Are you up for making your own DIY tonneau cover? You have just landed on the right page! But first, you need to have a clear perception of what it is that you are going to make.
While trying to make your wood truck bed look better, it is very important to make the necessary provision for the tools required. When you have the right tools in place, it makes the process easier and faster.
The tools and other supplies you need to make the whole process turn out successful is never far away from you.
Without any stress, you can get your hands on them. Also, these tools can be purchased at a pocket-friendly price.
Contents
Things You Need to Make a Homemade DIY Tonneau Cover with Wood or Plywood
The following are what you need for this exercise. Make sure you put them in place:
01. You need a tape measure
A tape measure is very important to get the right measurement of the width and height of your truck bed.
While doing this, make sure you initiate the measurement right from the bulkhead of where the rear compartment is located to the tailgate. Once you follow this basic step, it becomes very easy to determine the bed length of your truck.
02. Get your preferred choice of plywood
You are free to decide on the type of plywood you want. It is your choice to make. No matter what your choice of purchase is, make sure it is of the best quality.
Likewise, you don’t need to choose the size of your plywood based on the measurement taken for your truck bed in terms of width and height.
03. You need some screws
The job of this tool is to connect the wood truck bed Tonneau to the rear compartment at the end of the task.
04. The need for Vinyl Fabric should be considered
Vinyl fabric comes at different classes and prices. The quality of the fabric you go for is solely dependent on what you want in your design. The purpose of vinyl fabric is to protect and cover the truck bed Tonneau.
05. Wood for frame
The need for wood is to come up with the frames for your truck bed Tonneau cover design. You will need about 6 pieces of the 1 by 2 wood type.
06. A table saw is very important
This tool can either be bought or borrowed. If you are looking for where and how to cut down the cost of the tools needed for this design, you may decide to borrow a table saw from your neighbors instead of investing in a new one.
Other tools that you need are a stapler, a drill, a piece of hinges like the one used for piano, Black paint, contact adhesive, and a multipurpose spray adhesive.
Steps on How to Make Homemade Truck Bed Cover
The process of coming up with a wood truck bed Tonneau cover of your choice is never a difficult task to accomplish. If you can carefully follow the below steps, every other thing is guaranteed to fall in place.
First Step
Ensure you come up with a structure for the frame: This is the first step to take while coming up with your desired design.
To start with, reach out for the 1 by 2 wood you already have in place and get it divided into different sizes to come up with the structure of the frames for your truck bed.
You need two frames for your truck bed Tonneau cover. While cutting the wood into different sizes, make sure you put the measurement of the length, width, and height you had initially taken into consideration.
The two frames created, one of them must be attached or connected to the trunk while the other frame must be used for the part that supports the lifting of the bed cover.
Importantly, the job of these two frames is to connect the wood truck bed to the body of your truck.
Second Step
The plywood must be connected to the frames: The two sheets of plywood are expected to be attached to the two frames created in step one.
Once you have the plywood divided, make sure you attach them to the two frames. For best result, ensure that the plywood extends beyond the bedsides of the truck, and they must as well align with the shape of your truck.
In addition to this, where the two frames connect, ensure they do not overlap.
Third Step
Coat it: This step, you may find it necessary or not. You may decide to paint the plywood and the frames with paint and you may decide not to. On most occasions, the paint used is black.
The purpose of using black paint is to eradicate the possible moisture build-up. If you want your wood bed Tonneau cover to last for a very long time, you may need to coat it with black paint.
Fourth Step
The Vinyl fabric: Know why you need it: Once you have applied both the contact and spray adhesive on the frames and plywood, the next thing is to wrap these components with vinyl fabric.
At the backside of the vinyl fabric, make use of your stapler to hold the two ends together.
Fifth Step
Your wood truck bed Tonneau cover is now ready for use: once you are satisfied with the outcome of your design, you can now fix it on your truck using screws.
While making use of screws on the bed cover, ensure you are very careful with the process to prevent unnecessary scratch on the surface. While attempting to connect it to the rear compartment, take it easy.
To put the necessary measures in place and to avoid possible damage because of rainfall or other adverse weather condition, you can make use of a rubber seal to block those areas where water can flow through.
Once you have successfully installed your wood truck bed Tonneau cover, you can hit the road. Enjoy every ride and have fun.
To make a homemade wood truck bed Tonneau cover without the help of a third party, just follow the steps above.
Also, the necessary material can be easily purchased in stores around you. You can do it yourself. You are creative, make it happen.
What is a Tonneau Cover?
