My DIY Bimini almost there.

I posted a while ago about input and seeing what other people had done in regards to making their own DIY bimini for their boat.

For myself I don't really have too much of a need for a bimini as it never really gets so burning hot on the lake that you need one around where I live and boat locally. Now that we have our summer home in the interior it gets a little warmer as it is a desert type area. Last year for the first week of July it was 42 deg ( 108 F) for a few days with not an ounce of wind. Needless to say it gets a little hot. Because I don't have a need for a bimini all the time I didn't really want to spend huge dollars on one. My next boat I will spend the $ 700 and get a good one.

Anyway after some brain storming and figuring out what kind of materials to use this is what I have come up with.

My Ex's dad owns a muffler shop here locally in town so I had him bend and weld me some 1 1/2" exhaust pipe to the frame shape that I had drawn for him ( $ 160.00). I then called an awning/sign company about making canvas top for it. The owner of the sign company ended up having some Sunbrella material which was great. ( $ 150 cash) I am now currently finishing off spraying it with black Trem Clad paint. If I didn't need this thing done and ready for my next weeks holiday's I probably would have spent the bit extra to have it powder coated.

As far as mounting it to the tower. Again if I had a bit more time I would try and make some better brackets to hold but I ended up just drilling through all four posts of the tower into the bimini frame. I am then using 5" bolts with wing nuts and washers to hold it in place. This thing with the four bolts will not move. It was nice and rigid. Now when I finish it up I will finally get the water/wind test and see how it does.

I am just in the process of painting the frame then I can run the string around the frame to mount the canvas. After next week I'll have some better pics of the finished product but these give you the idea.