Fridge Mounting

[mjrandom]

Either is ok. I used good old Bear contact adhesive. I cannot guarantee what type of bears they used. It stinks. I covered everything, carpet and board 100%. Some people use spray glue but it is more $. Some people just glue the edges and leave the rest. Make sure you cut the board 5mm or so narrower than the space it fits in to give you room to roll the carpet over the edge. Can't think of anything else. I did rout the edges with a half round bit so the carpet rolled over the edge rather than a square fold but it probably doesn't matter.

[fido666]

Any specific type of glue? Do I need to cover the entire surface (as in the top and any edge folds) in it?

Also reading up on plywoods there is also exterior plywood that has a high grade face and a lesser grade back. As I understand it this type of ply has the same bonding as marine ply. Is there any reason not to use this in favour of marine ply?

[mjrandom]

You can glue to formply but it is heavy. Just remember to leave the base out of the Prado for a couple of days after you glue the carpet on. Smell gets everywhere otherwise.

[fido666]

Formply is the plastic laminated stuff right? I think that might be a pain to glue carpet to.

[mjrandom]

You can probably get smaller sizes in structural ply but you are better off with marine ply or formply. I used structural ply and had to take a big warp out of it.

[fido666]

There's a small one a couple of suburbs over, not sure if they open on public holidays though.

Just Googling marine ply and it looks like the 2400mm x 1200mm sheets are the norm, might be stuck buying a big sheet. Guess could make a fridge slide out of the excess but damn that's a big sheet of ply.

[mjrandom]

Are there any bolt and nut sales places near you? I find these guys are cheaper than Bunnings and usually have any odd sizes.

[fido666]

I tried the bolts in the metric tester at Bunnings, the small one is M6 and the larger one M8. That's about as far as I got as the high tensile bolts in the loose bins had been picked clean. They had the marine carpet but no piece of marine ply wide enough (I need 1250mm wide). They did have a massive board that was 2400mm wide or something like that, it was twice as big as what we need though. Tried the only timber yard I know of around here, it's closed on Sundays and public holidays. Will hit up Masters tomorrow, might have more luck there.

I nearly made a rookie mistake with the bolt lengths needed, have to allow for the depth of the current track as well.

[mjrandom]

10mm across flats (AF) is usually M6 and 12 or 13 M8. But there are a couple of different pitches and my experience is that Toyota uses fine threads. Best to take a sample.

[fido666]

If you use 18mm ply wood use M6 60mm bolts. The length works well.

I just pulled the bolts out of the tracks on one side (figure the other side will be the same). They actually use 2 different size bolts in the Kakadu rails. On the front rail they use a single bolt with a 10mm socket head and 15mm thread length. On the back rail they use 2 x 12mm socket head bolts with 19mm thread length.

I don't know what this translates to in M land so I will just take them with me to find the appropriate length, thickness, and thread pitch. Obviously I will need to allow sufficient length to cater for the thickness of the ply and carpet. I'm guessing 2 per side will be enough, I'll just leave the one of the original bolts in the rear track to keep it secured.

[fido666]

Thanks for clearing that up MJ as I do think having the track in the false floor would interfere with a slide. I have the Waeco CFX65DZ, the lid opens sideways rather that lengthways.

http://www.waeco.com.au/cfx/

Also when gluing the carpet to the ply is there a specific glue you need to use? I have seen hot glue mentioned but do you need to cover the entire surface area of the ply in it?

[mjrandom]

Fido which fridge do you have? I can't remember what I was thinking at the time but I suspect it was to leave the existing track in place and bolt through as you suggest but to set some ARB track or similar in the false floor. If you are bolting a frame or slide on the false floor then you won't need track. If you have an ARB fridge and no slide then the track is the easiest way to mount it.

[fido666]

Not sure if you have access to a router but if you fit 18mm ply you could rout a slot 6mm or so deep and recess the track to keep the top nice and flat with the carpet on the board.

Just going back over this thread and wanted to clarify something MJ. Was your suggestion to remove the entire track from the back of the seats and slot it into the false floor? I thought I could just put longer bolts through the false floor and into the existing bolt holes but leave the track in place? I don't have a router but might be able to borrow one.

[Big Block]

I was going to ask which seat covers they are? They look trick

[fido666]

Much easier removing the three bolts holding the base to the car and removing it all together. Only takes a couple of minutes.

Fair point Jaysea, I don't really have anywhere to store the base out of the car so was planning to leave that in most of the time.