Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 22:15:57 -0400
Reply-To: "Karl F. Bloss" <bloss@ENTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Karl F. Bloss" <bloss@ENTER.NET>
Subject: The poptop project, stage 1 (long)
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Here are some pics from stage one of the poptop conversion process:
http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/poptop/
Stage one is just getting the thing from the junkyard to our place and
dismantling the components for cleanup and reassembly.
So far, we got the junkyard to cut the roof of the donor van at the pillars all
the way around and lift it with a forklift onto our roof rack (Thule bars) and
previously installed luggage rack. The yard gave us some tires to buffer the
load a bit. Some of my neighbors just thought I popped the top rather than
having a whole second roof up there.
The state of the roof is pretty decent with the fiberglass and remaining body
metal in excellent shape (no rust) and it's the same color as our van (pastel
white). The luggage rack has a gouge in one side, so I tried fixing it with
Bondo. We'll see how that turns out (setting now), but we have our luggage
rack installed already anyway. It will just have to be painted to match the
poptop.
The canvas is pretty much shot with molded sections ripped all the way through.
I have a used one coming in which I will probably get my sister to install
side screens before it's reattached to the top.
The bed is in excellent shape, including the cushions.
The skylight had already been taken by the junkyard, so someone siliconed a
piece of fiberglas in the hole to prevent water from coming in. I chipped all
that out and will probably get an entire skylight assembly from one of our
list.vendors. Quotes for the entire assembly (skylight, gaskets, hardware,
screens, etc.) appreciated. :-)
After we got the roof up there, the first dilemna was how to get it back down.
This was my project for Saturday. Turns out that sucker is HEAVY. The most
logical method was to disassemble it as far as possible right on the roof. Out
came the step ladder and I pulled off the luggage rack (had to kill a few wasps
nesting under there first). Next I popped the top (now THAT looked funny...too
bad my digital camera batteries had just died), removed the rail that holds
down the canvas, then dismembered the poptop hardware and took the poptop off
the van with the help of a neighbor.
The rest of the hardware (hinges, poptop lock, bed) came out and I lifted the
metal roof skeleton off with the help of 3 other neighbors. It was still
pretty darned heavy.
In the few hours I had today, I pulled the poptop seal off all the way around.
I figure it's easier to do it now with the poptop on the ground. I also pulled
the canvas off the top since I had only removed it from the body side
yesterday. I had heard horror stories of hundreds of staples. Either these
stories were exaggerated or something is different on this top, but I pulled
exactly 8 staples (1 on each corner, 1 in the middle of each side).
Next came cleaning the mildew and this will take some more time, hopefully
involving my better half who also will make use of this new top. :-)
The real fun of separating the metal halves (inner and outer) of the metal roof
by drilling out the spotwelds is yet to begin. After that's done, I think it
will become self-evident what will have to be welded and how big of a hole
needs to be cut in our roof.
BTW, if anyone else is thinking of doing this project, Chris Turner in
Allentown, PA (jordanvw@aol.com) has a complete roof with poptop just like I
got, but a different color. I decided to go for the white van because of the
color match.
-Karl
Karl and Kristina Bloss, Trexlertown, PA
'87 GL Weekender "Beverley" - 185K miles
VW Mechanic list: http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/vwshops
Busses by the Trail - Oct 15-17, 1999: http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/bbtt
PA/NJ Vanagon owner's mailing list: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/pavanagon
