Fitting West pop-top canvas instructions on Wiki?

[chriscburgess]

Ok now i am sure i am going to get shot down in flames for either posting this in the wrong place or someone telling me to do a search. However.........

I wanted to get some definitive step by step instructions on how to fit a new canvas to my westy pop top. I have searched but have been unable to find anything.

If anyone has done this and would be willing to post how they did it on the Wiki i'm sure there would be a lot of grateful people out there.

On the face of it I can't see that it would be too difficult but there do seem to be a quite a lot of posts where people have had problems so some good instructions would be really helpful.

Many thanks
Chris

[doivey]

Is your one stapled at the top and connected by strips at the bottom ?

Or the newer variety with strips on both sides ( which I think is easier )

[chriscburgess]

its stapled at top and screwed at base.

[Smcknighty]

Did mine couple of weekends ago

Mine was from gowesty - saw it on campervan culture video and figured it looked pretty well made.

What I did is below, I've also included what I would do differently. This worked but I wouldn't necessarily follow it as a guide blindly - learn from my mistakes!

My process was:

Remove all little screws from the metal strips at the bottom - you will probably need a socket and screwdriver to get into the corners. I reused these, could be better off getting more.

Undo coach bolts and screws into the side where the raising bar meets the roof(!) does that make any sense?.? After I undid those mine stayed put so I left it there and lowered the roof on to it -don't do this.. What do you do? Gawd knows but not this.. The bar is spring loaded, that's why the roof feels so light (guess what it's not really light!) it bit me really badly later on..


I used a toolbox to add a bit of height to the pop top as a wedge - basically put it on the bed and rested the top on it. This allowed me to undo the bolts on the hinges where they connect to the van. In retrospect I would have taped the hinges in an upright position before removal - or maybe removed them entirely. As it was I didn't.

Then removal.

What I did then is how not to do it!

I did - Get wife, tell her to lift the front end whilst you manly lift the back.

Ignore moaning from wife - this thing is seriously light right - it's grp and a bit of wood, probably the weight of an old style windsurfer, feels light when you lift it (spring loaded bar!)

Ease it backwards. Wife - the tent is stuck around the bar - oh it is - ok so she goes to the back n pulls backwards whilst you free the bar by lifting and pulling tent out of the way whilst pulling the bar. This works. It works with a big spring snap back into position and a sudden "pooh" load of pain from the index finger. See next post and picture!

[Smcknighty]

[img]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/06/13/a3apu8yr.jpg[/img]

This hurt - a lot.. I seriously thought I'd broken it for a while. Even let Jo put peas on it (frozen, not as a snack)

Anyway, learning there is do something else with that bar..

Back to the van - with blood a streaming, this thing s half way off and I can't really leave it.

The right thing to do to remove the roof is as per gowesty instructions (which I read later) 3 - 4 people.. But what the heck.. So blood and unhappy wife plus lots of screaming shouting moaning its off.. Most of the weight was borne by me underneath it on my own.. It's manageable like this but its not much fun..

Now onto trestles upside down. Remove staples using small screw driver to get them loose then pull them out with pliers. Wear a latex glove on right hand else you will end up with bloody fingerprints everywhere.

[img]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/06/13/9y8e4uny.jpg[/img]

I thought I'd taken a lot of photos but most are fairly useless.

This is it with tent on. I saved the plastic strips for reuse.

Refitting is then a reversal of removing - simple

[Smcknighty]

Just kidding - what I wanted to do same time was recover the roof as my covering had pretty much disappeared.

So first prep the surface. - remove lock mechanism, remove window and mechanism.

Then I used an acetone replacement - it's sold as grp cleaner, it removes everything ever normally. Except for that flock stuff!! It does weaken it though. This alongside a wire brush and maybe 6 hours of work gives you this

[img]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/06/13/ujadu6e4.jpg[/img]

A nice clean grp surface

I cleaned it with solvent after this - again wear gloves if you don't want to leave blood everywhere.

Then cover - I used megavan mat stretchy carpet in I think barley.

My mistake here was trying to save too much material.

Also get a baby sitter..

With the able assistant (who is still annoyed after the last time)

Work your way down the van with the carpet stuff pretty much as per glue instructions - e.g spray wait a minute stick. We did maybe a foot at the time.

Make sure the overlap is good otherwise you'll be trying to correct it from about halfway down.

[img]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/06/13/u2uqebuj.jpg[/img]

This was the cut (note that I have been way too tight on the left)

[img]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/06/13/nu8avupy.jpg[/img]

This was it on - I then cut it flush using a craft knife. I cut it up to the bottom of the wood, and then up to the edge of the window

[img]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/06/13/u4asa2ad.jpg[/img]

I then fitted the trim (which was also from gowesty and is pretty good) and just pushed the carpet back and under.

