Thoughts on my Baja's broken read wind scoop

General talk about the Subaru Baja.

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Vega
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Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2021 7:05 am

Thoughts on my Baja's broken read wind scoop

Post by Vega »

Hi there everyone,
I was angling something into my Baja and completely came down on the "no step" wind scoop in the back of my Baja. I'm so bummed. I was wondering if you all knew where I could find a replacement? I was thinking I would taking it off and try some JB Weld first. I cannot seem to find what the piece is actually called. I haven't figured out how to add pictures to this posting forum either, but they might be on here as attachments. The piece is the back plastic thing between the two chrome towers that says Baja and no step held on with maybe 4 screws.
Thank you for any help!
Attachments
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Reddog
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Re: Thoughts on my Baja's broken read wind scoop

Post by Reddog »

That was part of the TONNEAU Cover, which looks like the back part of the cover has been removed.

The cover is way long time ago not available.

Here is a pic from 06 accessories brochure

Sorry

cover.jpg
cover.jpg (50.29 KiB) Viewed 1402 times
Vega
Scoobytruck Lurker
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2021 7:05 am

Re: Thoughts on my Baja's broken read wind scoop

Post by Vega »

Thank you. That is so helpful. I did speak to my awesome mechanics and we talked about decrease of the wind resistance if I was to put a Tonneau on. I was able to remove it earlier today; then of course I thought, I should wash and wax the Baja. Based on when you responded, that's what I was out there doing. :)
SoobyToo58
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Location: South East PA

Re: Thoughts on my Baja's broken read wind scoop

Post by SoobyToo58 »

Vega wrote: Fri Aug 13, 2021 8:48 pm Thank you. That is so helpful. I did speak to my awesome mechanics and we talked about decrease of the wind resistance if I was to put a Tonneau on. I was able to remove it earlier today; then of course I thought, I should wash and wax the Baja. Based on when you responded, that's what I was out there doing. :)
I have one of the Baja Tonneau covers in storage somewhere but I took it off a while ago when I got a SnugLid. It was never meant to be totally water tight. The front half that you have is made of thin hard plastic that's not too flexible and does crack easily just like yours did, if you drop something on it. Although it may look cool, I seriously doubt if it affords the vehicle any streamlining advantage at all. The rear half which is missing on yours might give a bit of streamlining advantage but it was made of heavy duty vinyl sheet and was problematic for other reasons.
As part of its design, it had long metal pieces that were screwed onto the top plastic edges of the sides of the bed and on top of the tailgate which required drilling holes into the top of those plastic pieces. If you decided later on to completely remove the whole cover and all of its components you were left with those drilled holes in those top edge bed trim pieces for water to get into your body panels. The vinyl cover wass stretch fitted onto the vehicle and had to be stretched when opening or closing it so it tended to rip and fray. In the summer heat it tended to sag and collect rainwater. I found it to be a pain in the neck.
If you really want to repair yours I'd say your best options are using a Hot Stapler, a Plastic Gun Welder & Plastic Weld Sticks and a Plastic Welder. The Hot Stapler comes with thin metal staples in different shapes which it heats up and you embed them in the plastic to hold to cracked pieces together. For appearance you would install the staples from underneath the cover so you can't see them on the exposed top.
The Hot Stapler itself is like a soldering iron with two tips where you would attach a staple. (See the first photo which I took off of an eBay listing.) You attach a staple to it and press the button. When the staple heats up you hold the two plastic pieces to be stapled tightly together and push the staple into the plastic. It melts the plastic and gets embedded into it. (Don't push it too deep or it will melt the plastic all the way through and come out the other side of the plastic and it will look like hell.) You release the button, hold the Hot Stapler perfectly still and wait a few seconds for the plastic to cool and harden and then remove the Hot Stapler leaving the staple embedded in the plastic. You then clip off the extended tips of the staple and maybe grind off the stubs with a Dremel or something like that.
To really get a good strong repair you might actually start the whole repair by using Plastic Welding Rods with a Plastic Gun Welder as a first step BEFORE you install the staples to kind of glue or cement the two pieces together. First clean the plastic very well, especially the edges to be glued to each other. (See the second eBay photo.)
Plastic Welding Rods or Glue Sticks PLUS the Hot Staples would make the strongest repair. Using just one or the other isn't that strong and the repair will probably fail sooner rather than later if you don't use both.
To smooth out the melted plastic around the embedded staples you would use a Plastic Welder. This is basically like a soldering iron with a special tip on it. (See the third eBay photo.) After the staples are installed they are still kind of exposed so using the Plastic Welder to push the surrounding plastic to cover over the exposed staples would make the connection and repair even stronger.
Lastly, you can use one of those pointed Exacto knives to carefully trim any unsightly extruded exposed extra plastic from the top of the cover along with carefully using small pieces of 80 grit sandpaper to kind of mimic the surface texture of the top of the plastic cover. It wont look perfect but it will look decent!
I've done this exact repair on my Baja Tonneau cover and I repair other plastic stuff all the time and it works pretty well although it will be noticeable. You wont be able to get it cosmetically perfect. If you pay attention to the details that I explained here and take your time and put some thought into it you can make a fairly decent looking but strong repair.
... Or, you can sell it on eBay. I'm sure there's someone out there who only has the Back parts and needs the Front.
If you repair it. let me know how it went along with some photos.
Good Luck!
Attachments
Hot Stapler
Hot Stapler
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Plastic Gun Welder & Plastic Weld Sticks
Plastic Gun Welder & Plastic Weld Sticks
AA2.jpg (99.77 KiB) Viewed 1349 times
Plastic Welder
Plastic Welder
AA3.jpg (145.55 KiB) Viewed 1349 times
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