Oriental, NC

 Time to get started replacing the clear vinyl in the enclosure.  Jerry and Donna have graciously offered their air-conditioned workspace 2 doors down and I have enthusiastically accepted!  

But first this morning I decided that the panels must be washed/bleached before taking them over as they had some dust and mold on them.  

 

While those panels dried out in the hot sun, we tackled another issue with the enclosure on a couple of the newer panels.  A couple of the DOT twist hardware sets have worked themselves into bad situation with the wind pushing/pulling on the enclosure.  These need reinforcement (a design error on my part, obviously).

So I made several little "patches" from Sunbrella and very strong UV resistant thread.   I know, they're not really pretty!  But it's hard to work with the thick Sunbrella material in such small shapes (and I have no iron on board to help me).  They're good enough and will be very tough!

 

 The re-installed hardware with the re-enforced patch.  Much stronger setup as that V92 poly thread is extremely tough stuff!  Don't worry about the dark marker - it will fade as soon as it gets wet. 

 

Eventually the washed enclosure pieces were all dry - I packed up all my materials and drove 2 minutes over to Jerry and Donna's.  We had a lovely chat to catch up.

 Jerry introduced me to their industrial sewing machine.  I made some measurements for tomorrow - I'll be back at it in the morning!