John, and other history buffs : use the search feature on Tumblr. click on a specific blog pic and be amazed and amused for hours ! mike ________________________________ From: JRodgers <jrodgers113@GMAIL.COM> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Sent: Sunday, January 6, 2013 3:41 PM Subject: Re: my brother invented the poptop Very cool! Nice to get a real shot back into history on our vans. Thanks for sharing. John On 1/5/2013 9:29 PM, Richard A Jones wrote: > In 1962 my brother bought a Kombi with split seats and built > a camper into the back. A year later, with a baby, he popped > the top. This was in Denver. > > Here's what it looked like: > http://jones.colorado.edu/VW/originalpoptop/Splitties.jpg > [The 15-window bus is mine; I'm the tall guy in the center with > my back to the camera, age 22.] > > Here's a better view of the poptop. You can see the bed level > in the rear hatch, raised up so there was storage below it. > Westfalia never did catch on to that. > http://jones.colorado.edu/VW/originalpoptop/DPJpoptop.jpg > > The best view: > http://jones.colorado.edu/VW/originalpoptop/DPJpoptop2.jpg > The front roof folded down and then the rear, which rested on > the front upright part, so there was a slope from that top > to the rear. The pieces were made of corrugated fiberglass. > > He drove it until about 1971, when with a second kid, he got > an F-150 and an Okie box. > > Anyway, Douglas Payne Jones (1936-2011) built a poptop in 1963. > It took Westfalia five more years to figure it out. > > Richard > |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.