The Nissan Path

finally got around to doing it.

so i purchased this vinyl roller shade from home depot a few months ago:
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R ... =203233421

and in case that url doesn't work any more, here's the other info:
Model # 37-3011-02 Internet # 100523447 Store SKU # 635221
55-1/4 in. x 78 in. Vinyl Roller Shade

and after looking it up they seem to have a 12mil version too. dang it i would have liked a little bit thicker one...oh well. the 6mil version i have is pretty much the same thing as a really thin shower liner.

*edit- totally go with the 12mil, don't get the 6mil. the 12mil is 100x better. the 6mil will pull tighter across the cargo area, but it's so flimsy it doesn't stand up to highway speeds with the windows down. the 12mil seems to hold up very well even at 80mph with the windows down and sunroof open.


you'll also need packages of:
2x #4x40x1/2" machine screws - round head combo
1x #6 lock washer
1x inside roller shade mount (as opposed to outside, they're sold next to the rollers if you to a store to buy them)
1x 3/4in x 48in wooden dowel


if i would have had all of this stuff on hand instead of having to go back and forth about 3 times to home depot, i think it would have taken about 30 minutes to install.


anyway, on with the show

the cargo area we all love before:




i reclined the 2nd row seats as far as they would go and eyeballed where the roller should sit. then took the mounts and marked where the screw holes should be. i took out the latch and the screw that's behind where i think the cargo shade was probably planned to go. i pulled the bottom panel out enough so i could get my hands barely back there. i used a drill bit that was just slightly bigger than the screw so it would slide right through. i made sure to pull the seat belt out of the way when i did the drilling. i pushed the screw in from the back with a lock washer on it. in this shot i was using 1/4 screws which i found out would make the mounts just a little too far out for the roller to catch.





same thing for the other side. i didn't realize that when i was checking the fit of the roller that i marked the crap out of the other side. oops.
*edit - swap the sides of these two mounts, and flip the 'flat' head mount so the opening is towards the front of the car like this:




with roller installed




and done. the plastic pull thing thats at the bottom (if this were mounted on a window like it's meant for) was in no way strong enough to support enough tension or weight in this application, so i got the wooden dowel. width wise it also fits perfectly in the holes/slot at the back of the cargo area. i also had to cut part of the roller down so it would fit when it gets skinny at the rear.






all rolled up. it does just barely touch the rear seats when there's no tension on the roller, but when you're pulling it out or rolling it up it doesn't seem to cause a problem. yrmv






it does leave a small gap towards the back. i'm not sure how or if i'm going to tackle this. however i'm not too concerned about it as the whole point of putting this in is so i can remove the 3rd row and put a floor level sub box and storage back there.





i have not taken it for a windows down highway speed test yet. i did follow the instructions on the roller for basically charging the spring mechanism so you'd have more tension when you don't have it rolled out all the way. i'm also concerned about where i made the cuts with the scissors, i bet with the highway test and/or over time that will probably start to rip. also i did put a very small rip in it when i used a pair of needlenose pliers to rip off the tags and such from the roller, so be -very- careful when you're removing the stuff that keeps the roller rolled up.


it does take a little finesse to get the roller to keep tension while it's in the holes. basically you just pull pretty slow, angle the dowel and put the right side in first then put the other side in and you should have some pretty good tension on it.


i'll update later once i get it on the road with the windows down.

doctahjones wrote:it does leave a small gap towards the back. i'm not sure how or if i'm going to tackle this. however i'm not too concerned about it as the whole point of putting this in is so i can remove the 3rd row and put a floor level sub box and storage back there.

Interesting approach & not bad at all. I was planning on doing the same, but using an actual cargo cover from an Xterra and fabricating mounts for it. Just haven't found the time and/or desire to do it yet.

One thing you could do is attach to eye hooks equally spaced along the length of the dowel, then install a couple of hooks or whatever on the back door (preferably one of those round hooks that you can slide to make a complete circle). All you'd have to do to unhook/hook it is to remember to open the glass hatch first for access.

I glanced at the photo showing the scratches before I read what you wrote-cracked me up, as I've done that a few times myself.

yeah, but then i'd have to -remember- to open the glass first. i'm not real good at remembering things (like turning my amp off because the remote lead is switched off the battery since i forgot to grab the remote lead off the factory sub)...

does the xterra cover fit in those factory 'holes' that are covered up that are behind the 2nd row?

doctahjones wrote: does the xterra cover fit in those factory 'holes' that are covered up that are behind the 2nd row?

