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I'm sure not many here have seen a cargo cover for the SA. They seem to be
more common down under but even there they look different than the one I had.
You see when I first bought my car out of college, it had a cargoe cover that
draped over an installed rail above the area where the floor starts for the back
cargo area. It snapped in using snaps on the floor, rail, and the rear. It also had
elastic hooks that fastened it to the hatch so it opened when the hatch opened.
It was very 80s and I always liked it.
In 2007 I moved to NC and realized I lost it in the move. For 9 years I have been
on the look out for one of these covers. I couldn't even post a picture of what I
was looking for, I've never seen any and I didn't have any. Then I got a visitor
message from someone on the site asking if I was interested in a cover.
Imagine my surprise. User mazdamikes sent me this vistor message:
mazdamikes
Awhile back weren't you looking for a soft cargo cover for a 1st gen? I believe I have one just need a picture if you have one
We got on email and traded phone contacts and he sent me this picture of the
cover:
I saw that picture and I recognized exactly what it was. It looked in amazing
shape and Mike is asking if I want it, you bet! It took a few weeks because of the
holidays (tday) but we struck a deal and he shipped it to me. This is what the
rotary community is all about. Out of the blue Mike had somehow heard I was
looking for this. We may have met at an OGTA meet or DGRR, neither of us could
remember any details. What matters is Mike knew I was looking for this and
offered it to me before going public with it. Thank you Mike!
Now that I had the cover in my hands, it spawned not only a project to
rejuvenate the cover and remount it in my car but also made me repaint the
rear plastic trim. Well you can't have a cover this nice looking and
then have bleached white/gray black trim under it, now can you. Ah the life of
an SA owner. The rolling restoration never ends.
So looking at the cover I could see it needed some work to look like new. The
snaps in areas where kind of corroded and had lost their shine, the hooks on the
elastic fasteners were also pretty rusty as well. The cover had hard plastic
reinforement inserted on the wings and across the rear whcih had crumbled into
a pile of plastic shards in the cover, I could feel them in there. The back of the
cover was the canvas backing of the vinyl that made up the cover and it was
various shades of brown and green, likely sun and moisture damage from being
stored for years. So I had my work cut out for me.
These are some of the pics I have showing the cover before I attacked it.
The hooks and cords to attach to the hatch glass.
The underside of the cover.
The next post I will go through the details of restoring the cover.
First I cleaned the cover with warm soapy water on the bottom side and covered it
with Goop hand cleaner on the top side. I used a soft bristle brush and some
water to scrub and rinse both sides. Then let it dry for a week or so in my garage
while I collected what I needed to do the rest.
I decided I would replace all the snaps and got 2 of these snap kits at Lowes
that are meant for repairing boat covers and such. It contains tools to install the
female part of the snap in the canvas and a male snap piece with a sheet metal
screw to allow for easy installation. These are almost identical as the old ones
I removed from my car when I realized I had lost the cover.
I also got some stainless steel S hooks of the right size to replace the 3 hooks
at the rear and I bought 2 cans of Duplicolor flat black vinyl paint to use on the
bottom side. To fix the crumbled plastic reinforcement in the cover I picked up
a sheet of plastic ceiling tile at Lowes.
Heres the bottom side painted with the flat black. Makes a world of difference and
will look nice when the hatch is opened. I had replaced the snaps at this poing as well.
Doing the snaps
Slit open the wings and dumped out what was left of the reinforcing plastic.
I cut out the plastic sheet to fit the wings and inserted it into the wings using the
slit I cut to empty it. I then slipped some duct tape upsidedown under slit to
keep it closed. A more permanent solution will be to use some iron-on patches from
a sewing store but I wasn't thrilled with the way the platsic worked out and will
be replacing it with some thick vinyl sheet which won't crack or crumble when
bent.
Next I took a look at the rear hatch attachment hooks and elastic bands.
Each wing has an imbedded aluminium tube that had a long elastic cord that ran
the length of the tube imbedded in the wing. These were fastened by being sewn
into the back edgd of the wing as part of the assembly. Mr. Murphy struck and
made these old elastic cords break loose. So I pulled the tubes out and cut the
cords to a short length of good cord. I then crimped a loop on one end and
inserted it into the tube and achored it with a screw run through the width of the
tube. I then reinserted the tubes into the wings and replaced the 3 hooks with
new stainless steel (this is the center hook):
Ok, cleaned both sides and painted bottom of cover, replaced snaps, restored
wing reinforcment, restored attaching cords and hooks. All thats left is
installation.
This cover and my old cover differed slightly in the number of mount snaps
on the bar and on the lower valance that drapped over the front of the bar.
Original cover had 2 snaps on the bar and only 3 on the lower valance. This
cover has 3 on the bar and 7 on the lower valance. The rear snaps were the
same (oneon the end of each wing) but didn't line up exactly where the old
holes were.
So I got my drilled and proceeded to install all 12 snaps in the car. While doing
this there was a lot of installing/deinstalling the cover to make sure I had good
snap placement and tension once it was all installed.
Theres a bit of glass glare but this is the installed cover
Heres a picture from the inside driver side door
And when its opened
I know the picture are kind of poor but I'll get some better ones later with a real
camera instead of my cell phone.
Of course its not complete. I want to redo the wings and rear reinforcement and
I want to hit it with some pledge polish to make the vinyl shine like new.
