In a message dated 7/11/01 4:05:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
staff@EARTHNOW.ORG writes:


Our GL has a big factory sunroof, and it appears to be 3" smaller on each
side than the westy opening. We plan on slicing the rear roof section off
the westy carcass, and welding it into the rear roof section of the GL. The
neat part is we think we can do this without wasting the headliner of the
GL, cuz it has this metal roof under where the sunroof slid! We are very
excited about being able to possibly save the headliner....



dont do it!! apparently you are not aware that the sunroof vanagons are
rare..  especially the 86, and '87 sunroof vans. sunroof vans were avail in
the US from 80-87, but it was a rare option. especially the last two years.  
vw sold hardly any sunroof vans in 86 and 87 - i've ever only seen like three
86 sunroof vans in my life, and never a 87 sunroof...you have one of the few
87 sunroof vans that exist.   87 was the last year the sunroof van was sold
in the US, and since the sunroof vans were not available with A/C, they were
rare.  if you want to do a poptop retrofit - go with a hardtop van.  not only
will you be destroying one of the few 87 sunroofs that exist, you will have a
lot more work because of the double roof in the sunroof van, as opposed to
doing the conversion to a hardtop van with the single roof.

what you are doing would be comparable to hacking up the roof on a '67 deluxe
microbus 21 window..  ok, a little extreme analogy, but you get the idea.  if
you have one of the last sunroof vans sold in the US, why would you want to
cut it up?
there are plenty of cheap hardtop vans out there..
just a thought.
chris
'84 wolfsburg sunroof w/ dealer a/c
ex '84 GL sunroof
ex '83.5 GL 9 Passenger sunroof (rare in its own right)