There’s nothing more frustrating than when you are working
with a client on your Cadillac and the slider bars won’t adjust where you need
them to be. You scurry around, trying to
loosen things and find the best angle to apply force to move the bars into
position, all while your client is watching you and waiting.
Fixing this issue might sound intimidating, at first, but
can be fairly simple if you have the right tools and process. Here’s where you can start.
First, make sure the tubes the sliders are mounted to are
clean. There’s a quick
#MaintenanceMonday video on Instagram about how to clean your tubes with
Silicone Spray, here. Basically, you spray some silicone on a dry
rag and wipe down the rails. If the
canopy is aligned well, the sliders should move much more easily.
However, if the silicone spray cleaning doesn’t help your
sliders move more smoothly, you may need a slightly more in-depth tune-up. To do this, you’ll need a 3/16” Allen wrench
and two cotter pins. (Hint: you can
substitute some thin nails or small Allen wrenches for the cotter pins, if you
didn’t keep yours).
To watch this process as it relates to a sticky vertical
slider bar, you can check out the free video in the BB Garage, here.
- Insert the cotter pins (or cotter pin
substitutes) into the holes on the vertical tubes. This will prevent the tubes from sliding down
once you loosen the set screws.
- Loosen the two set screws on each tube receiver which are mounted to the wood frame.
- Loosen the two set screws at the top of the
canopy that hold the top horizontal tube in place (see photo).
- Slide the vertical slider bar all the way up to the top.
- Tighten the two set screws at the top.
- Slide the vertical slider bar all the way to the bottom.
- Tighten the eight set screws on the bottom.
- Test slide the bar up and down to make sure the process worked.
- Remove the cotter pins.
- Enjoy your smoothly functioning slider!
Please note, this procedure can be extrapolated to the
horizontal slider on the top of the canopy, and to issues with the push-through
bar binding up. If the vertical slider
doesn’t function smoothly after this tune-up, you’ll need to loosen all of the
set screws of the canopy, sequentially, and re-tighten them. I can help walk you through that slightly
more complicated process if you reach out to me at Kaleen@fitreformer.com.
Happy Reforming!