I started at the bottom of the seat back cushion removing hog rings. I remove one on each side, then peel back the cover a bit trying not to bend the metal reinforcement rods in the seat cushion.
In each row going across there are 3 hog rings. Remove the rings from this row...
... then cut the plastic retaining bits in two places to pull the cover back a bit more. Arrows show where the seat heater was attached to the cover. The next hog ring to remove (on each side) is circled.
With those rings removed, you should be able to access the rings on the middle row (again, 3 rings), and the next ones on each side.
More retainers to cut to free the seat heater from the cover
To accommodate the curve in the stitch pattern, the top metal bar is curved. It's easiest to get to the hog rings for this one first at the sides, then from the top of the seat cushion. I rolled the top of the cover over, worked it off around the headrest lugs, and got the 4 hog rings (2 per side) securing the short vertical bars, and the side rings securing the curved bar.
With the last of the hog rings out on the sides, you can reach the final two securing the curved bar in place. Take care not to bend the short rods when pulling the cover out of the way. These rods can be removed to reuse on the new cover.
With the cover free, remove all of the remaining reinforcing rods
At this point I installed the new cover on the upper seat portion. Installation is reverse of removal. I started by securing the bars that go across, first in the center, then left and right sides, then securing the sides. Keep in mind that the seat back will need to be reattached to the base before putting the bottom set of rings on.
The cover on the seat base is a little more tedious. You first need to unbolt the pan from the structural base by removing the 12mm bolts. An extension is likely to be needed for the bolts at the front side of the seat. There are two per side.
I disconnected all of the wire connectors from the motors and the seat control unit. With the 4 bolts out, gently separate the seat pan from the frame and you'll see what needs to be disconnected. So long as you leave the harness attached to the underside of the seat cushion, it is fairly obvious where each connector goes when you reassemble.
In addition to the connectors, there are a few tie down clips that will need to be freed from their mounting point. There are tabs on each side of the connector that can be depressed to free them without breaking the clip.
Once the base is free, this is what you should be left with.
Starting again at the back of the seat (down in this picture), there are 5 hog rings on the left side to remove, along with a supporting rod.
Start by removing the two that secure the long flap to the springs
Then remove the 3 that secure the rod to the metal seat pan. Once free, remove the metal rod.
On the right side (back of cushion is "down" in the photo, the front edge is "up") there is also a wire that will need to be freed in two places. The round clips (also seen in the picture above) are easy to split, but the ziptie mount is another of the tabbed mounts. This one is not particularly easy to reach the tabs on, but it is possible with a thin flat blade screw driver. I would make the ziptie mount the final piece removed in this sequence.
Underneath that flap the cover is secured with two hog rings.
Moving to the front of the seat base, lightly pry out the 5 tabs (red) and pull off the plastic clamp from along that full front edge. (blue) There is another short section on the right side that can be removed by pulling and prying, or you can bend out the entire lip that secures it and bend it back in place once the cover is free.
Remove the long plastic tab from the seat pan at the back, being careful not to cut yourself on the stamped metal. I used a screwdriver as a pry bar to free the plastic in this area.
With all of those detached, you can remove the seat cushion and cover from the pan.
Looking at the side of the seat, you'll have 5 hog rings on each side. Two on a short rod (at right in this pic), one on the curved rod (middle), and two on the longer rod (left). Remove all 5 on each side, along with the long and short straight rods.
Each of the horizontal rods are secured by three hog rings. Remove the three rings, and then remove the rod to free the cover from the heating element.
Put the seat cushion back in the pan, and you can reassemble with hog rings as shown.
Make sure everything is secured as it was. In this cover (LSeat) I had to cut a hole for the ziptie cable retainer mount.
Now for my least favorite part of this installation: cutting holes in my brand new seat cover...
First the side holes that secure the base to the adjusting frame
I used a new utility blade to make the cuts as clean as possible. I started by locating the hole and cutting a small + pattern over the hole, then made a roughly circular cut around.
Cuts will also need to be made for the headrest lugs. There's no need to cut a hole larger than the lug. I started with a small square around the headrest pole opening, and enlarged it only as necessary to get it to slip over the lug.
There are no hog rings for the headrest and arm rest, so just note how the original cover is installed, remove it, and then slip the new covers on them. I also had to cut a hole in the side of the arm rest for the mounting bolt but again, start small with the cut centered over the hole for the bolt by feel, and gradually enlarge until the hole is large enough.
Once the back is bolted back to the base, replace the last of the hog rings and get all the plastic trim panels and rear pocket panel reinstalled. Bolt it back in your truck and you're done.
