Shrug wrote:Ok, I am not sur ehow I see your seals are any different. It seems like with that many folding pieces you would have more trouble sealing.
How could you change my fixed sided design to eliminate water build-up?
How exactly does yours keep water running away?
You're dead right about the number of pieces in my design causing sealing problems, but I've looked at each one and decided there's a decent method. But I do need to do more on the bottom seal (at the hinge).
To explain the problem with your internal pop-up, here's a sketch:
On the left is your bottom seal - as rain runs down the side of the pop-up, it passes through the gap in the roof (there must be a gap if the pop-up moves) and collects in the space underneath until it's full of water as shown in the sketch.
On the right is a typical automotive use of a seal - it's the actual design of the seal on the tail-box of my motorcycle project. The orange bit is the fixed bottom and the blue is the lifting top - the interior is to the left and the exterior to the right. In this case, the water doesn't tend to go near the seal and only does so as wind-borne spray - when stationary, any water that gets into the seal chamber will try to drain out the bottom to the exterior.
I can't see an easy way to seal your pop-up without having water build-up. One solution would be to fit one or more drain tubes so that any water that comes in can drain out to the ground. Many sliding roof systems in cars use this, but those drain tubes do have a habit of clogging up, and then you're back to square one.
Andrew