Carport Tarp

Hello again, Photos at

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Tarpaulin used to cover the south end of my carport extension, with the west edge being used as a "door". The top of the tarp is secured to the horizontal top tube by way of tie wraps as are the corrugated sheets. The bottom of the tarp is ditto, with the east end hinged to the upright to allow the opposite "door" end to be lifted, once a securing bolt is removed. The hinge is merely a 12mm nut & bolt, welded to the bottom rail. Now the hinge/bolt is not as easy to pull out as I would wish, what with the weight of the tube, so am thinking of cutting the end away at an angle up to the holes the bolt goes through, enabling me to just pull the lower tube back thus pulling the bolt clear and reverse the action to put it back. Lifting the "door" end will just push the bolt against the drilled holes as it is raised. The whole tarp can be lifted clear by way of two pulleys and rope attached to the bottom rail. It all works very well, but a solution for the "door" has hit the proverbial brick wall, and I need advise/help please.

As can be seen, the west side of the tarp is being used as a "door", and will be secured to a length of 1"sq steel time by way of ss bolts, wing nuts and penny washers through eyelets, so that the tarp can be easily removed and pulled up to allow a car in. My problem is how to support the top end of the "door" tube to allow it to be easily moved out the way once pulled free of the magnets that secure it to the wall. My first thought was to affix a short length on 1"sq tube horizontally to the wall, extended to the gutter line and using a tie wrap to support the vertical tube. Trying this out first, however, showed that the tie wrap would only slide along the tube in a very jerky fashion. Maybe I should polish the tube edges. Being a model engineer, I have of course visualised various alternatives, with each becoming more complicated than the previous :-) I now need help from a wider audience as the same ideas are now just being regurgitated each day. Hope it all makes sense.

Any suggestions gratefully accepted. Cheers GeoffH Norfolk UK not VA

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GeoffH
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