1997 400 Sundance Home Made Hardtop

Finally! Bracket installed. All that is left for this year is making the front isinglass. Next year I’ll do the aft portion of the top. I’ll try to post another view from a different angle.
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Finally! Bracket installed. All that is left for this year is making the front isinglass. Next year I’ll do the aft portion of the top. I’ll try to post another view from a different angle.
View attachment 107321
Man that came out professional looking! Nice job!
 
Looks great, very nice work.
 
Wow congrats for your work, but also for your sense of design.
It a perfect fit !

How does it hold together ? glued, or bolted ?
George
 
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Can you walk on it for washing, waxing the finish and when servicing antennas?
 
View attachment 108066
Can you walk on it for washing, waxing the finish and when servicing antennas?
I probably could but I’m afraid to. I was going to build it with a hatch but decided against it. That would have solved the issue I can reach everything from behind the arch. When I make the aft half of the top I will need to seriously consider it.
 
Wow congrats for your work, but also for your sense of design.
It a perfect fit !

How does it hold together ? glued, or bolted ?
George
Hi George. All of the above. There are four bolts that are glassed into the top that slide into holes on the arch. I also glassed it with a strip of 1.5 oz chopped strand mat between the arch and the top. In case all that isn’t enough, there is a bead of 5200 in there also. I’m no engineer and didn’t know the best way so I opted for every reasonable way I could think of
 
Man that looks great! One thing I noticed on my 2000 400DA was the arch moved (flexed) somewhat side to side in rough seas. When all of the canvas was up and zipped that movement reduced significantly. Does this or will this stiffen up all of that structure or flex with it?
 
Man that looks great! One thing I noticed on my 2000 400DA was the arch moved (flexed) somewhat side to side in rough seas. When all of the canvas was up and zipped that movement reduced significantly. Does this or will this stiffen up all of that structure or flex with it?
I would think that his center support struts would lessen that somewhat
 
Man that looks great! One thing I noticed on my 2000 400DA was the arch moved (flexed) somewhat side to side in rough seas. When all of the canvas was up and zipped that movement reduced significantly. Does this or will this stiffen up all of that structure or flex with it?
Thank you. Mine did the same thing. The forward support seems to have made a significant impact on that. We really haven’t had bad enough seas for a good test. When I fabricate the aft portion of the top I intend to have the vertical extend down a little farther. That may further reduce the movement.
 
Man that looks great! One thing I noticed on my 2000 400DA was the arch moved (flexed) somewhat side to side in rough seas. When all of the canvas was up and zipped that movement reduced significantly. Does this or will this stiffen up all of that structure or flex with it?

Thank you. Mine did the same thing. The forward support seems to have made a significant impact on that. We really haven’t had bad enough seas for a good test. When I fabricate the aft portion of the top I intend to have the vertical extend down a little farther. That may further reduce the movement.

Thought about myself as I have seen this movement when on several Sea Rays as well as other brands. Then I remembered seeing a pic of Dales (Masterfabs) new boat with lateral support for the arch/hard top.
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This pic shows the support required for a somewhat heavy hard top. It is connected in 5 areas. It is through bolted to the aluminum arch behind of the radar scanner base. Then it has struts near the outside edges of the windshield that are attached to the top and the dash board. Two center struts connect to the top of the windshield and are angled to provide added lateral support. The top does not move in seas that are taller than the boat and it supports two boat cleaners with a combined weight of 350 pounds. That said, Tiara had a failure or two of a center strut where the welds separated in heavy seas from the stresses of running the boat in storm conditions. I believe the failures were attributed to manufacturing defects in the affected struts as opposed to the design of the support, and the design was not changed.
 
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View attachment 108099
This pic shows the support required for a somewhat heavy hard top. It is connected in 5 areas. It is through bolted to the aluminum arch behind of the radar scanner base. Then it has struts near the outside edges of the windshield that are attached to the top and the dash board. Two center struts connect to the top of the windshield and are angled to provide added lateral support. The top does not move in seas that are taller than the boat and it supports two boat cleaners with a combined weight of 350 pounds. That said, Tiara had a failure or two of a center strut where the welds separated in heavy seas from the stresses of running the boat in storm conditions. I believe the failures were attributed to manufacturing defects in the affected struts as opposed to the design of the support, and the design was not changed.
It looks as if the two black vertical struts were added later in the design to compensate for the loads and stresses that failed the center struts.
 

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