended to get a canopy for my truck. These of course add more storage space along with at least a modicum of security. In the Pacific Northwest they also help to preserve the truck bed from rusting. For my uses, getting one additionally provides a quick if basic set-up for camping — and it would help with the SCUBA dive work I’ve been doing this summer.
For me, the timing of getting a canopy has been funny… I could-make use of one now, but I also need to conserve money. From my research local Craig’s List advertisements, at the low-end these run $50-200 and often are in the same condition — usually needing work. A few weeks ago I got lucky — got a canopy for my truck for free! I was alerted there was one at a neighborhood garage sale, so I got over there as quick as I could. As it turned out it had a lot of things going for it. The canopy was a similar colour to my truck, it was the right length, and it needed about as much work as the ones I had seen online. Not to mention that the price was definitely right! On the other hand, it was a little wider than the rim of my truck bed. The folks giving it away apparently had the same issue and had already attached some boards to adapt its width. I could go ahead and clamp it on my truck …. after paying $10 to their garage sale for a set of canopy clamps.
(Brunette not included … which is good because that wouldn’t work with me on account of my new and awesome girlfriend.)
As soon as I could I took to cleaning the canopy. It appeared to have been sitting on the ground for some time. Using dish soap, a gentle brush, and the garden hose I cleaned off dirt, grass, UFOs, and any number of bugs — alive or dead. In pretty short order I began to have a decent canopy and I was better able to assess the repairs.
Long/Short…
It needs some work which I’ve already started. One of the windows doesn’t open, one of the windows doesn’t close. My plan is to make both of these so they’re permanently closed. I’ve removed the adapter boards to give them a better cut, so everything fits and seals between the canopy and rim of my truck bed — I’m also painting them. After getting the canopy I purchased a whole whopping $25 worth of supplies to help make everything else work well together. My new-to-me canopy ought to be in fine shape with a little more time and ingenuity.
… now I just need to learn to drive on mirrors.
Oh well … Always Learning!
PS — Get My Book & Support My Truck!
That’s right — I’m a published author! My first book has been available since October 2018 on Amazon. Through July 2019 the e-book version is available on Smashwords for a SCREAM of a price!!! (In fact, it should be less than what you see in the widget below…) Selling my book is part of how I make my income, and part of my income goes to making my truck happy. Keep an eye out — my next book will be published soon — a book of military and patriotic bagpipe tunes and their histories. I’m excited about how this upcoming book is turning out!
So I got all these bits and bobs and their accompanying screws and my few tools and headed for the door — to find out that they were closing. I asked what I owed them and planned to pay quickly, but they said (essentially) ‘For that, don’t bother — come back when you need a real thing.’ COOL — THANKS!
Got in my truck, put my parts down, got my keys in the ignition, and then went to put my (prescription) sunglasses on ….. no sunglasses. Not on the collar of my shirt, not on the seat, the dashboard — NO WHERE. OOPS — I set them down in the cab of the truck I pulled the parts from! I hopped out of my truck to see that the last employee was leaving — the front desk lady who was covered in the requite junkyard-front-desk-lady-tattoos. I quickly explained the situation, she even more quickly handed me the key to get back in the yard. I ran in hoping that I was not wrong and actually HAD left my (prescription) sunglasses in the cab of the junked truck and didn’t just make a jerk of myself (because I had already been having one of those forgetful days).
But don’t take my word for it, 
I worked for 3 hours in the snow, with and sometimes without warm gloves. I got the bumper, bits, and grill on but didn’t have time to get to the jerry-rig. Last night I returned the sandbags to the truck bed, today I put the tailgate back on.
The wrap up on my truck repairs produced a comedy of errors. I went to my truck — now parked outside — to install the face-plate that goes over the gauges. To get the space needed to put this in you have to put the vehicle in gear — to put it in gear you have to insert your key into the ignition and turn it part of the way. Since the truck started rough last night I thought I would run it a bit now to charge the battery. It cranked some and then konked out — dead battery, no surprise. Back to the face-plate…
Today I plan to get the front bumper back on my truck — to get my truck in our garage I had to start with taking off both bumpers. Lately our temperatures have been as low as the upper teens and as high as the mid-30s — and we (finally) had our first round of snow. Right now we’re getting our second round of snow. For the next few days it looks like we’re supposed to get more of the teen temps to lower-30s and snow. Snow began to fall again this morning, and so far it’s sticking however it is our warmer wet-snow … and now I’m going outside to work on my truck.
Once I got this truck and started going over it, I found the wet and stinky floor and the rust. I got the flooring to be not wet and the cab of the truck to be not stinky — then I started working over the floor. I exposed all the rust and even found a few pin-holes in the process. A car-guy friend patched the holes and told me what to do to kill the rust, how to paint and further seal the cab floor. This would have been nice to work over during a summer but things haven’t worked out that way. Why summer? I could work outside, it’s warm and dry, and venting fumes isn’t a problem. Right now I’m figuring out if I can work over the floor in the off season. There are some tricks to it though…..