Arrie,
I don't see your address, and don't have any pictures at the moment, so I'll
try to describe. If of interest, I could take some pictures later.
I should have said I built the bimini "top". I was speaking to the painted
surface.
I have a catamaran, so it has a big bimini.. It's about 7 1/2 feet long and
about 10 1/2 feet wide. I had a guy that makes tuna towers and the like out
of 1 1/2 inch aluminum pipe build a frame to my over all design. The details
were his. I had inspected several bimini frames on similar boats to
determine what I wanted.
The hard top was the middle 6 feet of width (Sunbrella on the extremities),
and he had made this of some 1/2 inch thick some kind of hard foam material
he said ws used for making signs. It was heavier than I liked, and was made
of two pieces, which resulted in a drip right over the helm.
So last winter, I got two 4 x8 sheets of 1/2 inch Decolite (thin frg skins
with a balsa core) and spliced them together. It's not cheap, but I figured
I'd save a lot of time using it. Glassed the rounded edges, and glued
boltrope track to the side edges, and painted it.
I've had close to 400 lb on it, so it's plenty strong.
This probably is not the direction you are headed, but if you are interested
let me know.

"Arrie" wrote in message
9.11...

Garland,

Do you have any pictures of the construction of your Bimini? I'm
thinking of making one.

How did you do it? Email reply is OK, but delete the "bimini" from my
addr.

Thanks,
Jeff

"Garland Gray II" wrote in
news:PEqNf.68$3k1.27@dukeread03:

Last year I built a hard top bimini (that would be walked on for sail
furling) and painted it with Interlux Perfection 2 part poly, and
mixed in Interlux Intergrip. I was very satisfied with it. You can mix
in whatever is needed to be as agressive as you want. I rolled it and
it was quite uniform. Since the material is light, perhaps it doesn't
settle in the paint. Literature says it won't collect dirt as bad as
natural grit, so it has to be so, right ?
Working inside, the fumes were right potent, but if you are outside
that wouldn't be a problem.