We had an old rubber Gear Shift boot sealing the hole in the floor where the stick comes up through. It was cracked and dead so I needed a new one. As with the Cabane strut boots I wanted the older look of leather. I still have plenty of goat skin scraps so that was my material of choice.
The idea was an eight sided Tee Pee with a Bellows at the bottom so it would move without restricting the stick.
I made a card stock pattern for the bellows rings, traced it on the back of the leather and cut them out.
To hold them properly aligned while sewing I used a narrow bead of Contact Cement to glue the 2 pieces together.
It made sewing them so much easier since they couldn't shift.
I decided that with one piece of the Bellows attached to the floor there wouldn't be enough movement. To add more flex to it all I made a second set of rings, and glued and sewed them to the first set. Much better.
For the Tee Pee cone, again a card stock pattern, created with a little trigonometry. Yes, we like math and drafting.
The pieces were glued and sewn together in pairs and then the pairs sewn together, leaving a flap so it can open to get it over the stick grip.
To close the Tee Pee there is a piece of Velcro on the side and a shoe lace for the top. The shoe lace allows you to tighten the top snugly to the stick so it can't sag and bind the stick.
The Bellows has lots of movement.
An aluminum ring was made from some 0.040" 2024-T3.
Holes were punched in the leather to match the screw hole pattern and the ring was glued to the top of the bottom piece in the Bellows.
Number 4 screws 1/4" long attach it nicely to the floor board.
It looks good and with full deflection of the stick you can't feel it's there. I need to go fly this thing.
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