Thursday, December 12, 2019

Updating the Dodger - Making the Side Windows

Making the Dodger Side Windows

The side windows are pretty simple, no curves, so should be easy.

Side Window Layers
Top covers both the top and forward turn down to the Lower Section

The new template was easy to follow, and I quickly made the side window lower section using the same layers as the Front Window











There are the Port and Stbd side window sections.

The shelter rite is glued (basting tape) to the back of them.

The cut out for the Shore Power Receptacle is not cut out yet.

Sorry about the blurry image, I need to work on my camera skills using the new Action Camera.

Of course, nothing goes that easy and the Sewing Machine spring cover for the Bobbin holder got dinged and screwed up all of the sewing on the first stitch. Luckily, I had a spare spring cover.

The only variation I made to the Layers, was to add binding to cover the zipper edge before adding the zipper, it just made the whole edge look a lot neater.

Note: I have ordered an additional 100' of 1 1/4" Bias Binding tape due to another underestimate. What do they say? 'Measure Twice, Cut Once' well, 'Measure twice and order once'!

One thing I thought I had covered was Basting Tape, I always keep a couple of 50' rolls on hand, and ordered 4 more for this project. Duh! I'll order 10 which should keep me going for a while.

The side windows were made in two sections: The lower Section (Sunbrella & Shelter-rite) with binding completed on the top edge. And the Window glass, cut to size and then glued to the lower section with basting tape, that's 2 rows - that's what I had not considered when figuring the amount of basting tape. And of course, the Zippers.

I'll re-calc the total material used when finished. It's the little things that make a big difference when there's lots of them.

We took the Top, Front Window and the Port side window down to the boat for a test fitting.
Disappointment rang out loudly! The front window had all sorts of unexpected bends in the Strataglass, not the glass's fault, but my sewing! The radius of the window corners didn't match the frame close enough. So back home and make an adjustment. The side window fit great, but my disappointment trod down my plans and I forgot to take pics. But with the Port side window complete, time to work on the Stbd side. The bottom section was already complete. I'm just waiting on the arrival of that 100' of binding before continuing.

Back home, it took me about an hour or more to come up with a plan for reshaping the front window in order to eliminate the buckles in the Strataglass. My plan was to recut the curve in the top corners and restitch the binding and facing to the new edge of the Strataglass. I was very conservative as it's no big deal to remove the facing and binding and trim off more of the glass, it's a rebuild if I cut off too much.

That took about 3 hours, most of the time spent picking out the cut threads. While at it, I also added a 3 1/2" extension to the bottom front edge of the window panel as the reshape would possibly move the lower edge up slightly and it was already a tight fit. Again, having some additional material to grab when connecting the sockets to the snap bases was a worthy benefit.

Right now I'm on hold as everything I have left to do requires that binding tape.

Why did I buy the extra 100' of binding? Because I use it so much, just about everything looks better with a bound edge. In our future are full cockpit enclosure screens - they'll all have binding on every edge. I'll need even more than that 100', just watching the budget a bit after this project.

BOAT - Break Out Another Thousand.

Today is December 12th, and the Dodger has to be finished before December 29th as we actually get to take the boat out on the 30th for the New Years Eve Cruise of the HISC.

Nearly there.










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