80s Keystone - Cutting and Sewing the Vinyl Sideliner

Nice job Jeff,

I must say it looks like a lot of work and planning. I really look forward to seeing the final product installed. I'm certain there will be a huge amount of satisfaction knowing you did your own fabrication.

A member posted a similar project a while back and mentioned that they neglected to include the taper/slant in the the roof from front to back, but still managed to make the rectangular pieces fit.
I'm not sure if the taper is something that is standard on all years of FWCs but was it something you considered or had to deal with?
 
Yes - I'll allow for a couple inches less circumference on the bottom than the top. Like Tim Morrissey in his video, I'll sew the last seam with an awl after cutting it to fit.

And I chuckle - the planning took far longer than actually putting the panels together. The same with the aluminum roof racks for the two solar panels. Everything is new and takes time to "see" internally enough to construct.

After going through six panels, I learned what to do next time to make it prettier and be more efficient. However, I doubt there will be a next time.

Today I sew the panels together. It'll be interesting to see how tightly I can roll the 61" x 36" panels so that they fit through the sewing machine. I'm tempted just to use HH-66. I know that some kayak manufacturers glue their boats together and they do fine. For some reason I'm loathe to trust that technology.

Jeff
 
Now that's good enough for me. I'll use the HH-66 on the last seam rather than sewing it with an awl. that's also good news when it comes to moving windows, or adding them.

Did you cut out a piece and glue a patch in, or take off the trim strips that hold the sidewall and replace a whole section from top to bottom?

Thanks!

Jeff
 
Jeff,

Seeing you use my videos is awesome for me:) Bet you hum that silly song in your sleep:)

You could probably make an entire post of all the things I forget/got wrong. But hopefully, it was mostly helpful.

Looks like you are making nice work of it, cuts, fold, and stitching looks clean. Best of luck with the next steps. - Tim
 
Hey Tim:

Your video is incredibly helpful. I found that sewing straight is the biggest issue, and getting the tension right on the machine. I pretty much followed what you did and it's all working out. Thanks for putting in all the work on the video...

Jeff
 
Hey Jeff..

Where did you buy your fabric for the sideliner? I am outside of Denver.. Was just up that way last week picking up a Granby which now is a total gut job.. haha.. just spent the past 5 hours working on the floor pack.. should have it done tomorrow..
 
I got 10 yards of fabric. It was 61" wide. I wanted a 36" tall sideliner so I cut pieces 36" x 61" (after cutting my blue fabric longitudinally rather than latitudinally. I Put six windows in six panels, and have two panels to make up the difference. Eight panels total.

The sideliner is 460" long x 36" right now, ready to be sewed in. I gave myself a foot extra to play with if my constant measuring was off. Measurements say that total circumference of the roof is 448 inches on mine.

360 inches x 61" = 21,960 square inches
448 inches x 36" = 16, 128 square inches.

There are lots of little pieces that will eat up the extra, and if you're like me, will work when just a little tired and make mistakes.

I used semi-flat felled seams, which were pretty easy to sew.

Jeff...
 
do you have a pic of how that bottom seam on the window works? its a bit confusing to us.. started the process last weekend and hope to get it done this weekend..thx.. Bill
 
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