No, some sort of mount would have to be fabricated, hence my lack of enthusiasm. I know it can be done, but it would be a bit of work.

wellll, might have a problem.

so i took it out for a short highway test - all windows all the way down and sunroof open.

up to 60mph it did just fine. at 70 it started to 'bubble' a little. wasn't real bad but it definitely took out alot of the tension. at 80 it was really bubbling up and seems to have probably unrolled a little.

so i stopped, put 2 more loads of tension in the spring and then drove back. putting a load of tension means you unroll it, take it off the mount, hand roll it back up, then remount. after stopping and putting those 2 more on, i think i had a total of 4-5 loads on it. and each load was unrolling it the length of the cargo area.

this time it was pretty solid even up to 90mph. it was bubbling up a little, but it seemed to keep tension after i stopped.

each leg was probably about 5min worth of highway.


so then we get to the problem. i went to the auto show today and took the dart train. that means my car was parked out in the sun and "heat" (only 85F outside, so it's no where near hot yet) for 3-4 hours.

when i got back to my car i looked in the back and it basically looked like the vinyl had melted and stretched or something. however when i got home and popped the back it seems the roll popped out of it's holder. so i rolled it back up and retensioned the spring. i was unrolling it and heard a "TWANG" and then no tension.



so i'm not sure if it was that i wound too much tension on it, it got too hot inside the car (sunroof was cracked, totally guessing was probably 90-95F inside), or a combination of both.

i'll play with this one a little more and see if i can get it to hold tension, otherwise i'll guess i'll buy one more (they're only like ~$20) and make sure i don't put more than like 3 loads of tension on it and continue testing.

i'll also need to figure out a way to keep the roller in the mount. the way it's currently mounted, you pop it in the mount from the rear. i didn't really think about it at the time, but i probably should have installed the mounts horizontally instead of vertically. the way the mount is, it -could- pop out if there's tension there. but what i think i'll do so i don't have to re-drill some holes is just switch the mount sides. this will make it harder to mount/unmount the roller, but i don't plan on doing that very often.

NVSteve wrote:
Interesting approach & not bad at all. I was planning on doing the same, but using an actual cargo cover from an Xterra and fabricating mounts for it. Just haven't found the time and/or desire to do it yet.

so here's a question...after glancing at the xterra cargo cover online, it doesn't look like it's that long...as in it might not cover the whole/most of the cargo area? if you already have one of the xterra covers, do you know how long it extends to?

Vinyl may not be the best material choice for this application... Though I'm unsure as to what else you can get off the shelf...

Not sure on the X option, but it would make sense that its shorter.

Crappy that this didn't work out...

t

doctahjones wrote: so here's a question...after glancing at the xterra cargo cover online, it doesn't look like it's that long...as in it might not cover the whole/most of the cargo area? if you already have one of the xterra covers, do you know how long it extends to?

I do happen to have the Xterra cover, but I haven't put it in to check for clearances. I know someone else on this forum had one & said that it is long enough, but returned it before realizing he could have fabbed a mount. I'll see if I can remember to have a look at it this weekend for you.

I ended up making one out of fabric that connects to the tiedown points, although I have yet to use it. Of course I can't find that specific thread, but I did find another where we discussed a cargo cover:

http://www.thenissanpath.com/viewtopic. ... c&start=15

disallow wrote:Vinyl may not be the best material choice for this application... Though I'm unsure as to what else you can get off the shelf...

Not sure on the X option, but it would make sense that its shorter.

Crappy that this didn't work out...

t

well the vinyl itself isn't all -that- bad. it's really just the roller mechanism, if that were more 'heavy duty' then i think this would hold up better.

however, seeing that the xterra cover is only $59, and i live right down the road from courtesyparts i might pick one of those up in the next few days.

