Abstract:
An attachment structure of a slide rail cover for covering a slide rail fixed to a side of a vehicle body from the outside to the vehicle body, has a main body cover including a slide rail attachment portion and a vehicle body attachment portion, the slide rail attachment portion being adapted to support the main body cover with rigidity, and the vehicle body attachment portion being adapted to regulate the position of the main body cover in vertical and lateral directions. The position of at least one of the vehicle body attachment portion and the slide rail attachment portion is regulated in a forward or rearward direction of the main body cover.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to an attachment structure of a slide rail cover to a vehicle body, and more particularly to an attachment structure of a slide rail cover to a vehicle body which can improve the fitting precision and facilitate the assembly of the slide rail cover to the vehicle body. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     For example, as shown in FIG. 9, there exists a case where an attachment portion  2  provided at an upper portion of a fender panel  1  is fixed to a front pillar  3  with a screw  4  and an attachment portion  5  provided at a lower portion of the fender panel  1  is fixed to a side sill  6  with a bolt  7  (refer to JP-A-10-67341). 
     Thus, in a case where a vehicle body part such as the fender panel  1  is fixed directly to locations of the vehicle body such as the front pillar  3  and the side sill  6  which are positioned with a certain precision, a required fitting precision can be attained after the attachment of the fender panel  1  to those locations. 
     Incidentally, in a vehicle having a slide door, there exists a case where a slide rail cover is fixed to cover an opening in a slide rail fixed to a side of a vehicle body. When attempting to attach the slide rail cover to the vehicle body via the slide rail in order to secure a sliding space for a slide arm, an attachment error of the slide rail to the vehicle body and an attachment error of the slide rail cover to the slide rail are added, and as a result, serve to enhance a fitting error between the vehicle body and the slide rail cover, whereby the external appearance quality is damaged. 
     To cope with the problem, the attachment precision of the slide rail to the vehicle body and the attachment precision of the slide rail cover to the slide rail need to be set strictly, and this increases the number of man hours in management of the production of vehicles. Thus, there is caused a problem that the strict management of attachment of the slide rail cover to the slide rail increases the production costs in the end. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     To cope with the problem, an object of the invention is to provide an attachment structure of a slide rail cover to a vehicle body which can facilitate the production and assembly of respective components such as vehicle body, slide rail, slide rail cover while maintaining the fitting precision. 
     With a view to attaining the object, according to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an attachment structure of a slide rail cover (for example, a slide rail cover  15  in an embodiment) for covering a slide rail (for example, a slide rail  14  in the embodiment) attached to a side of a vehicle body from the outside of the vehicle body, wherein a slide rail attachment portion (for example, a slide rail attachment hole  38  in the embodiment) and a vehicle body attachment portion (for example, an attachment hole  44  and a through hole  63  in the embodiment) are provided on a main body cover (for example, a main body cover  35  in the embodiment), the slide rail attachment portion being adapted to support the main body cover with rigidity, and the vehicle body attachment portion being adapted to fix the position of the main body cover in vertical and horizontal directions, and in that the position of at least one of the vehicle body attachment portion and the slide rail attachment portion is fixed in a forward or rearward direction of the main body cover. 
     Thus, according to the construction, since the main body cover only has to be supported with rigidity by the slide rail attachment portion of the main body cover so that the main body cover does not move loosely when touched, there is no need to strictly set the attachment precision of the slide rail to the vehicle body. In addition, the vehicle body attachment portion the main body cover is fixed directly to the vehicle body which provides the fitting precision to thereby facilitate the fixing of the position of the main body cover in vertical and horizontal directions. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of a rear part of a vehicle body according to an embodiment of the invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line A—A in FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line B—B in FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line C—C in FIG. 3; 
     FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line D—D in FIG. 4; 
     FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of a portion of the vehicle body which is in the vicinity of a slide rail cover; 
     FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line E—E in FIG. 6; 
     FIG. 8 is a side view of the rear part of the vehicle body according to the embodiment of the invention; and 
     FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a related art. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     An embodiment of the invention will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of a rear part of a vehicle body, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line A—A in FIG.  1 . In FIG. 1, a slide door  10  is provided at a portion on a left-hand side of the vehicle body in such a manner as to be opened and closed, and a slide door opening  11  in the portion on the left-hand side of the vehicle is designed to be closed and opened by the slide door  10 . A slide rail  14  is attached to a rear fender panel  12  provided rearward of the slide door opening  11  in such a manner as to extend in a longitudinal direction above a rear wheel arch portion  13 , and this slide rail  14  is designed to be covered by a slide rail cover  15 . 