After rerouting the wires and latch cables to the inside of the tailgate and out of the way of my angle grinder, I cut the openings and filed them smooth. I cut the torsion spring ends that support the tailgate roughly flush with the new opening. I drilled out the holes for the stock plastic retaining clips with a 23/64" bit and inserted 1/4-20 rivnuts into each of the 16 holes. Cover panels will be secured with pan head bolts.
I drilled and cut some pieces of 2x4 to slip over the shorter legs to use as a spacer against the interior panel and covered the cut ends of the spring with heat shrink tubing.
To help keep rattling to a minimum I put a layer of adhesive backed foam on the inside surface of the outer skin. Far from perfect, but I think it will work well enough.
I'm not sure that this will be the permanent cover, but I got a couple of sheets of 3/16" black ABS that's textured on one side and started cutting them to fit. Once they fit and are mounted I'll start looking at the best way to cut an access door. I have 2" round rv latches and piano hinges, and will probably make a metal lip to attach to the surround to support the door. We'll see how that goes.
Rough cut outline with chalk, using original as a guide
Checking fit
Looks good enough for now, now to locate bolt holes. A task for tomorrow.
ugh, the hurricane on monday was a real PITA for us and we're still without power (and thus internet), but it's back on at work so taking a "break" in a/c this morning. No further progress on the tailgate mod just yet, but I got my BenCC ram ball mount in on Tuesday and decided to get that, as well as a USB outlet to replace the stock cigarette lighter socket, installed last night. At least the LX a/c was working well.
One little thing popped up a while back and I forgot about it until I went to do an oil change today... The latch bracket that serves as an emergency backup for the hood latch fell off in a parking lot some time back when I'd opened the hood to jump start my wife's car. Thankfully I found the bracket and have managed to hang onto it. I drilled out the old spot welds (or rusted bolts? Can't tell...) and sprayed the area with weld-thru primer. Since I have my new rivnut tool, I decided to install some of those instead of welding.
Seems to function as intended, so I'll throw some thread lock on those bolts and move on to actually addressing the oil... And maybe replace this radiator hose
Be careful and prepared for what you may find when you pull that hose.......that radiator looks a bit discolored. Mine looked OK, and when I pulled the hose I found that the hose nipple was SERIOUSLY deteriorated !
Be careful and prepared for what you may find when you pull that hose.......that radiator looks a bit discolored. Mine looked OK, and when I pulled the hose I found that the hose nipple was SERIOUSLY deteriorated !
It The hose was replaced less than 20k miles ago with the timing belt, I'm just concerned at the crystals forming where the internal cords show at the cut end. Here's inside the cap... Certainly no guarantee that the nipple is in great shape, but everything looks clean inside the rad.
One more small thing on the swing out installation checked off last night: functional license plate light.
I tied a pigtail into the wiring going to the tailgate to get a power lead from the tail light power and tie into the ground. I still need to get a weatherproof connector to replace the cheap open connector that's there now, but that should be able to wait a couple of weeks until we get back from our trip. The goal with this connector (and the vinyl front license plate, as my original 2nd plate is mounted in the stock location on the tailgate behind the swing out) is to make it a quick change if I choose to remove the 5th wheel swing arm for my normal around-town driving.
Sorry for the crappy lighting. The tie in sits inside the plastic wire holder on the bottom of the tailgate as indicated, and runs to the other side at the swing arm pivot.
Got our road trip vacation "documentation" stickers put on after cleaning the window. Still need to wash off all the dirt and mud from the trip, but it's a low priority.
With that done, finally started on putting actual access doors in the tailgate storage I started before the road trip. Started by using some packing material to mark out the opening in the metal relative to the panel mounting points. I also added one more panel retention point per side (the two seen at the support I left in the middle of the tailgate). Seemed like a good idea.
I used that template to mark out my desired opening. Used a straight edge to mark out lines and started drilling some small starter holes.
I'd originally planned on using a micro blade (0.09 mm width) manual saw I have for wood working to make the cuts before deciding to just use a dremel cut off wheel to cut the door out. Flush mount isn't going to be perfect with the hinges I have, so I had to make a 1/4" slot to get as close to flush as I could for now. I may still have to revisit this hinge as it's still catching on the plastic door-gap-bridge-thingy when I close the tailgate.
Next up is to make an intermediate panel out of some sheet steel to serve as a support for the door and give me a good place to start on the latch catch. I left myself an extra inch plus a bit on the inside edge to account for a 1/2" door support lip with excess material folded under to strengthen the flange.
