Autohomes rigid pop top restoration

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Beemsquar
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Autohomes rigid pop top restoration

Post by Beemsquar »

Hi all, I am in the process of restoring my VW T25 Autohomes rigid pop top camper and have finally got round to sorting the roof out, after a few months of not working on it due to all the awful weather we had this winter.

I seem to have misplaced my paperwork with the dimensions I took down for the location of the gas ram brackets, that mount to the vehicles roof.

If there are any Autohomes rigid pop top owners on here, who could be so kind to measure the 4 locations to the centre of the ram, I would be most grateful!!!

The actual roof was in good condition and I believe the cap is a replacement as there is zero sagging or leaks, but it was filthy inside and needed updating to match the new interior.

So far I've removed the roof, re-ply-lined and insulated it with Dodo liner. Replaced the curved front and back pieces, fully carpeted everything with genuine Veltrim 4 way stretch lining in smoke. Re-made the sides as they were in bad condition and painted the outsides in the same colour as the van and just fitted new stainless steel piano hinges and all other hardware.

Final job to do on the roof now is to figure out exactly where the hinges need to attach to the van body and get the damn thing back up to attach the sides and gas rams.

The last job will be to replace the rubber seals on the pop top windows, which again if anyone can enlighten me on the profile needed, would be a great help, as I can't find the old ones and fear they may have been thrown out!!

Here's a few pics of the progress so far. ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk
1983 T25 Autohomes conversion, 1.6 diesel non turbo.

bolddrummer
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Re: Autohomes rigid pop top restoration

Post by bolddrummer »

I am just about to do the annual “get the roof going up and down” service. Just wondered if you had replaced your rams? If so were did you get them?

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Beemsquar
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Re: Autohomes rigid pop top restoration

Post by Beemsquar »

Hiya, yeah I replaced the rams and the mounting brackets as mine were all shot. I purchased a set of new rams from SGS engineering, I just measured the length of the rams I took off and matched them the best I could to what they had, I then made sure I chose a set that matched the Nm force required to keep the roof up. All works much better than before. Good luck!

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1983 T25 Autohomes conversion, 1.6 diesel non turbo.

Jacqui
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Re: Autohomes rigid pop top restoration

Post by Jacqui »

Hi I was just wondering if you still had the measurements for the rebuild that you did on the pop top, we recently bought a south African CI autohomes kamper with a rigid top like yours but got caught in rather strong winds bringing it home, we should have checked that it was secure but in the excitement of it all didn't and we lost the complete top before we got home, so it all has to replaced I know we could probably do it different but I just love the rigid pop top. Any help that you could give me would be greatly appreciated thank you Jacqui

Jacqui
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Re: Autohomes rigid pop top restoration

Post by Jacqui »

Hi I was just wondering if you still had the dimensions for the rigid pop top rebuild thanks Jacqui.

Lukoloco
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Re: Autohomes rigid pop top restoration

Post by Lukoloco »

Your work looks amazing!

I've just bought a T25 Kamper with a rigid pop top like yours. But the top is all rotten and needs replacing. Do you know a good garage who could do it? I'm not as confident as you in doing it myself. 

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