     To be specific, as shown in FIG. 2, the rear fender panel  12  is constituted by an outer panel  16  and an inner panel  17 . A slide rail receiving portion  19  is provided to extend in a longitudinal direction above the rear wheel arch portion  13  by recessing a general surface  18  of the outer panel  16  in a direction toward the interior of a passenger compartment, and an attachment plane  20  is formed at a bottom portion of the slide rail receiving portion  19  along the longitudinal direction. Then, attachment holes  21  for the slide rail  14  are formed in the attachment plane  20  at three locations (shown in FIGS.  1  and  6 ), and the slide rail  14  is fixed at the attachment holes  21  with bolts  22 . In addition, a backing member  23  serving as a nut member is provided on a back side of the outer panel  16 . 
     An arm  25  is provided on the slide door  10  via an attachment bracket  24 . This arm  25  is a member having a crank-like cross section which includes a horizontal portion  26  which extends from the attachment bracket  24 , a vertical portion  27  which extends upwardly from an end portion of the horizontal portion  26  and a roller installing portion  28  which extends horizontally further from the vertical portion  27 , and a horizontal roller  29  is rollingly installed at an upper portion of the roller installing portion  28 , while a vertical roller  30  is rollingly installed at a lower portion of the roller installing portion  28 . In addition, the arm  25  is rotatably supported on a vertical shaft relative to the attachment bracket  24 , and the slide rail  14  is intruded into the passenger compartment on the slide door opening  11  side, whereby the slide door  10  can fit in the slide door opening  11  when it is closed. 
     The slide rail  14  is provided with a guide portion  31  for the horizontal roller  29  at an upper portion and a guide portion  32  for the vertical roller  30  at a lower portion thereof and is constructed such as to guide the horizontal roller  29  and the vertical roller  30  to thereby allow the movement of the slide door  10  in the longitudinal directions. Then, the slide rail cover  15  is fixed to an upper wall of the guide portion  31  for covering the slide rail  14  so that the slide rail  14  cannot be seen from the outside. 
     The slide rail cover  15  has a main body cover  35  which is constructed by seaming together an outer cover  33  and an inner cover  34 . Then, a bracket  36  for fixing the main body cover  35  is fixed to the upper wall of the slide rail  14 . The bracket  36  is provided with an attachment plane  37  for supporting the inner cover  34  of the main body cover  35 , and the inner cover  34  of the main body cover  35  is designed to be brought into press abutment with the attachment plane  37  via a fixing block  71  which is fixed to a bolt  39 . 
     Here, an elongate hole portion  40  which extends to the rear is formed in a slide rail attachment hole (shown in FIG. 6)  38 , whereby the slide rail attachment hole  38  is formed into a key hole configuration. When a head portion  71   a  of the fixing block  71  is caused to slide to the rear with the head portion  71   a  of the fixing block  71  being passed through the slide rail attachment hole  38 , a groove portion  71   b  of the head portion  71   a  is allowed to move along the elongate hole portion  40 . In addition, the elongate hole portion  40  is formed with certain margins in the vertical and horizontal directions relative to the groove portion  71   b.    
     Consequently, the main body cover  35  is fixed in a state in which the position of the main body cover  35  is substantially fixed relative to the slide rail  14  in the horizontal direction by the attachment plane  37  of the bracket  36 , and the slide rail attachment hole  38  can allow the longitudinal movement of the main body cover  35  relative to the head portion  71  a of the fixing block  71  by the elongate hole portion  40 , whereby the main body cover  35  can be supported with rigidity to the slide rail attachment holes  38  such that the main body cover  35  does not move loosely when touched. 
     As shown in FIGS. 3 to  5 , the slide rail cover  15  is attached to the outer panel  16  of the rear fender panel  12 . FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line B—B in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line C—C in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory view comprising an enlarged sectional view of a reinforcing member taken along the line D—D in FIG.  4 . and views of an attachment hole and a clip which will be described later. 
     The reinforcing member  41  is attached to the inner cover  34  of the slide rail cover  15 . As also shown in FIG. 5, a flat attachment seat  42  is formed on the reinforcing member  41  and an attachment hole  44  for a clip  43  is formed in the attachment seat  42 . Formed continuously in the attachment hole  44  are an elongate hole portion  46  adapted to lock on the head portion  45  of the clip  43  and a pass-through portion  47  for receiving the head portion  45  of the clip  43 , whereby the attachment hole  44  is formed into a key hole configuration. The longitudinal movement of the slide rail cover  15  relative to the rear fender panel  12  is permitted by this elongate hole portion  46 . 
     A flange portion  49  between the head portion  45  of the clip  43  and a locking portion  48  of the clip  43  is set such that a distance S between the flange portion  49  and the head portion  45  aligns with the thickness of the reinforcing member  41 , and the diameter of a shaft portion  50  of the clip  43  is designed to align with the width D of the elongate hole portion  46  and fix the main body cover in the lateral direction. 
