Custom made bimini
 

Well thought I would post some pics of my custom made bimini. I have a 95 sport nautique with a monster tower(I knooow). Budget boat... Well I've always wanted a cargo bimini but didn't want to shell out the 650$ when there was so many other things I could spend that money on. I decided I had the tools and the know how so I'd be foolish not to make it myself. I have $100 into tubing, $15 into hardware, and $65$ into sunbrella, sunbrella binding, and thread. I need to spend a few bucks and get black paracord. I threw the white rope on there for now because I had it laying in the garage. Here's what I came up with. Everything was done by myself. Bending, notching, welding, sewing, etc. Just spray bombed it for now to get back on the water, but I will have it powder coated over the winter.

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Nice work! Is there something I'm not aware of regarding the monster tower? IIRC that company sprouted from these message boards. I've always been impressed how one design look decent on almost any boat it's put on. Granted their often on I/Os but I think your Nautique looks great.

Again, congrats on the successful build. Well done!

Well done.

Thanks guys. No, personally I think the tower looks great, and functions great. I should have said that. It just seems like everytime there's a picture of a nautique it sprouts up the FCT tower debate. Which I do wish I had. Well I actually really really wish I had the roswell aviator, but I'd need to start eliminating a few of my hobbies.

Great work! I am thinking of making my own cargo style Bimini this winter. What size tubing / wall thickness did you use? Where did you get that pipe bender? I also like how you used a jig to fit the pieces.

The bender is a pro tools hd-105. It was on sale at trick tools.com for 300$ then each size tubing you want to bend you'll have to buy a die set for. The die sets are usually 170-250$ for each size.

All the fabric was purchased at sailrite.com


The tubing used was 1" x .059 wall and then 3/4 x .059 wall for the legs

Looks great.....Since you have the tools want to make another one? :)

What I'm most impressed with with all these people who take on projects like this is the capacity and means to do something like this. i wish I had the means to do something like this. I have the desire but by no means the tools and know how do do something like this and certainly not with the same results.

Thanks guys. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. If I could redo it there's A few things I'd do different, but that's with any project. I was started at a young age doing fab and mechanical work( I'm only 24, so I mean young!) so some of it has always been a hobby of mine, so that makes it easier. Most of it is just a will to learn. I learned how to sew a few years ago. People laugh at me ALL of the time about it. I just laugh back. I take great pride in paying people to do as little for me as possible. Guess who taught me how to sew? My dad. He learned when he was my age and wanted to redo his mustang interior. I will tell any person, any time, that I know how to rock a sewing machine. This project actually only took me about a total of 15 hrs to do. A lot of it was learned on other projects. As you can see in one of my pics I've had a camaro resto mod going for a while. Now that's a friggen project. One I would have never started if I could turn back time. I could buy a super nice Sante for what I have into that stupid car, and it's no where near hitting the road. I'm beating around the bush hear... But do not shy away from small projects like this. Even if this would have ended up costing me thE same As buying a new bimini the lessons and skills learned while doing it are completely worth it. On a side not, if you have kids, get them in the garage with you, now!!

In all honesty... If it was universal fit I probably would. This is directly made to my tower and has no adjustability tho... So I'll have to pass. Sorry bud😕