Most of all I want to thank Mike for contacting me and making this possible.
What an awesome story and restoration job. I have never heard of the cargo cover let alone seen one. Seems to be part unicorn, and yours looks great. I assume it was a dealer option?
I too appreciate that this forum is a great place with lots of people willing to help each other out. I have a funny way of explaining it to people - when I first got my 79 from my Dad's barn, I had done a ton of research on here and dove in getting it road worthy and started a build thread. I was contacted by a forum member that was local to me and I tell people "I met a guy online"...
congrats on the Find t_g_. Always fun when some rare bit get rediscovered - and bought! Maybe its my Browser, but unfortunately all your photos are just: [?] - so can't see your craftsmanship.
Presuming it is the US-aftermarket one you are describing? (red car photos) then even more kudos to your restoration. I recall these were, ah, "complex" (?) in their design! Pity Mazda USA didn't insist the factory make their version available here (green car shot). The standard-style roller type seems MUCH simpler and arguably more elegant in execution? I had one shipped over from the UK (yes, the NON-North AM FBs came standard with these), and have yet to actually mount the damn thing. Fun fact: if you look closely at the forward/leading surface of the hatch side-covers, over the wheel wells, you can see the impression where the plastic is "popped-out" to allow the rear seat-back retainer brackets to mount (the threaded holes are in the rear suspension metal underneath). It was to the rear seat-back that the OE cover roll is mounted. Of course, this lack of a rear seat in our Market made this style cover installation ....problematic.
Well done.
Thanks for sharing the interesting story and a great how to write up. I was just thinking about a cover, as I live in NJ and target practice a lot. Our laws are tricky, so it is best that my items are out of sight ( not to mention out of reach of the driver).
Using your information, possibly I can now have a cover made?
PS, I have never seen any cover for an RX before today!
I thought you all would appreciate the rarity of the cover. Stu thanks for the pics, I couldn't
even find one all these years as I went about looking for it. I had seen the OEM rollup and the
hard Aussie covers but never this one.
I bought the car as a 3 year old used vehicle and this cover was installed I assume by the
dealer. At the time I didn't realize the rarity of it but it was always useful for hiding cargo
in the car.
If anyone wants measurements or a tracing of the cover let me know via PM and we can work it
out. Anyone boat cover or convertible roof fabricator could probably reproduce this easily.
I had one of those soft covers on my LE that I recently sold. It was quite a cool option.
Before buying the LE I had never seen one let alone even knew they where available.
I guess it is one of those unicorn parts I can say I have or have had.
It appears that this was not a USA option. Is that correct? If it was available outside the USA was it a factory option or a dealer installed option?
Do you think this would be difficult to make if a template was available? There are places that sell black automotive vinyl in various widths for a very reasonable price. I bet an automotive interior shop could create one if a template was available. I am not sure how expensive it would be, but probably 100 plus materials, maybe more. Like I said earlier, I think this is a great option to have!!
It appears that this was not a USA option. Is that correct? If it was available outside the USA was it a factory option or a dealer installed option?
Do you think this would be difficult to make if a template was available? There are places that sell black automotive vinyl in various widths for a very reasonable price. I bet an automotive interior shop could create one if a template was available. I am not sure how expensive it would be, but probably 100 plus materials, maybe more. Like I said earlier, I think this is a great option to have!!
Rich
I'm pretty sure it was an aftermarket dealer installed add on.
Like I said, I'm willing to trace it or whatever so someone can duplicate it. I could
easily do it on a large piece of brown craft paper using a sharpie. I'd have to get
a roll of craft paper wide enough.
Thats awesome! When I purchased my L.E. it came with the cargo bar/buttons still in the vehicle. I brought up the fact that it was missing the cover and I was in search of one. No one believed me that it existed until I found an old Mazda catalog showing the cover in a fully optioned L.E. Good to finally see one out there!
Thats awesome! When I purchased my L.E. it came with the cargo bar/buttons still in the vehicle. I brought up the fact that it was missing the cover and I was in search of one. No one believed me that it existed until I found an old Mazda catalog showing the cover in a fully optioned L.E. Good to finally see one out there!
I'd love to see the catalog and any info on the covers. Based on my experience this
cover I just got is different from the one I had in the number of snaps to mount it
and the way the hooks and reinforcements on the middle cover part.
Is it a catalog already up on foxed.ca? Would you be willing to put it up there?
I noticed that from the pictures. Your cover has far more snaps than the bar that came with my car. I just recently went through a move but I will try to locate it and post it with a pic of my hatch bar.
I noticed that from the pictures. Your cover has far more snaps than the bar that came with my car. I just recently went through a move but I will try to locate it and post it with a pic of my hatch bar.
A move? Nooooo! Thats how I lost mine 9 years ago. LOL Be careful and don't lose it.
TG, mine never came with the cover unfortunately just the bar. I did find the accessory catalog however and the one it shows looks remarkably like yours yet my bar still only contains 2 snaps. Anyway hope these work!
Very cool brochure. It verifies that these were a dealer addon option along with louvers,
package bars, etc.
Your bar looks exactly like mine. I took some steel wool to it to clean it up and make it shinier
a few years ago.
Its interesting how many folks are coming forward and have or had this setup. Its not one
you run into very often. Would love to see pics of everyones covers.
01-13-17, 01:52 PM
