John,
I made my side runners (valences) and top valences from plastic drain
pipe purchased from Home Depot. I split the drain pipe with a saber
saw, cut the halves to length (however far down you wish your blinds to
drop determines the length) and for the arc I put a piece of cardboard
against the door and traced the outline of the curvature. I wrapped a
layer of dacron around the plastic valences, glued it with 3M super
adhesive (spray) then covered it with the fabric of our choice and used
spray adhesive to hold the fabric over the dacron. I pop rivited the
top valence to the side pieces prior to covering. I used small 90 deg
angle brackets poprivited to the back of the side and top valences to
hold them in place. Any mismatch between the arc in the valences and
the sides of the coach are hidden by the upholstery on them. I found
the arc in the side walls of the GMC to be fairly consistant throughout
both sides of the coach. This was very inexpensive and quickly
accomplished by myself. (First time I'd ever attempted to do this
also.) I was very pleased with the results.
Make sure you buy blinds with good operating gears. Ours were quite
inexpensive with plastic slats and since the side valences actually
retain the blinds, there is some resistance present when you operate
them. This is death on the cheap plastic operating gears and they
strip.
HTH,
Steve
I made my side runners (valences) and top valences from plastic drain
pipe purchased from Home Depot. I split the drain pipe with a saber
saw, cut the halves to length (however far down you wish your blinds to
drop determines the length) and for the arc I put a piece of cardboard
against the door and traced the outline of the curvature. I wrapped a
layer of dacron around the plastic valences, glued it with 3M super
adhesive (spray) then covered it with the fabric of our choice and used
spray adhesive to hold the fabric over the dacron. I pop rivited the
top valence to the side pieces prior to covering. I used small 90 deg
angle brackets poprivited to the back of the side and top valences to
hold them in place. Any mismatch between the arc in the valences and
the sides of the coach are hidden by the upholstery on them. I found
the arc in the side walls of the GMC to be fairly consistant throughout
both sides of the coach. This was very inexpensive and quickly
accomplished by myself. (First time I'd ever attempted to do this
also.) I was very pleased with the results.
Make sure you buy blinds with good operating gears. Ours were quite
inexpensive with plastic slats and since the side valences actually
retain the blinds, there is some resistance present when you operate
them. This is death on the cheap plastic operating gears and they
strip.
HTH,
Steve
