Date:         Sat, 27 May 2006 00:49:17 -0400
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: poptop seal - quality? great success with BD seals
In-Reply-To:  <44771C71.6000501@verizon.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

> The PO of my weekender replaced the poptop seals with Bus 
> Depot seals...  I have been amazed at how quiet the van is. 
>  Absolutely no highway noise from the poptop.
> It has also withstood borderline hurricane force / tropical 
> storm force winds and driving rain as well as very intense 
> thunderstorms with driving rains and winds at gusts of over 
> 50 with no leaking.  I was pretty amazed at these events.  I 
> expected to have a wet van interior.


FWIW, our poptop seal kit is different from the others in a number of ways.
It was our very first Bus Depot designed product, many years ago, and much
effort was put into making it superior to the others on the market at the
time. Sadly, the others have not improved over the years. For the same price
that we charge, most of them still ship an off-the-shelf generic
weatherstrip that was not designed for Westfalia tops. I have covered the
differences before, so I'll summarize here...

1) Slightly different placement of insulation bulb to better emulate the
original, for better insulation (not just against rain, but temperature too;
i.e. keeps heat from escaping during the winter).

2) Smoother texture; closer to original than the others (although still not
identical).

3) Luggage rack seal allows rainwater drainage, as VW intended  (The others
sell an additional length of poptop seal as luggage rack seal. This is a
no-no, as the luggage rack 'seal' is not actually supposed to be a seal at
all. Look up top. There are holes in the luggage rack 'floor' for the rain
to go through, which is then supposed to exit below the 'seal' into the rain
gutters; not get trapped under your luggage rack by the seal.)  

4) Our luggage rack seal can be easily installed without having to loosen or
remove the luggage rack. 

5) Seal between poptop and luggage rack does not require glue; it holds in
with no-rust aluminum clips like the other seals. (Note, we are backordered
on this seal for about 2-1/2 to 3 weeks, so if ordering before then you can
either accept one that does require adhesive, or have our 'no-adhesive' one
shipped separately when in.) 

Link:

<http://busdepot.com/view.jsp?model=43&category=40&group=94&prodgroup=910>

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215)  234-VWVW

_____________________________________________
Toll-Free for Orders by PART # :  1-866-BUS-DEPOT