Date:         Wed, 10 Dec 2003 21:43:25 EST
Reply-To:     JordanVw@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         JordanVw@AOL.COM
Subject:      Re: Passenger van to westy pop top conversion?
Comments: To: BenTbtstr8@aol.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

In a message dated 12/10/03 6:54:28 PM Eastern Standard Time,
BenTbtstr8@AOL.COM writes:


> You have to ask yourself what you are hoping to accomplish. You are
> marrying
> a project of this scope. Resale value will be affected. In this very List
> alone, there has been countless discussions about "Westies" which were not
> real
> Westies but conversions from a bus. The discussions was far from positive
> IIRC.
>
> You should also take into consideration what your time is worth. For some
> folks who are retired and have the special skills to do this type of
> project,
> hooray. You've got it altogether. Let's also not forget the understanding
> significant other. You've got all of the above as I recall.
>
> At the end of the day, you have ask yourself if it was worth it. IMHO it is
> NOT for most people. There are simply too many less expensive options with
> less
> compromises. Your money is better spent elsewhere.
>
> BenT

all i know is it did not take long at all for karl and i to do the
conversion..we did it in the driveway of his townhouse complex in one weekend, with
minimal hand tools, a drill and a jigsaw...  when the top was popped up or down it
looked like a genuine westy from outside. we reinforced the sheetmetal where
the raise bar in the front was with simple angle iron on each side.  the
luggage rack and rear hinges we bolted right thru the roof as do in a real westy.
he was quite pleased with the end result, and it added value to his otherwise
plain '87 GL.   the only drawback about the whole project was not having the
"factory" flip out bed, tho a custom bed platform did the trick fine.

chris