Are you fond of trucks and cars that have a unique feature of open space? These kinds of trucks and vehicles can help you transport heavy packages from one place to another.
When you go into picnics and many exciting adventures outdoors, this open space can be a blessing!
Well, you cannot keep the space open for long. This is so especially when you store food, linen, and other vital stuff for your adventures.
Ultimately, you wouldn’t want your things and equipment to get wet when there is a sudden rainfall.
In the same way, you do not want your stuff to absorb all the dust that you may encounter while you are on the road.
So, how do you think could you protect your valuables from rain and dust? A tonneau cover can be the perfect answer that you would want to have.
This can help secure whatever it is that you want to store in the open space of your truck. Well, with the tonneau cover, it wouldn’t be accessible anymore.
As this can fully cover the supposed open space of your truck, your valuables could then be protected from rain and dust.
Benefits of Using Tonneau Cover
Now that you already have an idea what a tonneau cover is, it is time for you to realize what it is for.
What are the benefits that you can avail of in using a tonneau cover? Read on.
01. Transports Your Things Safely
If you plan on moving things from one place to another, a tonneau cover can help you. How? It just covers your stuff from all harms and troubles that would cause your items to perish.
You could not predict the weather in a day. What you may expect as a sunny day may turn out to be a rainy one.
When this happens, all you would ever think about is the safety of your luggage. Well, tonneau covers got your back when it comes to matters of safe transport.
02. Saves Gas
Are you keeping track of how much gas you would spend while using your truck? Well, if you want to save more of that, then you can seek the assistance of a tonneau cover.
It is time for you to realize that a tonneau cover is usually made with an impressive and efficient aerodynamic design.
This can help generate less air drag. Do you know what this means? Well, it is only that you can spend less fuel yet travel more distance! Best hack ever!
03. Increases Security
A tonneau cover can occupy the whole open area of your truck. This way, you can have increased security for your cargo.
It is not uncommon that when you travel, you can have some stopovers.
And when you are going to some places for the first time, you will not know when to take your guard down.
But with the tonneau cover, you can relax knowing that your cargo remains invisible to those who would want to mess up with you by stealing your things.
This way, you can divert your attention to something else that would be more important.
04. Reduces Mess
Are you tired of transferring things from one place to another and realizing at the destination that your neatly organized cargo has toppled over another?
Admittedly, that would not be awesome, especially if you have some unique things that you wouldn’t want to break.
If this is what you are worried about, then you should try to consider using a tonneau cover. This will help your things to be in the same position upon your arrival as they were during your departure.
Realizing the benefits of a tonneau cover is one thing; learning how to choose one is another.
You need to have a good grasp of the best kind that you can use for your truck.
All you would want to have is that which can make your cargo transport easier and less messy.
How to Choose the Best Tonneau Cover?
The first thing that you would want to do is to find out which material you would like to use for your truck.
There are many choices, some of which are the following: fiberglass, vinyl, ABS polymer, and canvas.
Each of these types of materials can help you at different levels. For starters, you can use a harder tonneau cover if you want to have optimal security for your cargo.
You can also use vinyl if you would rather have easy access to your things. It will be burdensome if you choose the one that you do not need for your truck.
Also, though, another thing that you would want to consider is your budget for the kind of tonneau cover that you want to have.
The harder ones would be more expensive than vinyl. This is one of the reasons why you should think about your budget and the kind of protection that you need for your valuables.
However, do not ever worry too much! Some ways can be way cheaper than branded ones. Continue reading to find out.
Things to Consider Before Making DIY Truck Bed Cover
You do not have to buy a tonneau cover for your truck. Why would you want to do that when you can make the cover yourself?
When you do this, you’re assured that it is of competent quality, and the expenses are kept to the minimum. So, if you may, focus on the steps that will be given to you below.
Description
You will have to accurately and adequately define the open area of your truck.
This way, you will not have to make any unnecessary or wild guesses and end up discarding what you will make for being imperfect.
So, from this time on, you can thoroughly examine the dimensions and the measurements that you would want to take into account.
Measurement
Once you have your cover, you can match its size with the open space of your truck.
However, check it out not only once or twice but even thrice!
This is to make sure that you do not concern yourself with any rejection later on when you find out that it doesn’t fit.
Style
Once you have installed the cover, you can customize it to reflect ownership on the truck and of the tonneau cover.
Stylizing the cover lets you boost the creativity in you and makes others also realize how pretty it would be if you can decorate your cover.
Have you taken down notes on these? You can try this at home anytime you want! With a Tonneau cover, you’re inevitably going to have a hassle-free ride and much safer ride.
