Thread: 1996 Blazer VL100 Restoration to Crappie Chaser

That’s the very lesson I’m trying to teach my oldest daughter now “do it right the first time, and you won’t have to do it again.”

Originally Posted by Slab

Kinda looks like there's room for two o-rings. Belt and suspenders?

That's the good one. When getting down to the end of a project like this its so hard to fight your eyes just glazing over on the project's completion. In Sporting Clays competitions a strong finish is always necessary as most events are won or lost on the last two stations. So it is here too when I installed the Garboard Drain who would have thought to check to see if it held water before installing? Not me.

Good find. Those leaks can drive a fella crazy

I pulled the little Blazer in the shop to start on this Bimini Arch. I decided to coast today and bend pipe, didn't get too far..............



I started by putting 2 rods in the Aft Rod Holder so whatever I came up with it wouldn't interfere with the rod holder. Using a 70in piece of 1/2in pvc conduit and a angle finder I went back & forth measuring angles, checking to fore & aft coverage with the position of the planned bows. I'm looking for a Bimini that is not too high but cover behind the seat to forward the windshield a bit for mostly sun shade. It will be fabricated out of Stamoid like everything else I sew, it's pricey but just about forever if you use top quality thread.



So I'm just rolling along, have the first joint of pipe in the bender, have the correct amount of pipe sticking out past the dies, even have the digital angle finder almost a perfect zero (very hard to do on a pipe that long). So I make the first bend, my bender stalls once (it has never done that before in 15 years), I finish the bend not thinking anything about it.



When you need to hit a specific width Outside to Outside on a pipe (I've built several Roll Cages with this bender) you first must know the amount the pipe will grow in length thru the bend. Here I am measuring the amount of offset I must subtract from the desired width so I will hit the desired width perfectly every time. My artwork is sad but the math perfect so after putting a straight edge against the back of the pipe I layout 52.5 inches as where my clamp holds the pipe. Supporting the running end of the pipe on a stand I raise & lower the stand till my angle finder has me on the exact plane of bend as when I started. I make the second bend but my bender stalls out completely. This is 1in aluminum pipe, not even close to ever bogging down my bender so I take a closer look to what's going on.



Blow-Out! Bummer............My Kubota Loader just blew out a Lift Cylinder Thursday. $779 for the seals to rebuild all 4 cylinders with OEM Kubota parts. The same cylinder blew 4 years ago. Aftermarket seals can not stand up against OEM seals. Anyway this bender comes from Tampa Florida, I don't think I will be getting seals shipped tomorrow.



This post will be picked up when I'm installing the new Ram Seals & Packing.

Darn, bad news on the seals. Probably be a couple days on getting new seals from Florida.

Man, what they say about Murphy's Law...

I've had a few issues with equipment lately, I buy new but keep the equipment forever so age takes it's toll.

The hydraulic shop I brought the Ram from my pipe bender didn't get the Ram from me till after 3pm. They called by noon the next day to say it was fixed. That's service. I didn't get to bending the second riser this evening as I had to rebuild one of the boom cylinders on my loader.

Anyway I did get the rest of the first riser worked out. Figuring headroom, total height (I want to stay under 8ft from the ground) back angle (greater the angle the longer the top overall), crown, etc.



Getting a perfect riser leg measurement can only be done one way. I clamp a straight edge across the top of the riser (not crowned yet). After I measure from the straight edge back each leg the exact length needed. This keeps the top of each riser perfectly square with the gunnels of the boat. I see fab work of boat tops all the time that the pipes don't line up and the tops are not square with the hulls.



Using a 8ft 1x2 to keep the height in mind as I'm working out the back angle I keep it standing right where I can reference the vertical total height from the ground.



The hardware I'm using will allow the top to tilt forward, backward, or be removed completely but it adds length so that is factored into the final length of the riser legs. At a 35 degrees back angle the top will fall right where I want.



Cutting a bent piece of pipe square is always a problem. The way I solved it is to use my dolly to hold the off leg making it possible to use the miter saw to cut the legs to length. To ensure the hinged hardware is perfectly square I set it up on the welding table bent a little over 90 degrees to tack the hardware on. Last thing I want is hinges that are binding. Clamping the pins flat prevents heat drawn distortion.