Roof removal.

[golfingtam]

Good evening folks, how easy is it to remove roof section from my 'van. It is a Viking roof. I need to remove it to weld my gutters and paint it while it is off. thanks in advance.

[CJH]

Yep, been there, done that. With a bit of luck I'll get the reassembly done this weekend.

It's not too much of a job actually. Since you'll be painting the roof you'll probably need to remove the canvas too, so you'll have about a million rivets to drill the heads off where the canvas is sealed to the van roof. But apart from that, you can separate the canvas from the fibreglass roof just by undoing all the screws round the top edge. The main problem is that you'll need to remove the gas struts, so you'll need to support the roof somehow while you do that. I made a pole that wedged between the metal plate/loop in the middle of the roof and the floor mounted table bracket so it didn't slip. You'll need to remove the struts not only to get the roof off, but also to remove the canvas, since the struts are inside the canvas at both ends. Don't forget that there are a couple of wires going into the fibreglass roof through a grommet in the tin top above the kitchen area - you'll need to disconnect them before lifting the roof off, but you won't be able to get to them until the canvas is dropped. These wires are actually scotch-locked (from new!) to the wires running inside the upper bulkhead, behind the trim pieces that line the hole in the tin top. If you've removed all that trim you can undo the scotch-locks, and maybe do a better job with a soldering iron when you reassemble. I've instead snipped through the wires and will be soldering a connector in so that they're easier to disconnect in future.

The fibreglass roof itself is obviously fixed to the van by four hinges, so you'll need to drill the heads off the three rivets in each hinge then fold the hinges out of the way. After that it's easiest as a three-man lift - not due to the weight, which is only about 45kg, but because it's a lot easier to have one person at the front and one each side at the back then walk it off over the front of the van.

I removed all the trim pieces around the tin-top hole, as well as all the woodwork making up the upstairs beds. With hindsight that may not be necessary just to get the roof off, but since I'm replacing it all anyway it made sense. If you don't remove the bed bases from the slide-out section, you'll have difficulty getting to the rivets holding the canvas down on that side. As a minimum you'll need to disconnect the slide-out section from the roof canvas, so that you can get to the rivets. I haven't fully worked through how to reassemble this little lot yet - the slide-out section will have to be extended in order to get the tension right on the new canvas, but then I won't be able to get to the rivets. I think I'll leave the bed bases off the slide-out section until the canvas tension is correct.

Good luck.

[Plasticman]

pickies of you doing yours would be nice
mm

[golfingtam]

Thanks for your reply. Should be a piece of cake. Will try taking photos for future ref.
Thanks to all.