In this episode I’ll show you how to make a hardtop bimini – for the second time. After a few weeks work on Plan A, the new hardtop didn’t fit on the boat. $#*&!
It turns out that my mistake wasn’t in the process, it was in the setup. Letting the hardtop sit upside down while applying more fiberglass and resin caused the original shape to be lost. The hardtop was bowed outward and to make matters worse, the areas that were most out of line were those with the thickest fiberglass. So now what?
Putting my “seamstress” (“seamster?”) hat on, I considered how to cut in some relief and then perhaps fiberglass some new seams (much in the way a piece of fabric could be taken in). But I wasn’t going to get many attempts at it without mangling what I’d already accomplished. So I decided I needed a “practice run” first… or at least a “form” to see where alternations needed to be made.
So off to the big box store to buy some fiberglass shower panels, then a bit of “stitch and glue” using zip ties to form the base of the form before putting a layer of fiberglass on top to make the shape. Is it just me or does this “form” look better than Plan A? hmmm… maybe run with this “Plan B” a while??
So… some cheap shower panels, zip ties, duct tape, nidacore for the gutters, and the usual fiberglass steps… and Bimini 2.0 begins to take shape. Come along for the second installment of how to make a Hardtop Bimini.
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