Like a few others on here I felt the need to retrofit the OEM wheel carrier for the second spare I carry. I know some people say, it's too complicated or expensive and so not worth it but I prefer the system to the full on steel swing away bumpers. The OEM solution is much lighter. I managed to source all the parts from Mr Akbar on the FB forums for a very reasonable price.
So yesterday I started work on the lower hinge mount. First job was to expose the bolt holes to which this lower mount fixes to.
The above photo shows the lower hinge reinforcement next to the hinge. This unbolts easily from the donor. The other bit is actually the reinforcement for the upper hinge which cannot be remove non-destructively as it is spot welded in. I don't have that bit. I robbed this photo off the internet as it was a good example.
Next up was to figure out where to drill the third hole to mount the reinforcement bracket. Fortunately Toyota left the space for it on the rear wing closing panel by the tailgate.
After offering it up and a bit of measuring i drilled a small 2mm hole to see how far off I was. It wasn't far and when I opened it out to full size the little hole went with it.
This shows the bracket in place .....
Next job was to work out where to drill the 3 holes in the bodywork through which the hinge bolts. I used a bit of gaffer tape on the bracket to mark out where the holes were. Before taking the tape off, I then marked a line on it and the bracket so that when I fitted the bracket I could see the line and align the same mark on the tape. The holes are roughly horizontal so by eye was enough to be close.
Again I used a 2mm drill and drilled through the body to leave a mark on the bracket. Tacking the bracket out then showed how far I was off. so I opened the holes out a bit .....
After refitting and opening the holes out a bit more, this was the end result, paint not yet applied ......
The size of these holes is not important. Total time ..... 2hrs. Not really very complex.