     Consequently, the main body cover  35  is fixed in a state in which the position of the main body cover  35  is easily fixed in the horizontal direction to the outer panel  16  of the rear fender panel  12  when the attachment seat  42  is brought into abutment with the flange portion  49  of the clip  43 , and in a state in which the position of the main body cover  35  is easily fixed relative to the outer panel  16  of the rear fender  12  in the vertical directions when the shaft portion  50  of the clip  43  is received in the elongate hole portion  46  in the attachment hole  44  of the clip  43 . 
     Next, referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, the slide rail cover  15  and peripheral members around the periphery of the rear fender panel  12  to which the slide rail cover  15  is fixed will be described. FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of a portion around the slide rail cover of the vehicle body, and FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line E—E in FIG.  6 . 
     In the figures, as has been described before, the slide rail receiving portion  19  is formed in the outer panel  16  of the rear fender panel  12 , and the attachment holes  21  for the side rail  14  are formed in the attachment plane  20  of the bottom portion of the slide rail receiving portion  19  at the three positions. 
     In addition, inclined planes which incline outwardly from the attachment plane  20  are provided above and below the attachment plane  20  in the slide rail receiving portion  19 , and locking holes  52  in which the locking portion  48  of the clip  43  is locked are formed in the upper inclined plane  51  at two positions thereof in such a manner as to be oriented in the lateral direction. A flange  53  facing to the rear is formed along a rear edge of the outer panel  16 . Attachment holes  56  for machine screws  55  for a rear combination lamp  54  are formed in an upper portion of the flange  53  at two positions, and attachment members  59  into which machine screws  58  for a bumper spacer  57  are screwed are attached to a lower portion of the flange  53  at two positions. 
     The main body cover  35  of the slide rail cover  15  is designed to form a gap C of a certain space along the longitudinal direction between an upper edge of the main body cover  35  and a ridge L between the inclined plane  51  and the general plane  18  when the main body cover  35  is attached to the outer panel  16  of the rear fender panel  12 . In addition, a lower edge of the main body cover  35  is cut out from a front end to a position just before a rear end thereof as a relief  60  to permit the longitudinal movement of the arm  25  of the slide door  10 . 
     An attachment piece  61  to the bumper spacer  57  is provided at a rear edge of the main body cover  35 , which attachment piece  61  is oriented in the lateral direction, and a through hole  63  for a bolt  62  is formed in the attachment piece  61 . The main body cover  35  of the slide rail cover  15  can be attached to the rear fender panel  12  in a condition Where the position of the main body cover  35  can be fixed in the longitudinal directions by passing the bolt  62  through the through hole  63  to be fixed in an attachment hole  64  in the bumper spacer  57 . 
     The slide rail attachment holes  38  are formed at two positions in the inner cover  34  which constitutes a back side of the main body cover  35 , and the attachment holes  44  for the clips  43  are also formed in the inner cover  34  at two positions which are situated above the slide rail attachment holes  38 . Here, both the elongate hole portions  40  of the slide rail attachment holes  38  and the elongate hole portions  46  of the attachment holes  44  for the clips  43  are formed to extend to the rear. 
     The bumper spacer  57  is a member made of resin and having a substantially L-shaped configuration and is formed in such a manner as to surround a lower corner portion of the outer panel  16  of the rear fender panel  12  from the outside. Formed in an upper portion of a side of the bumper spacer  57  is the attachment hole  64  for the bolt  62  which corresponds to the through hole  63  in the attachment piece  61  on the slide rail cover  15 , and formed at a front part of the bumper spacer  57  is an attachment wall  67  which is brought into abutment with a front flange  66  of a rear bumper  65  from the front and which extends in the lateral direction. As shown in FIG. 7, through holes  68  for machine screws  58  are formed in the attachment wall  67  in such a manner as to align with the attachment members  59  provided on the flange portion  53  of the outer panel  16  of the rear fender panel  12 , and pawls  70  are also provided on the attachment wall  67  which are adapted to lock in engagement holes  69  in the front flange  66  of the rear bumper  65 . 
     Next, with reference to FIG. 6, installing procedures for the respective members will be described. 
     The bumper spacer  57  is fixed to the outer panel  16  of the rear fender panel  12  with the machine screws  58 ,  58 . Next, the locking portions  48  of the clips  43 ,  43  are left locked in the locking holes  52 ,  52  in the outer panel  16  of the rear fender  12 . Then, the main body cover  35  is pressed against the outer panel  16  of the rear fender panel  12  by aligning the pass-through portions  47 ,  47  of the attachment holes  44 ,  44  in the main body cover  35  with the head portions  45  of the clips  43 ,  43  and aligning the attachment holes  38 ,  38  in the main body cover  35  with the head portion  71   a  of the fixing block  71  on the slide rail  14  side. In this state, a difference in level between the general plane  18  of the outer panel  16  of the rear fender panel  12  and an upper flat portion  35   a  of the main body cover  35  can be eliminated. 
