I spent a few hours yesterday making significant progress on the Shady Boy sunshade for Brunnhilde. I like the naughty and sinister connotation of the name Wolfgang chosen for this sunshade. I'd never met him but spoke to him on the phone when I purchased the sunshade nearly 2 decades ago.
Early in the morning I planned my trip before the traffic get thick. I went to Harbor Freight, Home Depot, and Tap Plastic and was back home in an hour with everything I set out to get. At Tap Plastic I wanted to buy some 1/2 inch thick plastic sheet stock to fabricate the spacers I need to mount the Shady Boy onto the aluminum channel adapter. There are three material that are very similar in mechanical property and all are equally suitable for the job. These are Starboard, DHPE, and Delrin. I first priced out all three. Starboard and DHPE both are around $12.5 / sq ft. Delrin is priced skyhight at around $56 / sq ft. Needless to say Delrin is out. The truth is Delrin is so expensive because it is one of the earliest branded material of these category.
The staff told me all three material machines well and are very similar in property. My visual and tactile check agree. She noted that Starboard is UV stable. I decided on three of 3"x3" pieces cut from Starboard. It came to just $3 total. On my way out I spotted the bargain bin with everything at $1.5/lb. I picked up a 3/4" piece which can be any of these three material for use in rainy day project. It cost $1.
Tap Plastic does kick ares!
my trophies from tap plastic
One of the challenge is marking the hole locations on the aluminum channel for the bolts to secure to the fiberglass top. There are a number of techniques I came up but I settled on one that is least involving and fast. I did it by divide and conquer. I first locate the distance between the two lower bolts using a story pole.
not wanting to break my foot still healing from the surgery i erected the scaffold
this is actually the scrap of the 2x4 i used to make the mockup - i use it as a story pole to transfer the distance between the two lower bolt mounting points
checking the plumbness of the upper and lower bolt mounting points.
my measurements and drilling of the holes for the lower mounting bolts are spot on
Locating the holes for the upper bolts is much more difficult. I used my cardboard template that I used to determine the fold angle to mark the upper bolt hole with respect to the lower one. Since the front and rear mounting point are not identical due to manufacturer tolerances I use the cardboard as s story board and marked them separately. The holes that I first drilled do not quite line up due the geometry resulted from the bend in the sheet metal. They were however quite close so I just had to elongate them a bit with a round file.
all 4 bolt holes located
i made a clam soup with the kao ky 九妃 using live clams - delicious
Not onto mounting the Shady Boy onto the aluminum channel with the plastic spacers. Working with the Starboard spacer has it's challenges. The surface is very slick like Teflon. I have to devise a way to keep them from sliding around while I try to determine the optimum mounting holes to mount the Shady Boy to the aluminum channel. I used 3M double sided tape to affix them to the aluminum channel.
I mention yesterday that I want to move the Shady Boy a few inches forward. This means the front of the Shady Boy will be fore forward of the front mounting point on the fiberglass high top. As I sat back to review my plan and progress I realize I overlooked one thing. When the hinged cover of the Shady Boy is open it will interfere with the upper bolt of the fiberglass top. To avoid this interference the Shady Boy must be mounted somewhere between Westfalia's front and the back mounting points for the factory awning. I was very glad I realize this.
I finalize the location of the Shady Boy WRT the aluminum channel. Next is to determine the locations of the fasteners for securing the Shady Boy to the aluminum channel. I considered a number of different fasteners for this. One constrain is the fasteners must have a very low protrusion on the back side of the aluminum channel. One option is to use pop rivets. However the rivet length will have to be over 3/4". Rivets this long is very difficult to find as well as hard to installed properly. I am currently planning just use stainless steel machine threaded screw with counter sink head.
once i determined the locations for the spacers i temporarily affixed them to the aluminum channel with 3M double-sided tape
I decided to use 6 stainless steel screw (with nuts) to fasten the Shady Boy to the channel. This will strength the aluminum channel as well as the Shady Boy's casing from twisting. I made a drill template with a piece of cardboard cut to square. I secure the Shady Boy to the aluminum channel with a pair of Bessy clamps.
my drilling template made from a piece of cardboard
It was getting dark and I didn't want to make a trip to the hardware store just for a few screws, I used what I have at home to temporarily securing the Shady Boy to to the channel with the spacers. This allow me to finalize the drilling of the six mounting holes.
it is nearly done - just need to pick up some counter sink 1" long stainless screws in my next shopping trip
for dinner i made a stir fried dish with kao ky 九妃 and live clam meat
a bit of plain rice mopped up the last drop of the sauce
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