Retractable License Plate Install On A Toyota Truck - Clean Your Plate

17. After the sheetmetal pieces were dealt with, the frame was sprayed with an 3M weld-through coating to ensure that it won't rust.

18. The sheetmetal was clamped in place on all sides, holding it flat against the frame while being tacked into place.

19. The front sheetmetal cover was then welded into place. We also had to go slow on this step so that the metal wouldn't warp. After the sheetmetal was welded up and allowed to cool, the welds were ground smooth.

20. Joe spread metal-finish body filler and worked his magic on our new back wall, ensuring that it was as smooth as possible.

21. Once Joe was finished with the frame, it was clamped into place.

23. The entire back wall was sprayed with another coat of rust-proof primer, then tacked into place.

23. After the back wall was welded in, the top and rear edges were ground smooth.

24. While Chris was finishing up the work on the back wall, the double-throw double-pole (DPDT) switch was wired with power, ground, and the Up and Down wires from the actuator.

25. We placed the switch in an easily accessible factory knock-out panel.

26. Meanwhile, Chris was finishing up the bodywork to make the back wall look as though it came from the factory.

27. The back area where we worked was taped off and wet-sanded so it could be primered.

28. The top piece of the kit was measured out and prepped for installing the license plate.

29. After the license plate was installed, the top piece was slid back into place, and the actuator could be bolt-ed up.

30. We wanted to make the back wall accessible, so we measured and marked it off for sheetmetal screws.

31. The back wall was screwed into place, and we were all getting anxious to see this thing in action.

32. The bed was set back onto the frame and bolted up. We then wired up the wires we ran from the cab to the actuator.

This makes for quite an impressive end product. Now we just have to get the rest of our bed looking as smooth. Stay tuned for more on our Toyota project buildup.