torque

I was really sick of bottles rolling around the floor of my car, sagging the back of the seat pocket or dropping from the seat. As toyota did'nt bother putting one in the 95-96 camry, I had to work out a way of doing it myself. Here's what I came up with. First I found a suitable after market drink holder, I got mine from Super Cheap, its by "Touring Items - Type S" drink holder. its good for this application as it has a sliding brace on the bottom to tilt it vertical. remove any mounting clips from the back of the cup holder but keep the sliding brace on the bottom in place. Next, slide your passenger seat all the way forward, (I mounted it on the passenger side of the center console to keep away from my legs). This way you will see where to mount it so it wont stop the seat in the future. slide the seat back all the way to give yourself more room. position the cup holder where you want it but make sure the sliding brace is still on the plastic of the console & not resting on the carpet. With a texta, mark 2 points thru the back holes in the cup holder on to the center console plastic carefully. Mark them horizontally & at the outside edge of each hole. take away cup holder & check texta marks are even on the horizontal plane. Now for the next bit you will need a flat head screw driver about 3-4mm width, you will also need a butane torch or lighter, somthing with an intense gas flame. Heat up the tip of the screw driver just a little hot at first to make a guide mark if you like, then very hot, not glowing red, but very very hot. Now, very carefully. plunge the hot tip of the screw driver horizontally into the mark on the console. if you take your time & do it carefully, you will end up with a neat hole just the size of the screw driver tip. Reheat before doing second hole. Gently trim excess plastic away with a stanley knife. Then the tricky bit. Get some fairly long 3-4mm wide cable ties, good quality ov course. Start from a down ward angle, & insert the cable ties thru the holes you just made, push them thru to the bottom of the side of the console. you will have to slide your fingers up under the plastic of the console from the side, you may need long nose plyers. they should now be sticking into the holes with their loops up & the points peeking out from the side of the console above the carpet. Make sure you have the sliding brace set to keep your drink upright, attach drink holder with cable ties thru the holes on the back of the drink holder. secure loosely to check fit then tighten up for finish. Now you can have refreshment at hand & out of the way at the same time. Cheers, Brentan, Torque.

I sometimes need to travel around with a lot of stuff in the boot when I go camping. Here's how I solved the problem of stuff sliding around in corners or over rough road. Firstly fold down back seats, then take a measurement at the top where the seat clips are, the width of the top. then measure the bottom where the seat folds. they will be 2 different measurements. next, measure the height from seat fold to about 2-3cm above the seat clips. secondly, cut out shape in 5-10mil thick ply wood. I used 8mm. then place in car to make marks for notches to go around seat clips. cut out notches for seat clips. Here were my measurements to use as a guide, you should still measure your own car. total length of the top is 111cm. total length of bottom edge is 104cm. total length of each side is 37cm. for the notches, the horizontal is 6cm. the vertical is 3cm. Check fit. it should be pretty snug but it wont matter when the seat is up & the straps are full. Paint or carpet as desired. A Matt black spray will cover both sides and dry fast. Thirdly, position in car & put seats up. Now open the boot, you should see the ply from the inside of the boot. Position all the items you want to strap down together to check fit. once all are in position, remove one at a time, and with a pencil, mark where you will mount the straps. Do to both sides of each item. I had 3 items so I made 6 marks. fold down back seats, now remove ply from car. forth. I got some 2 inch wide elastic in black from a haberdasher. lightly stretch the elastic around the item you wish to secure and cut. do each one seperately. Then staple elastic to ply at the height that suits the item. Place back in behind rear seats, go to boot, secure your crap. Easy. Feel free to contact me for any help for this device. Hope this is of help. Happy Motoring, Brentan, Torque.

Been finding this site very useful. thanx for all the tips, hope I can return the favors. Here's some photos ov my Jaloppe. Torque.

G'day, nice to find this site & some toyota lovers. I've already found out heaps of stuff I wanted to know from this site. I hope to be able to help others out as well. Cheers, Torque.