Making a hide away license plate in a 4th genCamry:
Tools:
Dremel tool and cutting discs
Pliers
Screw drivers
hack saw
drill and good set of bits
tape measure
Materials:
Weather stripping $5
New lights $10
14 inch full extension 3 piece sliders $10
sheet metal screws $3
power window motor $10 (used)
wire, switches, etc. $10
1. Go to Home Depot or similar hardware store and buy a set of 14 inch 3 piece full extension ball bearing sliders. They should say 50lb capacity. Its overkill I know but they are the smoothest sliders out there. This is how to modify the sliders to work in a Camry;
Extend the slider all the way. You should see that it is three interlocking rails with ball bearings in between. The biggest outermost rail needs to come off. Pull off the plastic grey tab at one end and bend the big tab underneath down flat at one end and slide the middle two rails out. A bunch of ball bearings will now probably fall out along with ball bearing guides, save them. Now take the middle slider and extend it. You will see two raised tabs in the center towards one end. Use a grinder attachment on your dremel tool and grind them down flush. Now grind off one end of the middle track flat and slide the two parts out of each other. Again, more ball bearings fall out and a holder, save this. Grind the holder down so it only holds 8 sets of ball bearings. (thus it holds 16 bearings.) Grease it up and clean metal flakes off. Now take the smallest inner rail and use the grinder to cut it down a bit, 6 inches to be exact. Now cut the middle sized rail down to 12 inches. Clean all the parts of metal shavings and reassemble. Now to align it all, the ball bearings and their holder should be centered in the 12 inch rail so that 4 rows of bearings lie to each side of the 6 inch mark (middle). Now hold the bearing holder there and force the 6 inch rail into the bearing holder. You want it set so that at one end, all 8 rows of bearings ride on the 6 inch rail and at the other a few bearings might hang off but they won’t fall out because their holder holds them solidly in place. Finally, repeat previous procedure on other slider and test them out. They should glide smoothly up and down the 12 inch travel of the rail. Take a break!
2. Now that the sliders are done you need to install those crazy bastards on your trunk. Take the plate off, its 6x12 inches. The plate is gonna slide up into the trunk a little less than 6 inches which means most of it will be covered. 12 inch track means 6 inches exposed, 6 covered, see where I’m going?
3. Get a small flat blade screw driver and pop out the plate lights right above the plate. Unplug and discard.
4. Get out the dremel with the cut off wheel attachment. You need to cut two notches for the sliders right in the base of the holes where the lights used to go. Once that’s done cut a notch connecting the two big holes where the lights were so that it lies u against the bottom of the holes. Then cut another slot connecting the lights but make this one about ½ inch farther out. A piece of metal should now fall out. Now cut two small ¼ inch notches (possible bigger) to the sides as shown in the diagram below. This will allow the plate to completely clear. It should hit nothing but come damn close.
5. Mount the plate to the two sliders. Drill holes in the 6 inch inner slider rail that correspond to the mounting holes in plate. Use small counter sunk bolts reverse mounted with the nut facing out. IF THE BOLT STICKS OUT THE OTHER SIDE TOO MUCH IT WILL SNAG! Use the grinder to chop the bolt heads off. 3M double sided tape also helps mount the plate. Make sure the sliders are square to each other otherwise the assemble will bind up when mounted!
6. Place the sliders so that they sit recessed in the notches and basically flush up against the trunk. Drill two small holes at the bottom and mount with countersunk sheet metal screws or better yet small counter sunk bolts with a locking nut on the back. Make sure its secure!
7. Try it out. Most likely it will hit on something the first time, be patient. Pull it off and make adjustments. Once it lines up and slides into place with ease pull it all off again.
8. Get out the weather stripping and mount it so it pushes on the plate when the plate is hidden and closes up when the plate is down. 3M double sided tape and RTV are your friend!!! Make it so no water can splash inside.
9. Make a Bracket on the back of the plate at the top to hold a return spring.
Mount a spring at the top of the plate to the bottom of the slider so that it always wants to pull the plate into the down position. Fabricate some stops for the sliders out of sheet metal and use sheet metal screws to attach.
10. Peel back inner trunk liner if you haven’t already. There are a few plastic pop in fastners that hold it on. Use a flat blade screw driver to remove them. Get a power window motor from a junk yard that has a pulley and cable type drive system. If you made it this far it should be obvious to you how to mount the motor on the driver side tucked away up in the corner of the trunk.
11. Run the cable from the motor to the bottom most screw on the plate behind everything. Here’s where you need to get really creative. The motor should easily drag the plate up with enough force to sever carrots and other soft vegetables. In the down position the spring will pull the plate down as the cable is let out. If the cable ever snaps the spring will pull the plate safely down. You can get extra cable or longer cables off of an old bicycle. The shifter cables are usually nice and long.
12. Options: Now you need to dream up a regulator system and some switches. I’m not gonna make it that easy on you. Also a good idea is an indicator light on the dash to let you know where the plate is on its track. At one position it will look stock, at the other it should barely touch the top of the trunk and have all letters completely covered. Also a good idea is to remove front plate. It’s like a $10 ticket usually and a no points ticket. Its kinda pointless to have a front plate with a hideaway rear and cops usually never bother with it anyways. If you are worried about breaking the law then why are you doing this project...
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good stuff :up:
1991 Toyota MR2
1996 Toyota Camry
Linear Mode
