The factory hightop - construction, removal and replacement

[poshbuggers]

Having soon to take delivery of my factory 'bread van' hightop Syncro I have been doing a bit of reading into the roof and am led to believe:

a) it is made of plastic, rather than the metal I suspected
b) the roof itself is removable
c) the roof frame is the same (or near to) that of a Westfalia

I wondered if anyone had removed the roof, how hard it was and whether anyone has used the frame to do a Westy poptop/hightop conversion?

We normally only use the lower bunk but our long term plan was to have a proper upper bunk for small kids like my niece. She cried when she heard the old van had been stolen and I promised her a sleepy space in the roof on the next one.

[DavidPallister]

Hi mate

I removed my factory high top last year to sort out the rust around the gutters. It was a big job.

The roof itself is fibreglass with a small flange all the way around the base and 2 cross braces bolted to the top of the van structure that go up and over the inside of the roof. It competely replaces the normal steel roof and cross braces, so is totally open from front to back.

Above the cab head liner is a wooden shelf held up in place by 5 brackets (that most people mistake for a steel roof section).

The gutters are separate pressings spot welded into place, as opposed to being integrally pressed as part of the normal steel roof pressing.

The roof is bonded into place, and secured mechanically as well. There is a retaining lip above the front windscreen that the front flange fits under, more retaining lips spot welded into the gutters that are folded over the side flanges, and a skirt along the rear edge that is riveted into place beneath the tailgate top edge, then seam sealer applied over the top of the whole lot.

It was an absolute bugger to get off, but I have no intension of refitting it, as i'm going to be making my own roof. I simply cut the front lip off, the gutter retaining lips disintegrated as they were badly corroded thanks to the sealer failing, and the rear rivets were simply drilled out.
It then took 4 of us to lift it off, as its bloody heavy.


As far as i'm aware, the steel structure is identical to that used on Westys, the only difference being the shape of the bolt on cross braces and the roof moulding itself. I do recall reading somewhere that separating them was impossible without destroying either the roof or the retaining lips. As said above my retaining lips were already f***ed, so didn't care about destroying them further.

Hope this helps

Dave

[t25adict]

i had an early factory hightop van that i broke to just the shell, the roof frame i think would really suit a westy or full length pop top.