I did some checking today with the Xterra cover in the back of the Pathfinder. Side to side overall width is fantastic, which means only a minimal mount will have to be fabricated. If you mount it where the two existing side mounts are (the ones with the plastic covers), there will be a gap between the cover and the back of the 2nd row of seats. I didn't measure anything, but I'd guess maybe 5". The cover is also plenty long enough to extend to the rear cover holders, so no problem there. Again, I only checked the extension from the front cover mount locations. The bar that one pulls to extend the cover is wider than the rearmost mounts, so that would have to be shortened to make it fit. I only had a few minutes to mess with it, but I couldn't tell what that end bar is made of. The end caps are metal with a rubber cover. I tried twisting them to see if they would unscrew, but no luck. In short, the Xterra cover will work, but there will be some modding involved.

I was trying to do all of this by myself, which is real fun when you are working against the pull of the cover. I'm not exactly sure how much of a gap on the sides there would be, but speaking for myself, it would work for me. I'm only concerned that the majority of the rear is covered & can live with gaps.

Here are a few pics:

Passenger side-shows how close fitting it is:



Same with the driver's side:



Full view:



Side of the cover that would have to attach to a fabricated mount:



One end of the bar/puller thing:

And, just for reference, here are some pics showing the mounts in the X.

Rear bar mount:



Front mount:





I'd love to just dremel out those mounts from the X, but I think the girlfriend would be slightly pissed. If/when I tackle this, I think I'll shape a chunk of wood into the exact shape of the Xterra mount, then shape the other side to fit into the mounting location on the Pathfinder. Paint the resulting mount black and call it good. It does sound like a minor pain in the ass though.

excellent pics and info nvsteve! my biggest thing was if it would make it all the way to the back.

definitely going to pick up a cover next week and start tinkering.

so it looks like we could just take a -large- dowel to shove in the holes in the path, then route a notch and hole in it to mimmick the slot in the plastic...

NVSteve wrote: I'd love to just dremel out those mounts from the X, but I think the girlfriend would be slightly pissed. If/when I tackle this, I think I'll shape a chunk of wood into the exact shape of the Xterra mount, then shape the other side to fit into the mounting location on the Pathfinder. Paint the resulting mount black and call it good. It does sound like a minor pain in the ass though.

er, yeah just saw this part. that wood + paint is exactly what i'm thinking....maybe some double sided tape for the ends so it will 'stick' in the holes if you take the cover off.

doctahjones wrote: er, yeah just saw this part. that wood + paint is exactly what i'm thinking....maybe some double sided tape for the ends so it will 'stick' in the holes if you take the cover off.

The side mounts on the Pathfinder are recessed a bit. I haven't popped the cover off one in some time, so I can't remember exactly what it looks like. I do remember that there is an even deeper square recess in the center of the mount recess. I'm hoping there will be a hole for a bolt, because then we could just bolt the wood down and it would be extremely OEM in look. Lowe's and home depot sell short pieces of 4x4" posts that would work. They also have some fairly large round stock, but I need to take measurements before I'd know if they have something that will be large enough.

I'm looking forward to what you can come up with. I can easily see myself spending the entire day sanding, chiseling & dremeling a chunk of wood. My first priority is duralining the rain channels on the roof. Along those lines, I would probably use a can of finer textured bedliner to spray on the wood mounts. That way, it would more closely match the interior plastic & it would look more like it belonged. I have no artistic ability whatsoever, which means my wooden mount will probably not be absolutely perfectly shaped, and a coat of paint won't be able to hide that.

NVSteve wrote:
The side mounts on the Pathfinder are recessed a bit. I haven't popped the cover off one in some time, so I can't remember exactly what it looks like. I do remember that there is an even deeper square recess in the center of the mount recess. I'm hoping there will be a hole for a bolt, because then we could just bolt the wood down and it would be extremely OEM in look. Lowe's and home depot sell short pieces of 4x4" posts that would work. They also have some fairly large round stock, but I need to take measurements before I'd know if they have something that will be large enough.

I'm looking forward to what you can come up with. I can easily see myself spending the entire day sanding, chiseling & dremeling a chunk of wood. My first priority is duralining the rain channels on the roof. Along those lines, I would probably use a can of finer textured bedliner to spray on the wood mounts. That way, it would more closely match the interior plastic & it would look more like it belonged. I have no artistic ability whatsoever, which means my wooden mount will probably not be absolutely perfectly shaped, and a coat of paint won't be able to hide that.

here's what it looks like with the cover off. there is one bolt in there. and it's more square that round with the cover off....hummm