Screwed Canopy?

[Tbone]

Trying to do the layout of my 7 tip up for the screws and at the recommended 2 1/2 screw layout I will drill out or get close to the pop rivets. The plans call out to drill with a #38 which is smaller than the #30. What to do? I have a good layout at 3 inches but anything less will catch a rivet.

 

[Mel]

Do whatever you are comfortable with. BUT, I would never go wider spacing than recommended. It will scallop. No problem going with a closer spacing.

 

[Pmerems]

I feel your pain

Been there and spend too much time thinking about it.

I laid a piece of masking tape on the table and marked it 2 1/2 spacing. I then laid the tape on the rear glass and moved the tape up or down and determined the best placement of the starting hole from center of the roll over frame. I believe the closest screw hole to a rivet hole was 1/4". There were only a few locations with this close spacing. I also put in a screw hole on the center line of the roll frame.

Hope this helps.

 

[Rivethead]

I just did this myself today. If you look at the drawings you might notice that the designers even come pretty close to those rivets. I chose to adjust my screws to a different spacing and ended up with them at about 2.75" apart. When I crimpt the bow I adjusted the crimps to allow for the new spacing. I still had to fudge some of the screw holes in order to move away from rivets. A clue to builders aproaching this part would be to plan way ahead on this one and NOT be too married to the plans.

 

[RickWoodall]

canopy work

There are several good sites that show this issue and the spacing to correct it like Dan C and Scott and Tanya, and Jeffsrv. I would like to know if anyone has found a really good detail of the "targa" strip that some have used inside the canopy to finish this off nicely. the fluting, the pop rivet on the roll bar etc are not super pretty even if spacing and painting is done. I saw a few folks a while back that make a strip that covers this area nicely and looks like a time saver if one is going for the top look. Any one have any good pics or directions on how to do this i would appreciate it. I did a fair bit of fluting to get the tip up frame flat...dont like the look even if the fit is good.