Shop Talk Exterior Fabric fitting gives marine professionals complete control over the outcome of their enclosure panels. Tailor fitting a wrinkle-free front panel by Björn Hallier NECESSARY MATERIALS " We use #10 YKK® than VISLON® coil zippers rather . Coil zippers are much stronger and more flexible, which is critical for this technique. Use a 38-mm (11 double-sided carpet tape for sticking the canvas to the windshield and gelcoat. We use thin 48-mm (2-inch) steel pins made by Prym and marking is done with chalk pens also produced by Prym. " ⁄2-inch) wide high-quality W hen my father started our boat canvas business in the early 1970s, he had no one to ask how to do things or how to improve the fit of a front panel. So we developed a fabricfitting technique that allows you to immediately see the problematic areas when working with windows and where you have to change the zipper line in order to get a fantasticlooking, wrinkle-free front panel. Here in Germany and generally in the whole European market, normal roll clear is used for 95% of the projects. Pressed sheets like Strataglass® are uncommon, and marine-grade polycarbonate or acrylic are not 36 Marine Fabricator | March/April 2024 available at all. Despite this, it is possible to achieve the same wrinkle-free look of an enclosure with cheap roll clear. Patterning Just take a piece of cheap plastic and pattern as you usually do. Ignore small wrinkles, as we will get rid of them in the next steps (Photo 1). Pins and zippers Transfer the zipper line onto the fabric and cut the fabric, leaving an additional 2 inches (5 cm) of extra fabric at both the top and bottom. On the top, the additional fabric will be folded over and will act as a reserve in case you have to release the fabric.