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Old 11-24-2012, 07:14 PM
Kerry Pinkerton's Avatar
Kerry Pinkerton Kerry Pinkerton is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Near Huntsville, Alabama. Just south of the Tennessee line off I65
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Default Curved "U" channel. How?

I recently bought an antique motor home (77 GMC) and have been spending most my time working on the interior.

The previous owner installed skinny mini blinds and made these really horrid wooden frames to keep the mini blinds close to the body. Problem is that the body is curved and the wood frames, in addition to being tacky, are straight.

So I made a set of blind retainers out of some aluminum angle I bent up. This is one HALF of the side.

R 010.jpg

you can see the curve. Because I don't know another way, I just made a mirror image (one shrunk one stretched, and tacked welded them together.

R 011.jpg

It's going to be covered with upholstery so the welds won't show.

R 012.jpg

This shot shows the bow in the side of the coach as well as how the mini blinds will fit in the opening of the "U".

However, I have 6 more windows to do and would prefer to just bend up a "U" channel and find a way to bend it. Obviously one side has to shrink and the other stretch. If I had beak dies for the Eckold I could do it but I don't

I was wondering if I might be able to do something with the Pullmax. Make a male/female U shape and bend it to the side by brute force as I feed it through.

Has anyone done anything like this before? I'm open to suggestions.
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