Hard Top Project
A few pix of a polished stainless steel hard top I made for my old 23' Formula. I looked for a few of the work in progress shots but can't find any. The top itself was 1/4" plywood, glassed over with very fine cloth, and painted with 2 part epoxy. Two pieces were used with a backer, and screwed and epoxied to hold the correct curvature. To make it appear thicker around the edges, I added 2" wide x 3/8" thick stiffening strips, and added a nice radius to the edge. The frame was made from .062" wall 304 polished stainless tube. I do all of my own welding, and polished all the TIG welds afterwards. I did all of the bending with a small hand bender. The larger center bows were formed by supporting each length of tube with wooden blocks at each end, and then jumping on it until I had the desired arch.

Easy- peasy as a wise man once said. No need for fancy bending equipment. This was a fun boat to run out to Montauk with. By coincidence only, in the background of the top shot you can see my next nightmare.......I mean project...... the 28 Bertram in it's "before" state. Sorry, no downeast here, but it's still a boat project to look at. I was planning on a similar top for my Coastal project, but have decided to go with a full lobster top. Pix to follow some day.