Why the baby sitter? When we got to the last bit our little un who was playing with the kids of the street took a tumble - wife rushed off, I was left and the result was a slight crease! Timing is everything with kids..

[Smcknighty]

So - then refitting the tent

Gowesty in their instructions say that the strips are brittle ad that you should heat them with a hot air gun first whilst avoiding burning the tent. Not needed IMO - I left them in the hot sun and they became pretty floppy.

I used 9mm staples - based this decision on what I pulled out.

Also based on what I pulled out - I found seperate staples behind the strips that had obviously been used to position the tent.

So first I used positioning staples - one in each corner one in the middle I did the front first followed by sides and then the end. I don't think this positioning is critical but I tried hard to keep it accurate.

Make sure it's the right way round e.g windows facing the way you want.

Once I had the positioning - again with the able assistant I worked my way down the strip. A staple every 5mm or so. I did front then rear then sides

[Smcknighty]

Refit the roof..

I taped the hinges up using electrical tape so they wouldn't scratch the roof.

I pushed all the cage bolts (freshly painted) through the roof through the carpet and sealed them with sealant - I used a nut and washer to pull them in tight to the carpet then left the sealant to go off

then using a borrowed neighbour and the wife we got it back on - this was pretty easy with three people.

To fit the hinges I acted as the pop top bar thing and held the front of the roof up whilst Clint fitted the hinges.

To fit the spring bar I climbed on the front roof and lifted the pop top roof slightly higher than normal. The bar then swung in fairly easily. Tighten bolts and this is done. You need an assistant again for this.. At this point I refitted the window and the lock and it was then watertight.

[Smcknighty]

Fitting the screws and metal strips was another challenge. I started with the front ones - there was a handy crease in the middle that helped with lining it up - I started with the middle one then worked left. I kept the strip tight to the beading on the basis that that is what stops the tent pulling out and under.

The go Westy instructions say you might need to cut a notch in the corners to get it to go round. I can't see this working if you don't. I cut fairly wide v's in the piping only - this allowed the straight piping to go round corners.

Fitting the screws gets harder when you get closer to the sides. I left the initial ones slightly loose so I could then peek underneath and see where the holes are. Then you have to push the bar back whilst screwing into the hole. It's tough but achievable. When I did the back I went outside and pulled the bar into position whilst Jo did the screws, this worked better.

Hope this helps, if I did it again there's a few things I'd do differently.

It took a lot of time a weekend plus two evenings after work. Bear that in mind. Ideally I'd have cleaned up the outside of the roof the same time. Realistically I was too worried about rain.

That's it really, thought I'd taken a pic of the inside and the roof up - cant see it on the phone though. Will add one when the rain stops. Im really pleased with the end result

[chriscburgess]

Thanks thats really helpful!

I guess i thought it would be easy but maybe a i need to allow more time than originally thought. I don't plan on taking the roof off so i will attempt to take the canvas off on Friday and leave Saturday and Sunday for a clear run on putting the new one on.

I was going to follow the method as shown here : http://vimeo.com/12165017" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Although his is screwed and mine is stapled. the bit that worries me is getting access at the back for the staples, it looks pretty tight to me.

Did you need to keep the canvas tight as you did the bottom? i have read that you can keep it lose and then spray with water and it tightens up.

[doivey]

Thanks for the runthrough there SmcKnighty. will come in useful when i finally take the plunge.. (maybe)

Chris these are apparently alot harder as they are stapled on one side- which is a shame.

If you do do it then let me know how it goes. my current pop is embarrssingly ripped and mouldy/skanky. Well it is 31 years old.

SmcKnighty are you generally happy with the go-westy canvas ?

A good replacement ?

Porbably the most expensive one on the market, but might be worth it.

[Smcknighty]

So the canvas is good, difficult to say its better than others really, its certainly way better than the old one! In the corners where it was under stretch it started to give a tiny amount which i really didn't like. It's only been on there a couple of weeks and only one night away so far. The mesh is good and the zip panels hold a good shape and it looks smart so I guess those are the main things. That video was interesting, I would think its possible to do the same with the staples but it might drive you nuts - you'd have to hold the canvas and the strip up whilst you worked. Benefit is no pressure to get it finished before the rain kicks in.

I might try the water approach and see if it tightens up, it's less tight than the old one was but its certainly not loose. The canvas was generally easy when you take the roof off, if you aren't recovering the pop top I reckon you'd have it done in a day