As far as I know only Tacoma LB models have the glued hinge.
Makes sense. I was just thinking that this will already be enough work without you having to backtrack.
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I did post up a HQ News post about the tour, and hopefully between me reaching out to those I am not already in contact with and people being able to contact me easily as well I can get everyone sorted out.
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Will you be doing front and rear tube replacements on this tour as well?
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The front is warrantied with excessive rusting and spillage of contents and the rear is warrantied if the sliding pins no longer work or have a significant amount of resistance. As this is a regular production item they can only be warrantied as such until we have enough stock to possibly just change them out. But yes I will have them on the tour with extra seals, gaskets, latches, hardware etc.
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The P.I.T. will be a memorable period in GFC history. 
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I truly hope so, and in a good and enjoyable way for everyone involved.
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I have a 3rd gen long bed, so it might have a glued hinge?
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This is great news. I hope it’s a huge success. Sounds like you’re doing it the right way! I’ll drop you a note soon so I can get on the PNW tour. Being in Canada it’s a bit of a pain because I assume you won’t want the hassle of crossing the border.
Good luck and Merry Christmas!
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It should yes, I am not at the shop today but I can check that out for you.
@Mike_GFCUSA, can you elaborate further on going rivetless on only long beds? What is the benefit of going rivetless? Does this mean that long beds that have rivets are at a disadvantage in the future? Is this more of an upgrade like one tent material to another or is there a defect in design? Basically for those of us with a long bed that have rivets is there something we should be worried about?
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Couldn’t they just reshape the top bar in the frame? Like a DOM square tube?
I am sure Wiley could specify why we chose that particular model but so far we have not seen a benefit to it in terms of customer performance. I have one of the original long bed campers and it is riveted and have had zero issues (personally I like the look) and Wiley has the original long bed rivet-less campers and has also had no issues. You should have nothing to worry about over your SB brethren as the long bed Tacoma camper has by no means the longest or heaviest/longest panel.
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I replaced my hinge with a new one, process was extremely quick. I got it done in about an hour. I wouldn’t mind changing these things out yearly if I could readily get them for a good price. The hinge came pre-drilled which was awesome, that totally made the difference.
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In time, I wonder if we’ll see hinge replacement become an infrequent maintenance item. If the new arrangement can be counted on for a minimum of five years of use, I’d be happy replacing them at that interval.
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If there’s a possibility of the hinge breaking every 5 years then I wouldn’t be comfortable going on a long trip without spares. There remains the possibility of a failure at an awkward time such as on the highway, at a rest stop at 1 AM or in a bad storm. I still think some sort of safety strap which would prevent the door from falling off completely would be wise.
You must take some long trips!
I meant that an expected service life of five years doesn’t sound bad to me, as in there would be no reason to expect failure within a five year period. It’d be swell if they could be counted on to last much longer, but a solid five years or so wouldn’t be so bad.
I’m not sure how a retention system would work without complicating the normal operation of the doors. A loose panel flailing around on the end of a strap doesn’t seem like much of an improvement.
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If I’m not mistaken, replacement of the hinges for newer units with the sealant is much more of a hassle. Am I wrong about this? Do you have to peal them off the sealant and then reapply sealant?
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I should’ve said some sort of positive, fail safe connection like my aforementioned small hinge at both ends of the door. Of course the worst case paranoid scenario would be the door flying off on the freeway and going through someone’s windshield. I’d much rather have the panel flailing around than popping off completely. It would give you time to pull over and duct tape it into place.
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Mine was easy on one side, about 10 minutes as well for that portion.
The other side though, don’t know if they really just got everything right or they used more sealant or something, but it was between 30-45 minutes to get everything cut away and ready for the new hinge.
I thought it was going to be easy given the ease of which I did the first side, but nope.
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