Golf car Custom Cover

Shadeladie, I am trying to build a custom cover for my 1963 Cushman Golf Cart. You can view this cart at Worldgolfcars.com , Cushman, Page 7 (this one has a white cover on a dark green body. It will cost a 1000 dollars to have one custom made for me, so I have to do it myself. I have built the frame out of conduit, and it is basically a 43.5" wide box that is about 5' high bolted to my cart at 4 corners. I am thinking that I can make this cover completely out of a tough clear plastic, fit it over the top of the canopy frame, and sew 4 heavy duty zippers into the corners where I cut the plastic into flaps to enter and exit the car. I need to know how to figure out how to specify what thickness of plastic I could buy online that would support sewing those zippers into to it, If I can use a home grade singer sewing machine to sew them in, and what to put on the edges of the plastic that wont have zippers on them. these zippers should be the type that have handles on both sides of them for entering the cart from the outside and zipping them up from the inside. Im guessing I will need a heavy duty thread, (carpet thread?) My neighbor says I can do it, that I SHOULD do it, but if you tell me I am over my head I will be getting rained on thru my current frame lol Your advice is always first class!

WML 13

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence, lol! I don't really know much about making covers but I went to a favorite website and found a couple things that might help you.
They recommend this fabric. Then on that same page, scroll down to the bottom and they give instructions for making a golf cart cover and how to make it with an elastic hem rather than all those zippers (I think might be easier).
On this page are supplies they recommend (you may not need them all).
You want to use an outdoor upholstery thread (this thread). Carpet thread would never work in a machine. Speaking of machines, I can't say if yours will work for this fabric or not. I have industrial machines, but if yours is heavy duty, you should be okay. You'll need a #16 or #18 size needle.
If you still want to make it with the zippers, I'd probably still use that fabric.
Hope this helps a little bit. If not, post back!

ETA: I moved your post to it's own thread.

 

Thank you for the Sailrite lead. I misled you in my first post. I need to make an ENCLOSURE, not a cover. I need to see out of it in all directions as I use this vehicle as a maintenance vehicle for my lawn, winter and summer. I see that they have a chat key, so I will talk to someone more directly there about what I want to do, and lead them to the same site I told you about so they get a visual as well. Hemming would make sense if I didn't need to get in and out of the vehicle often lol. I'm sure that they probably will sell me some clear plastic that will work from what I saw there tonight!

thanks again for your reply!

 

Could you provide a link to that site? When I type worldgolfcars.com I come up with "server not found" and if I do a search for it, I come up with nothing.

 

I am so sorry, it is www.worldgolfcarts.com, not cars....click Cushman on the drop down, and go to page 7. You will see my cart in dark green with a white enclosure. I just tried it....

 

Unless I missed it I haven't seen what sewing machine you have. When I made the enclosure for my cart the machine I bought at WallyWorld could not handle it. It's plastic internal components would stretch under the heavy load and get out of time but my heavier duty Janome with all steel internals was able to handle the multiple layers of heavy fabric.

When sewing your cover you'll want to pay attention to your thread tensions. Most likely your machine is set for clothing like fabrics and the stitches might not be centered properly in the seam.

When working with the vinyl window material a walking foot is helpful if the vinyl is on the outside of your seam. The vinyl is kind of sticky so it doesn't feed through the machine as nicely as fabric so it can cause it to stay in place while the machine drills stitches in the same spot. If you don's have a walking foot paying attention and pulling vinyl material through can work. You can also lay a strip of tissue paper on top of the vinyl and stitch right through the tissue paper. The tissue paper allows the vinyl to slide through the machine and after the seam is done you can just rip it off.

 

Ah, I understand what you're wanting to make now! A picture is worth a thousand words.
I agree with PD that it depends what machine you have. You will need a pretty heavy, thick plastic and I don't think all machines can handle it. Maybe tell us what you have.

 

lol I have to be more careful with my letters in web addresses! I bought a nice Singer Portable machine for my wife 30 years ago that maybe got used (by me) once (she just buys stuff, repair is not in her DNA lol) I will get online with Sailrite and see what they say about machines, needles and threads too. For Alan, who sent me a private email, and couldn't see what you saw. Yes I have an aluminum top about 46" in a perfect square sitting above the seat on the 4 conduit poles bolted to the frame of the cart. If i get truly motivated, I SHOULD cover the top, and go down in front of the poles with a separate piece of material (it will be a black poly of something), and sew the clear "windows" in between the the black flaps so to speak . Picture a 4 sided box with black corners and top and 4 big pieces of clear plastic so you can see inside and outside on each of the 4 sides of the box. I will have two zippers on each piece of the plastic so i can enter and exit, or raise them up and tie them in rolls as the weather permits. The pros wanted to install male and female snaps along the bottom to secure the flaps, and should do that too, but that can wait until i see how the other stuff goes. Thank you for your coments and questions, and give me a few months to send you a photo of the end result!

 

If it's a metal machine, you'll probably do okay. If it's plastic, doubt if it will do the job.

You asked what to do with the edges. I think it would probably be easiest to do french seams, to join the panels, so it looks nice from both sides. I can explain it or you can do a google search, which will show pics.

 

I will check it out on Google and if I have any questions I will post back

Ill get the Singer down tomorrow to see what it is made of.


Thanks!