Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 02:40:16 -0500
Reply-To: Stephen Steele <steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stephen Steele <steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET>
Subject: Working on the Westy Pop Top Seals Vs. deleting 300 msgs
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Tonight after a busy couple of days away, I opened up the mail to 300 plus
messages!!!!
So instead of reading/deleting them, I went out to the garage to install my
new pop top seal, luggage rack seal and skylight seal (all from Bus Depot)
on my new-to-me '87 Westy. All went on great.
The PO (what a doufass!) had the mounts to the skylight on backwards... the
channel that holds the arms that raise and lower the skylight was installed
backwards and wouldn't/couldn't shut tight; the skylight just rose and fell
with the arms outside of the channels... gravity kept the skylight "shut".
His solution was to put a whole tube of silicon around the exterior of the
skylight . The Original Owner had duct taped it shut... 1/4 can of
carburetor cleaner got rid of the unsightly tape marks. The silicon took
nearly an hour to remove from the fiberglass and the exterior of the
skylight.
For those of you that are contemplating a new skylight gasket....it looks
like the gasket material is the same for the skylight as the pop top....
with a solid piece of cylindrical foam inserted into the ends for
continuity. I'm not complaining; all three gaskets fit very well and were
easy to install. A putty knife, rubber mallet and a pair of sidecuts were
all the tools that were needed to do the pop top and luggage rack seals.
Screw drivers and an 8mm socket did the skylight.
The other longish part of the job was to get all the debris out from under
the luggage rack. I pulled the old gasket off and was showered with
composted maple, pine and oak leaves and seeds. I used a stiff piece of
large plastic wire tie and an air gun to clean out all the debris that I
could produce by tapping the side of the rack.
Boy! My Westy looks a lot better! And hopefully it won't leak.
--
Stephen Steele*
Chillicothe OH
'91 Caravelle "Hans"
'87 Westy "Franz"
'84 Westfalia "Fritz" now with my nephew
'81 Diesel Rabbit "Ol' Yeller" by PO
'82 Diesel Jetta "Donormobile" for...
'82 Caddy VW Diesel P.U.
'90 Jetta GL 16 yo Sons' "together" car
'74 MGB My first car...yep, I've kept it since '74
'93 Chevy S-10
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written permission