Date:         Fri, 20 Jan 1995 09:44:56 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         michael.heron@utoronto.ca (Michael Heron)
Subject:      Re:  Q on converting bus to a camper

good point richard re: the sunroof thing. from what I recall of my 71' I
would say you are correct about the inner and outer roof's. Besides you
need the inner "roof" to reach the attachement bolts for the cot that fit
in the hole. In a 74' Westy as i recall, if you look at the ceiling in the
back of the van, it looks flatter than the 73 or older. This is because the
sheet metal has been cut away (i think) and replaced with a flat piece of
wood or aborite or something material. This is so people camping up in the
pop top aren't sleeping on a curved bed!. If they didn't cut away the sheet
metal people would be sleeping on the curvature of the roof.

If people know better than I, please reply for the benefit of us all.

michael


>>   I think the way Westfalia did those pre-74 pop-top openings was to use a
>>   sunroof body, without the sunroof. My '72 Westfalia <with forward hinged
>>   pop-top> had a "double-roof" behind the opening which formed a cavity like
>>   the one that a sunroof would be withdrawn into. It was a good place to
>>carry
>>   skis, by the way.
>>
>>   Soooo, if your present bus has a sunroof, you could go ahead with the
>>   conversion to pop-top.
>Indeed you can, but really, I would say it's not that bad cutting a hole
>out for the top. My '78 had a sunroof, and I mounted a '70 top pretty
>easily; it took about a day, with a friend helping. A friend of mine did
>cut a hole in his roof to install a top, and it wasn't a problem. He put
>on a non-westy top though...but it's a good day or two project.
>I recommend it, and think it would be worth it.
>Richard