Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 23:22:07 -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, part 2
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Part 2 has been the thinking and cleaning part...where I clean up the junkyard
dirt and think about how to put all the stuff that I pulled apart in Part 1
back together again to make our van into a poptop van. Many beers went into
this process. :-)
The first thing I did is replace the brown luggage rack with the white one that
came with the hacked roof. It needed some TLC (e.g. fiberglass cleaner, etc.)
and a new luggage rack seal (can't beat the press-on type from the Bus Depot).
Since I had a luggage rack hardware on the roof already, it was a snap to
change out.
Canvas: The next thing I figured out was that there are 2 types of canvases in
terms of how they're attached to the poptop. The ealier (up to '85, AFAIK)
used staples to attach to the fiberglass. The later ones used a sewed-in
plastic strip in the canvas and aluminum tracks similar to what's on the van
body side of all canvases. I had bought a used canvas from a listee and it
turns out I can't use it because of this. I decided to bite the bullet and
order a new 3-window canvas from the Bus Depot; I hope it comes in soon...
Skylight: Another list friend had a spare and I sending it to me. Since I
have nothing but a hole, another VW enthusiast suggested I look into making the
hole into a standard 14" x 14" opening so I can use all the inexpensive and
nifty skylight parts from RV stores. A typical 14" x 14" RV skylight cover is
$10-$20 from Camping World! Nifty fans and rain and temperature sensing self-
opening/closing units are about $230...less than the whole Westy manual setup.
I'm considering it since I have nothing invested yet, but how to take the wider
poptop skylight width down to 14" without some ugly siliconed-in panels is
still a mystery...
OK, cleaned up the poptop. The outside was easy: Collonite's fiberglass boat
cleaner. The inside with the sprayed on mouse-fur was a bit harder. It was
all moldy black and spotted from the junkyard. The stuff that worked the best,
although not perfect, was Resolve foaming carpet cleaner. I rubbed it in with
a scrubbie...not just sprayed on. Bleach and other carpet cleaners failed.
New poptop seal from TBD...again, can't beat it...and yes, I put the bulb on
the inside. :-)
The method I'm using to mount the poptop was explained to me by another VW
person who, in return for telling me how to do it, told me not to broadcast the
minute details publicly; he has his reasons. So if you are considering the
project seriously, p-mail me and we can talk more about it. Here's what I will
tell you:
I attached the poptop hinges back to the poptop and lifted the fiberglass part
onto the van (with the help of a buddy). I lined everything up and then marked
where the hinges were to be mounted. I then took the poptop back off (again,
with a helper), removed the hinges from the poptop, and mounted them to the
roof. The West has a flat area for the hinges...the GL doesn't...it's a bit
tricky and might ultimately require some shims, etc. I drew the lines for the
part of the roof to be cut and scoped out where I need to cut the headliner. I
already have the overhead A/C ducts out, so if you want to keep your A/C
ductwork and want to cut a hole...fuggedaboudit.
That's as far as I got today, although I did buy metal blades for my
reciprocating saw. Now I'm committed to finishing the structural stuff this
week since we're headed up to the Buoy on Thursday and can't run around with
these hinges in the back. :-o
Tomorrow, I cut the sheet metal (no beams!) in the front. After that, the
poptop latch will be mounted as well as the poptop legs. Since I'm not bending
a lip into the sheetmetal, I'll probably have to cut the legs slightly so as
not to overstretch the canvas.
I've overcome my fear of drilling holes in the roof, but cutting a large
section still seems intimidating. We'll see how it goes.
After tomorrow's "hack job" comes the finishing work such as where to tuck the
headliner, how to line up the bed, how to finish the cut metal edges (I'm
thinking of using more of that luggage rack seal stuff from TBD), how to cover
the skylight hole in case I don't get the skylight in time for the weekend, etc.
I took some digipics, but I haven't transferred them to the web page yet. Those
that missed the old ones, they're at:
http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/poptop/
-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
