Canopy, final trim, Page 4

16 Jun 2005 Canopy, final trim, Page 4

Canopy, the big cut, Page 3
Here I’m doing the final trim on the canopy, and I’ve make my first mistake (on the canopy, that is). Here you can see that I am cutting out the notches for the canopy frame. It turns out that I didn’t need to do this at all.

I’m using a dremel tool with a sanding wheel, and it cuts like butter. Very easy, very smooth, and very not needed, as it turns out.

Another shot of the unnecessary cutout.

And another shot of the unneeded cutout with the canopy on the frame. Here, it looks like the cutout is needed, doesn’t it?

It looks like it is needed here, too, but just wait, you’ll see what the problem is.

Once I put the spacers on so that the sikaflex will have the recommended gap between the canopy and the frame, things look a lot different. All the overhang I thought I had is gone. I also don’t need the cutouts. Bummer! What I should have done is put the spacers (actually bits of thick rubber hose) on the frame very early in the process. This is an important thing to note.

Here you can see I’m using little baby spring clamps to hold the canopy to the frame. The spacers actually make the clamps work much better – they don’t slip on the frame tubing. These are about as small as is reasonable. You’ll need about 25-30 clamps, so these guys at about 99 cents for a dozen were a pretty good deal.

There are places where you need a bigger spring clamp, so make sure you have some. These things are very cheap at Homo Depot, or Harbor Freight, or Jumbo, or Carrefour, or Mr. Bricolage, or wherever you buy your stuff.

More on the canopy here: Canopy, priming and gluing, Page 5