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DIY $8 Aluminum Dead Pedal for Edge Sport


xbillmh

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Check out this very easy and very inexpensive (less than $8.00) modification to the cheap-looking plastic dead-pedal foot rest on the 2015 Edge Sport. This makes it match the brake and accelerator pedals.

 

The pedal attaches to the floor-board with 6 plastic dowels or attaching pins of various lengths. The dense foam material that they pass through is not strong enough for sheet metal screws and the large holes that exist in that foam where the original pins pass through would also keep normal metal self-tapping screws from being used, unless they were carefully placed on any replacement pedal. That means that any aftermarket pedal is going to have to be custom-designed for the new Edge. A generic flat metal replacement that screws in is not going to work. Since nobody seems to make a custom-designed item, I thought it would be better to modify the existing OEM pedal with some aluminum strips that match the metal on the OEM accelerator and brake pedals.

 

I ordered 6 strips of aluminum from a craft supplier called www.beaducation.com. The strips are item number Model: AT117 and are ¼ inch wide and six inches long. They are actually blanks for making metal bracelets. Each strip is big enough for two widths of the pedal. Since the pedal has 9 places for the strips to go, I ordered 5 of them. They are only 80 cents each, so $4.00, plus $3.50 or so for tax and shipping! The width fits perfectly between the raised ridges on the pedal and they are thin enough so that their surface sits well below the surface of the raised ridges.

 

I cut each strip in half or shorter for the top of the pedal where it narrows, using metal shears (you could also use a hack-saw). I then carefully sanded off any burs left by the shears with coarse sand paper and also made sure that the bottom strips were all the same length, again using sandpaper to make slight adjustments in the length by sanding the ends of the strips. Be careful to keep the strips flat and don’t let them get bent while working with them. The top 3 strips need a diagonal cut obviously on one end (64/116 degree angles). Once the strips were cut I used fine steel wool to quickly give them a brushed satin finish to match the other OEM pedals. Note that the direction of the tiny “scratches” in the finish of the OEM metal trim is parallel to the long axis of your foot, so brush the strips with the steel wool across their short dimension, not their long dimension. I then roughed up the “valleys” of the pedal a bit with sandpaper (be careful not to scratch the plastic pedal surface on any part that will not be covered by aluminum) and also roughed up the back of the aluminum strips. I also cleaned each surface with rubbing alcohol before gluing.

 

I used epoxy to glue the strips to the pedal since it is so strong and also is not brittle. Due to the raised ridges, your foot is not going to touch the strips and knock them off, but it looks like the pedal can flex slightly if you put a lot of pressure on it, so that is why I chose epoxy. The pedal pulls out from the floorboard easily with no tools just grab it at the edges and gently work out the pins. When done, press the newly trimmed pedal back in and you are done. The pedal looks great installed next to the other OEM items!

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