Lottie was a Holdsworth conversion and the folding bellows similar to a Devon but without the nice zig zag corners and travel limiting straps. The original PVC? canvas cleaned up reasonably well but I would like to replace with new material. This is how it looks like now: As you can see it has continuously sewn folds better seen here inside: The main problem with this design is that the corners tend to get caught between the upper and lower frame when closing and it takes time to push clear with fingers. A true bellows with folding corners would fold better and I have made paper templates as there is a very nice man with amazing sewing skills on TLB. However, many of the true folding bellows I see online seem quite "saggy" along the sides and I am beginning to think a foldless flat sided canvas might be better. I would greatly appreciate views and any photos of the good bad and ugly!
Mine is literally a length of pvc fastened top and bottom, overlapped at the rear and held together with double sided tape. Sent from my SM-A217F using Tapatalk
My Devon bellows were beyond repair, and the replacement ones seemed ridiculously expensive, so I got straight sided coloured marine canvas ones instead. You may have more room for them to fold on your pop top, but on my Devon I certainly have to lower the roof carefully so as not to trap the canvas, and then push the excess out of sight both inside and out. Baring in mind, replacing the leaking bellows and getting the roof straightened was one of the first things I did after buying Clem, my idea of ‘ridiculously expensive’ was somewhat different to what it is now (its amazing how your mental budgeting changes with Bay ownership!). So would I choose the cheaper option of straight sided canvas now? If the repro bellows are good, probably not.
Many thanks, the blue stripes look terrific and and I am swaying towards neat flat sided with a bit more care lowering. Can you recall where the PVC came from? The cost consideration is familiar to me, and I guess I would not mind paying a lot if the result was a lot better, but there is the rub! I would love to see some more photos to clarify the decision.
The originals come made from PVC sheet with heat sealed seams and steel stiffening rods along the long edges. Mine has cleaned up fairly well but the metal has rusted where the PVC has hardened and cracked or frayed against those nice straps that stop the poptop going too high... So the whole concertina drops into place. At the moment I think even a somewhat tatty stained looking original with a few holes beats canvas for waterproofing so mine stays..it doesnt get wet inside even when its raining hard.
