Vintage Carefree Renewal

[Kevin245]

I have another old Carefree awning that is still in good shape except for the spring assemblies. The shafts are corroded, the nylon sleeves are worn through, and the caps are shot. I have did find some replacement caps, but have had no success finding other NOS, or replacement parts to repair them with. I'm not sure that I could get them apart without destroying them anyway.

That being said, I'm taking the restoration hat off and slipping on the Mad Inventor's Cap to retrofit new spring cans into the old Carefree awning. The new springs set for this modification came from an AE donor awning.

To begin with:

The primary difference between new and old is the stationary shaft diameter on the old set is relatively small in comparison with the new set.

The other difference is on the finger ends that fit inside the roll tube. The new set uses a tri-finger configuration that is slightly larger in diameter than the straight finger setup on the old set.

Over the next few weeks I will try to document the conversion from old to new spring sets.

Regards,

Kevin