Bending the rear canopy frame down to proper position

Wicked Stick · Post by **Wicked Stick** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:46 pm

Pat, in your picture above, it looks like you have already bent the rear part of the canopy down to the proper distance above the rear canopy rail

My canopy frame is like Paul Trotter's in that both of ours "right out of the box" have almost 2.5 inches of clearance instead of the 5/8 to 3/4 Van's specifies on the plans.

I'm wondering if yours was as much out of whack from the factory as ours is. Seems to me they could have gotten it ALOT closer than that at the factory. Unless ours are defective in that area.

If yours was the same as ours, how did you go about bending it down that much with what looks like a really smooth transition ?

4kilo · Post by **4kilo** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:44 pm

Dave,

Actually, I think mine was further off than yours before I "tweaked" it. I had to do quite a bit of bending on the side skirts to get the fit I wanted.

After the side skirt area, bending the rear bow was actually quite easy. The only thing I would do differently is that I bent it down to 5/8 from the rail, and next time I would use 3/4. It's very difficult to explain until you start fitting the fiberglass skirts, but my skirts would have fit better with 3/4.

As far as the actual bending, I think I just placed some very soft wood blocks under the frame just behind the last skirt rib and pushed the back down. Underbend it the first try, then just do a little more at a time until you get what you want.

Pat

Wicked Stick · Post by **Wicked Stick** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:48 pm

My side skirts area of the frame fit pretty well right from the start.
I didn't have to do much at all in that area. I hope that area doesn't go out of whack when I get the tail part down

Wicked Stick · Post by **Wicked Stick** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:10 pm

Just thought I'd finally post this picture of an idea that the Capt'n came up with one day while visiting. By placing the rear of the canopy frame into this, I was able to precisely and easily bend the rear of the frame by inserting it a little and bending it slightly, and inserting it a little more and bending it down slightly. By doing it this way, I was able to achieve a very smooth and transitional bend to the rear canopy frame, rather than kinking it in one place by trying to do the entire bend by hand in a single spot.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 8:46 pm

Now THAT is a GREAT IDEA!

CJ