Windsheild Solar Shades
I wanted a windshield solar screen for our up coming trip to Utah, but shelling out $200 didn't appeal to my pocket book. So we set out to create our own. I looked at all the various photos I could find and finally settled on a plan. With the great help of my wife the project is complete and IMHO looks pretty darn good for a couple of hackers!
I purchased two rolls of Phifer Super Solar Screening in black which claims is blocks 90% of the suns heat. I could have ordered a larger single piece of fabric via the Internet on several sites, but most of it was much longer then I needed and pretty expensive. To add some support to the edges of the screen I also purchased two strips of flat aluminum 1/16" x 1.5" in 4' strips. finally a roll of 2" wide Industrial Velcro. All of this was available at Lowe's, our local Home Depot did not have any of the Solar screening, but may vary by store. I found the Solar Screen in the store in the screen repair section, not in the Garden department.
We measured the height of the windows to the edge of the black molding and from the center to each edge of the molding. Wife hemmed the fabric top and bottom and then hemmed a pocket for the aluminum strips which I had cut to fit and rounded the corners. She was having a heck of a time sewing through the Velcro as it had glue on it and it kept gumming up the needle, she was about to give up when I suggested using some Pam cooking spray, worked like a charm no more gumming up the needle.
We then applied strips of 2" wide Velcro next to the side of the windshield directly to to fiberglass, if you have recently waxed your RV the Velcro will not stick - trust me I found out. She then tacked the material in the center and we fit it to the coach windshield and marked it. One final hem and the Windshield Screens are complete. We're very happy with the screens and most of all we had fun doing the project together. All that is left is to either buy or make some type of sleeve for the wipers.
