Drifta sidewing kit instructions
Here’s some instructions to help you cut in the sidewings. The drawers will be wrapped in 3 mm MDF. This is perfect to use as a jig/ pattern . or you can use some cardboard etc. Some sidewings will be quiet straight, and won’t need to be scribed in like shown below. Depends also on how ‘neat’ you want them to be fitted. The sidewings below, for our hilux, could have been a straight panel, it doesn’t really have to be scribed in. But every vehicle is different, and below is the ‘theory’ of how to do it... hope it makes sense :) get a mate to help you, and if you have any problems, then you can blame him.
Cut the mdf roughly so it fits in place, on top of the grey brackets. It just needs to be within 10 – 30 mm.	We use a compass to scribe the shapes in. It doesn’t matter how far out the pencil line is, but about an inch is fine.
If you don’t have a compass, then even a small scrap of something will work also. This is an offcut of MDF. Just you have to try to keep it perpendicular to the sidewall.	You can also just freehand the scribing. This can sometimes be the easiest. You have plenty of MDF packaging, so if you make a mistake, you can try again.
Cut the jig out with some snips, or a jigsaw.	Check to see if it fits ok. If it’s a bit out somewhere, say 10 mm too short on a corner, then just mark it with a pencil , and write say “add 10 mm here” . then when you transfer it to the ply, you can just freehand the extra 10 mm in
Once the shape is about right, then measure both ends and write it on the jig. You need to allow at least 5 mm clearance for the carpet.	This measures say 225 mm, so make it 220.
Now sit the jig onto the ply provided. Mark both ends, in this case 160 mm and 220 mm out from one side. Sit the jig up against these marks, and then pencil in the shape. Cut it out with a jigsaw, and do a test fit.	Make sure you clearly mark which is the LHS/ RHS sidewing, and which is the TOP/ BOTTOM. If you can, router the edges, or give them a sand, to give a soft edge for the carpet to fold over. We blacked the bottom of the ply, which makes a neater job when you look underneath. Just a can of black spray paint will be fine.
We use a contact adhesive, and spray it on with a pump. You can buy a tin of contact adhesive from the hardware shop, and some people might have a pot gun and a compressor, or have a mate with one. This is the best way to put the glue on. You can use a spatula, and spread it like this, but I tried it and just made a mess. You can also buy a spray can of contact adhesive, but it needs to be heavy duty stuff. Some cans are just made for hobby uses, like gluing cardboard etc. This isn’t strong enough for the carpet. A heavy duty can would probably be the best thing to use.
You need to spray some contact adhesive on the carpet, and the ply. There is a back and front to the carpet, have a close look, it’s very hard to tell, and doesn’t really matter. Compare it to the drawers. So spray the carpet, spray the top of the ply. Give it a minute, till it’s touch dry. Then sit the ply onto the carptet like shown above. Then spray the edges, and about 50 mm in on the black side.	Once this is touch dry again, then start to fold the carpet over. Fold the easy side first. The edges you can do like this. You need to use a brand new Stanley blade. If it’s not new, it won’t cut the carpet, and tear it and make a mess. So trim the edges and fold it around. There is no golden rule on how to trim it, you just have to fold it around and work it out as you go.
Corners like this, you need to make a few cuts, and fold it over in a few different sections.	Hopefully, once you are done, it should look like this.
And sit it in place, should look like this. If it fits nicely, you’ve done well. If not , then you can blame your mate.	These are the sidewing brackets. See how they slot into the timber brackets. The sidewings simply sit on top of these. You can screw them on if you like, but really don’t need to..
Well that’s it. Thanks for your purchase of our Drifta drawers. Hope you get some good use out of them.. any dramas, let me know.. ta luke