Dear goodfolk:

I just bought an El Cheapo brand aluminum topper for my Mazda B3000
pickup. It has two (clear) acrylic side windows that open, and four
of those funny smoke-colored bubble-type plastic "windows" that don't
open; each is about 16x24".

Replacing the acrylic (with polycarbonate!) is no problem, but I'm at
a loss as to where to get replacement bubble windows; I'm not even
sure what to search for. A search for "replacement windows pickup
topper" wasn't terribly useful.

I am thinking of replacing the bubble windows with smoke polycarbonate
sheet. Or even clear sheet. But before I do, does anyone know where
to get replacement windows?

This is the first topper I've had, and I would greatly appreciate any
suggestions. You know, the kind of stuff you don't find out until
you've had the thing for a year or so...

Thanks for your help!
P'rfesser

On 21 Aug 2004 09:21:58 -0700, (Terry McCreary)
wrote:

Dear goodfolk:

I just bought an El Cheapo brand aluminum topper for my Mazda B3000

What year Mazda? My 94 has 337,000 miles on it. I can tell you what
will go wrong and roughly when during its life time.

Oh..the windows..they are generally custom made for the topper
manufacture. You simply buy sheet plastic and cut your own to fit.

Gunner

"There is no difference between communism and socialism, except
in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism
proposes to enslave men by force, socialism - by vote. It is
merely the difference between murder and suicide."
- Ayn Rand, from "Foreign Policy Drains U.S. of Main
Weapons"

Gunner wrote in message . ..
On 21 Aug 2004 09:21:58 -0700, (Terry McCreary)
wrote:

Dear goodfolk:

I just bought an El Cheapo brand aluminum topper for my Mazda B3000

What year Mazda? My 94 has 337,000 miles on it. I can tell you what
will go wrong and roughly when during its life time.

It's a 99, about 45000 miles. The transmission (manual) already has a
light whine. A few minor electrical problems: the airbag light
doesn't always come on when it's started.

I would love to know what to expect...

Best-- P'rfesser

Gunner wrote in message . ..
On 21 Aug 2004 09:21:58 -0700, (Terry McCreary)
wrote:

Dear goodfolk:

I just bought an El Cheapo brand aluminum topper for my Mazda B3000

What year Mazda? My 94 has 337,000 miles on it. I can tell you what
will go wrong and roughly when during its life time.

It's a 99, about 45000 miles. The transmission (manual) already has a
light whine. A few minor electrical problems: the airbag light
doesn't always come on when it's started.

I would love to know what to expect...

Thanks for the information. I'll just get some plastic and cut it to
fit.

Best-- P'rfesser

On 22 Aug 2004 14:25:52 -0700, (Terry McCreary)
wrote:

Gunner wrote in message . ..
On 21 Aug 2004 09:21:58 -0700, (Terry McCreary)
wrote:

Dear goodfolk:

I just bought an El Cheapo brand aluminum topper for my Mazda B3000

What year Mazda? My 94 has 337,000 miles on it. I can tell you what
will go wrong and roughly when during its life time.

It's a 99, about 45000 miles. The transmission (manual) already has a
light whine. A few minor electrical problems: the airbag light
doesn't always come on when it's started.

I would love to know what to expect...

Best-- P'rfesser

Best thing you can do, is dump in a bottle of Power Punch Moly D. It
will smooth it out and make it feel like a custom tranny. Good stuff.
Dump in another one after your first clutch change at around 85,000.

Stick on in the differential also. Good stuff.

When the slave cylinder goes bad, at around 125k, you will have to
pull the tranny. Its a fairly easy job. The Slave cylinder is $85 at
most autoparts stores. It takes a special tool to remove the hydraulic
fitting. But that can be made on the lathe (buy a Chiltons shop
manual). To bleed the master cylinder..pull back your carpet and with
a small snap ring plyer..remove the snap ring and gently pull the
piston up only so far as it takes for brake fluid to start to dribble
out. Then put it back together. This trick will save your butt.

Some of them had a real problem with blowing head gaskets at around
50k-90k. I think they fixed it, but do a google. Mine went out at
150,000. The idler pully for your serpentine fan belt is available at
the various autoparts stores for $36 and it will go at about 100,000

Now nearly all of my miles are high speed hiway miles, so my maint
stuff may be different than yours. Shrug. I drive between 35k and 65k
a year.

Ive not had any electrical problems other than having to replace the
headlight switch twice. The first time at 300,000 and the second one
about 6 months later. I suspect the first replacement was a crappy
one.

Your hoses are made of a material that will look wonderful even when
the inside is rotted away. Be sure to pull the main radiator hose in
the next 30k and check the inside. When it blows, it will blow
suddenly with no warning.

If you have a rear tire blow out, it will likely bust out the supports
inside the wheel well, and bend the fender behind the wheel well. The
second time (same wheel well..drivers rear), I didnt bother to bend
the sheetmetal back. Shrug. The first time, I spent quite a bit of
time making new fender support brackets which were ripped out by the
roots after the second blowout.

I like Max Life motor oil. When I pulled the engine at 294k, it still
didnt burn any oil, but had zero compression. This was the result of
having the radiator hose blow out and the person driving it, driving
it back to town. It annealed the #1 and #4 rings, and when the shop
replaced the head gasket, they didnt replace the rings as I requested.
I drove it that way for another 100,000 miles.

Thats just off the top of my head. Its been all in all, a fantastic
truck for me, and Ill buy another one when this one is used up.

Gunner


"The Democratic Party is the party of this popular corruption.
The heart of the Democratic Party and its activist core is
made up of government unions, government dependent professions
(teachers, social workers, civil servants); special interest and
special benefits groups (abortion rights, is a good example) that
feed off the government trough; and ethnic constituencies,
African Americans being the most prominent, who are
disproportionately invested in government jobs and
in programs that government provides.

" The Democratic Party credo is 'Take as much of the people's money as politically feasible, and use that money to buy as many of the people's votes as possible'.
Tax cuts are a threat to this Democratic agenda.
Consequently, Democrats loathe and despise them."
-Semi-reformed Leftist David Horowitz