After we left the 2012 Overland Expo, we boondocked south of Sedona on our way home to Southern California. Somehow, in two years of camping with Sporty we never had a significant bug encounter. A cloud of tiny flies descended upon us and until we noticed the welts, we didn’t even know they bit! The bug repellant we applied was too little and too late. Two weeks later, we still have itchy bumps.
Following Yubariver’s excellent instructions, we got to work sewing up our own barn door screens. Those little rare earth magnets are both powerful and effective. My sewing machine seems to be built totally of aluminum except the throat area where the needle does its magic. If the magnet was in the seam, it stuck and nothing would move forward. I ended up sewing three sides for each magnet pocket and hand stitching the fourth side after inserting the magnet. To counter act the tendency of the vertical header to slide down, we added a strip of thin grip shelf liner to the top. I was careful to keep the magnet polarity all pointing in the same direction so when it is folded up, there is not much of a problem with the magnets sticking to one another.
We are well pleased with our weekend Sporty mod. We spent about $53.00 which would have been less if we had the patience to wait and purchase the magnets on line.
Inside looking out through bug screen with 9" overlap
Outside looking in through bug screen with 9" overlap
Top of rear side door
Top of front side door
Thin sticky shelf mat sewn to top edge 1" for 1/2" magnets