Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 21:50:26 -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 3
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Today, Bev went from being a GL hardtop to a Westfalia, or at least a
"Blossfalia." :-)
Local VW bus enthusiast and v@g listmember Chris Turner came over today to
help with the poptop conversion. The pictures show the story best:
http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/poptop
New pictures closer to the bottom.
Anyway, we cut the headliner such that it could be reused along the metal
cut. Then the wires that keep the headliner up were cut and the
insulation material was pulled out.
I had marked off the cut perimeter yesterday and so there was nothing to
do but cut. I drilled holes in the corners and off I went. I used a Skil
brand reciprocating saw with a bi-metal blade made for metal cutting.
It's slow going, but the cut is very neat. Also, no sparks to catch the
headliner on fire or anything stupid like that.
After that, the sheetmetal on the sides between the front and rear beams,
which were, of course, NOT cut, was relatively unsupported. Rather than
bend a lip into the metal, we decided to mount a 3/16" X 4' angle bracket
to give support to the area which holds the poptop legs and ultimate the
front portion of the bed. This turned out to take a while, but works
quite well. We bolted it in place every 6" and again where the poptop
legs go in. It's mounted all the way against the inside skin of the sides
of the bus, so I think I'll add some bolts into that to make it even more
rock solid.
The cut metal will be finished off with a luggage rack type seal from the
Bus Depot. That will also serve to hold the headliner and should give
everything a neat appearance. Cosmetics come later though.
For the canvas, I ended up using the one I had for the '85 and older vans
from Bill Maxian after all. That's the one I thought I couldn't use. I
just held it in place against the poptop the same way the newer ones would
be...with the aluminum strips and the screws. It's not yet attached to
the van body.
The poptop was then heaved up, legs attached and adjusted such that the
closed top fits snugly against the luggage rack. The hinges were put on
by lifting the rear of the top with some crosswise 2x4s and fiddling with
the hole alignment.
Finally, the poptop latch was attached as it would be on a Westy...against
the front beam with the pre-threaded backing plate.
The skylight has not yet arrived and I just put a piece of Lexan up there
to keep the dew out. I hope I don't have to jury rig something for
driving/camping what with the hurricane coming up...
I took her for a short spin to blow all the metal shavings off (they leave
ugly rust spots when combined with dew!) and check for any rattles. I'm
happy to report there are none apparent...especially with 5/8/77 set 2 of
the Gratefl Dead blasting. Woohoo!
This week comes the finish work of the headliner cosmetics, the bed
(maybe), and attaching the base of the canvas. Hopefully, the skylight
will arrive as well.
All in all, I'm really proud of the conversion and it will no doubt
increase the utility of our van.
Shameless plug: Chris Turner has a Westfalia roof including the metal cut
off of the van, a good canvas, hinges, latch, bed, etc. for sale. You
could essentially do the same thing I did and turn your GL into a poptop
van. Note that this is not for the squeamish and requires some fiddling,
fitting, and custom work like drilling & tapping, spacers, L-bracket
supports, etc. It's not a "drop-in" conversion.
Thanks to Tim Smith and others for their ideas in the conversion. A
special thanks to Chris Turner for his help and tools, without whom this
would have never been completed today.
Any questions, please pmail me.
-Karl
__________________________________
Karl & Kristina Bloss - bloss@enter.net
Trexlertown, PA - '87 Vanagon Westfalia Weekender "Beverley"
http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw
