Portsmouth, VA
In the process of trying to sell this game my original topper got crushed. Not a happy camper but stuff happens. I looked for a replacement and none to be found. I had seen a post here about someone else replacing one with a DIY version so I figured what the heck. That post talked about getting some plastic and bending it with a blowtorch. I figured I would see what I could do and headed over to a local plastics supplier with the old part with a few plans in mind.
Plan A was to see if they could make me a new one. As it turns out they could, but it would be several weeks and I have this machine for sale and didnt want to wait that long. Most likely they would have made some type of mold and thermoform the plastic to fit. I didn't ask about a price, it sounded expensive. Maybe if it was for a run of them and they could be sold it might make sense, but I'm not looking for that.
Plan B was to get some plastic and bend it into shape, similar to the post I referenced here. They had the red plexi but the owner said that trying to bend it by hand might not work too well. The guy suggested using a pretty thin polycarbonate plastic that would bend easily. All I had to do was figure out a way to get it to stay in shape and color it red. A piece about 2x4 feet cost me 25 out the door.
I'm used to working with aluminum and had some channel molding and some other bits and pieces kicking around. I swung by HD and got some fairly thin flat stock as well. When I got home I set to work making the two ends and connected them with some L shaped pieces that I got by cutting the U channel in half on the bandsaw. The flat stock was pretty easy to bend and I used a sanding drum of about the same diameter as the old topper to put the half circle bend in. Before I did that, I put a 90 degree bend in to help align the upright parts with the L base. I pop riveted those parts together and thought about it some and added a piece in the middle for added support.
I sprayed the frame as well as one side of the plastic with some Krylon red for plastic I happened to have around. To attach the plastic to the frame I applied some double sided tape and then attached the painted side facing in. Keeping the paint on the inside would prevent anything from the outside scratching it. I added some pop rivets in about 3 spots on each side to give it a bit more hold over time. SInce the original had clear ends, I added some clear plastic to each end that was cut and shaped to fit and then glued in. Finally I added some silver tape on each end to mimic the original topper.
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The topper was attached back to the top and unless you knew it was DIY, you wouldn't notice it being different.