     Then, when the main body cover  35  is moved forward, the shaft portion  50  of the clip  43  is guided along the elongate hole portion  46  in the attachment hole  44 , and the groove portion  71   b  of the head portion  71   a  of the fixing block  71  is guided by the elongate hole portion  40  in the slide rail attachment hole  38 . 
     Furthermore the bolt  62  is passed through the through hole  63  in the attachment piece  61  of the main body cover  35  so as to be fixed in the attachment hole  64  in the bumper spacer  57 , whereby the main body cover  35  of the slide rail cover  15  is fixed to the rear fender panel  12  with the position of the main body cover  35  being fixed in the rearward direction. This allows the gap C of a certain space to be formed along the longitudinal direction between the upper edge of the main body cover  35  and the ridge L. 
     Then, the front flange  66  of the rear bumper  65  is pushed in between the bumper spacer  57  and the outer panel  16  of the rear fender panel  12  so that the engagement holes  69  in the rear bumper  65  are locked by the pawls  70  on the bumper spacer  57 , whereby the rear bumper  65  is attached to the bumper spacer  57 . 
     Finally, the rear combination lamp  54  is fastened with the machine screws  55  in the attachment holes  56  of the flange portion  53 , so that the rear combination lamp  54  is fixed to the outer panel  16  of the rear fender panel  12 . 
     Consequently, as shown in FIG. 8, the gap C between the outer panel  16  of the rear fender  12  and the main body cover  35  is secured to maintain the certain space, whereby the outer edge of the rear combination lamp  54  and the outer edge of the inverted L-shaped configuration of the rear bumper  65  can maintain the certain gap relative to the outer panel  16  to secure a required fitting precision, whereby the external appearance quality can be improved. 
     According to the embodiment, since the slide rail attachment holes  38  in the main body cover  35  only have to maintain the rigidity, the attachment precision of the slide rail  14  to the outer panel  16  of the rear fender panel  12  does not have to be strict, and only the rigidity is set such that the slide rail  14  and the outer panel  16  are dislocated from each other. 
     Consequently, since the mounting precision does not have to be strict to the vertical and horizontal directions, the production and assembly of the respective components such as the rear fender panel  12 , the slide rail  14  and the main body cover  35  can be facilitated. 
     In addition, since the main body cover  35  can be fixed to the rear fender panel  12  which required fitting precision in the state in which the position of the main body cover  35  is fixed in the vertical directions by positioning the elongate hole portions  46  in the attachment holes  44  at the shaft portions  50  of the clips  43 , as well as in the horizontal directions by allowing the reinforce into member  41  to abut with the flange portions  49  of the clips  43 , the fixation of the main body cover  35  to the rear fender panel  12  of the vehicle body is facilitated with good precision. 
     Consequently, in a case where the slide rail cover  15  is fixed to the vehicle body via the slide rail  14  which is a separate component, as has been described above, the production can be simplified, the attachment efficiency can be improved and a sufficient fitting precision relative to the vehicle body can be secured. 
     In addition, the invention is not limited to the embodiment that has been described heretofore. For example, while the invention has been described as the position of the main body cover  35  being fixed in the longitudinal direction by fixing the through hole  63  which is the vehicle body attachment portion, the slide rail attachment holes  38 , which are the slide rail attachment portion, may function to fix the position of the main body cover  35  in the vertical and horizontal directions of the vehicle body. In addition, the main body cover may be directly fixed to the vehicle body without the bumper spacer  57  being interposed there between. 
     Thus, as has been described heretofore, according to the aspect of the invention, since the slide rail attachment portion of the main body cover only has to function to provide the required rigidity, the attachment precision of the slide rail to the vehicle body does not have to be set strictly, and therefore, there is provided an advantage that the production and assembly, and attachment of the respective components such as the slide rail and the cover can be facilitated by an extent such that the attachment precision does not have to be managed strictly. 
     In addition, since the main body cover can be directly fixed to the vehicle body which requires the certain fitting precision with the position thereof being fixed in the vertical and horizontal directions, the attachment of the main body cover to the vehicle body with good precision can be facilitated. 
     Consequently, in a case where the slide rail cover  15  is attached to the vehicle body via the slide rail  14  which is a separate component, as has been described above, the production can be simplified, the attachment efficiency can be improved and a sufficient fitting precision relative to the vehicle body can be secured. 
     Furthermore, since the main body cover is held by the slide rail attachment portion with rigidity and the fitting precision is attained by the vehicle attachment portion, there is provided an advantage that the vehicle attachment portion can be made smaller in size by an extent such that the portion does not have to be provided with the holding function.