My GX will sit for a day or two not being driven sometimes, so it took me a couple weeks to notice that it had gone from smelling musty to an outright nasty mildew odor. I checked all over the carpet and headliner but could feel no wet spots whatsoever. I checked the air conditioner drain lines as well as the sunroof drain lines and they all worked fine. I was wanting to change the position of my rear-facing camera so when I started taking the rear trim apart I noticed some water.
As best I can tell, my rear weatherstripping was the source of the leak. The carpet has a rubber back, so even though the padding was absolutely soaked and water was puddled in the stamped out recesses, it was completely dry on the surface! I had some wonderful mold spots growing, and there was no saving that padding in the back. I cleaned it up with some bleach and let it dry out for a couple days before messing with it again.
I originally planned to track down some acoustic duct liner but no place in town had any in stock, and tried to find some jute at an upholstery shop but they also did not keep any in stock, so 6# carpet padding is what I ended up with.
This weekend I used the old padding as a template to cut out a double layer. I had a roll of foil tape laying around so I put a layer on the bottom piece of padding to try and help with heat rejection then reinstalled the carpet. It barely fit with the added thickness of padding, but the trim pieces did go back together properly in spite of this. Its definitely more squishy back there now, which is handy when you need to change a diaper while out-n-about.
I want to say it is now a bit more quiet than it had been stock, but after running around for nearly a week with nothing back there at all I might be a bit biased!
Now to the tailgate question. While moving my camera I noticed that my vapor barrier is basically ruined, at some point the rear window was replaced and the broken glass is embedded in the adhesive strip. Also, the interior of the tailgate is hollow. The Prado has the spare mounted on the tailgate, is it reinforced internally for the added weight on a Prado? I'm not interested in mounting the spare on the tailgate, I am wondering if I could cut the tailgate below the wiper motor and make a storage box or two like I have seen on other series Cruisers. I believe the frame of the storage box would serve to reinforce the tailgate where it was cut away, but I could be mistaken.
As best I can tell, my rear weatherstripping was the source of the leak. The carpet has a rubber back, so even though the padding was absolutely soaked and water was puddled in the stamped out recesses, it was completely dry on the surface! I had some wonderful mold spots growing, and there was no saving that padding in the back. I cleaned it up with some bleach and let it dry out for a couple days before messing with it again.
I originally planned to track down some acoustic duct liner but no place in town had any in stock, and tried to find some jute at an upholstery shop but they also did not keep any in stock, so 6# carpet padding is what I ended up with.
This weekend I used the old padding as a template to cut out a double layer. I had a roll of foil tape laying around so I put a layer on the bottom piece of padding to try and help with heat rejection then reinstalled the carpet. It barely fit with the added thickness of padding, but the trim pieces did go back together properly in spite of this. Its definitely more squishy back there now, which is handy when you need to change a diaper while out-n-about.
I want to say it is now a bit more quiet than it had been stock, but after running around for nearly a week with nothing back there at all I might be a bit biased!
Now to the tailgate question. While moving my camera I noticed that my vapor barrier is basically ruined, at some point the rear window was replaced and the broken glass is embedded in the adhesive strip. Also, the interior of the tailgate is hollow. The Prado has the spare mounted on the tailgate, is it reinforced internally for the added weight on a Prado? I'm not interested in mounting the spare on the tailgate, I am wondering if I could cut the tailgate below the wiper motor and make a storage box or two like I have seen on other series Cruisers. I believe the frame of the storage box would serve to reinforce the tailgate where it was cut away, but I could be mistaken.