Club 80-90 Forums

How do they fit on?

The seam sealant around my original VW hightop seam is all split and the metal beneath going rusty and letting water in slightly. On the drivers side i have removed all the old sealant, wire wheeled off the rust, then applied vactan, primer and lots of new seam sealant to pretty much fill the gutter to stop the water from sitting in it, and hold the roof on. If i do this to the other side then the figure of eight type awning fittings that i have won't fit on, so when i buy a new awning i was thinking of changing to the pole and clamp fixings, do i need gutter access to fit this? If not, how does it attach?

Cheers

Dave

http://www.campershop.co.uk/vw_tent_awning_faq.htm

have a look here.

shows you how it fits

cheers
Gaz

Hi dave, the guttering on my hightop is pretty well filled with sealent, the pole and clamps do fit on. Although I do have to struggle a bit with a couple of the clamps.

I could take a couple of photos of how the sealent in the camper's guttering looks if you like - have to be tomorrow now. let me know.

Hi Vanda

a couple of pictures would be great ta

Dave

No probs Dave, get them for you tomorrow.

Dave..
I have used these vice grips temporarily to secure the pole to the gutter

[img:408:272]http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/images/fro ... 9725_7.jpg[/img]

they worked very well, if rather unsightly.

I was having trouble getting my figs of 8 onto the gutter cos of the seal etc...so i put the fig of 8 in my B & D workmate & ran a 3" mini grinder up thru the split & did it carefully enough to take a couple of mil off the inner edge, now I have no trouble getting it on the gutter.

Gotta be careful some fig of 8's diff sizes from diff suppliers. The ones i got fro the awning suppliers are gap wider that the ones from JK.

Kev..
overall the pole method is much better & I think i will buy some carbon fibre poles & use them, easier to fit especially when its windy & lighter than steel poles...in fact i might use the pole off me landing net

hi Dave - first attempt at photos on the forum, so here goes.

A couple of shots of how the gutters look, sealant put in by previous owner, have read somwhere on here that too much sealant can cause the rain to run off into the van. I do have a problem with water getting in, but haven't investigated where it's coming from yet - does anybody think it might be to do with the amount of sealant, or is that just a coincidence? don't mean to hijack thread Dave, but thought it was worth asking.

[IMG]http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m341 ... y08020.jpg[/img]

[IMG]http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m341 ... y08024.jpg[/img]

Thanks Vanda, thats pretty much what i've done to the driver's side, I think I'll make a bit of a depression in the other side for the pole to sit in a bit better when I get around to doing it

Dave

If a gutter is to do its job - i.e. remove water from one point and dispose of it at another, then it must be able to carry the water. If they are full of sealant, moss, stoats or whatever, the water will end up some else that it was not intended to be.
Could be in this case that the imperfect sealant is letting water into the gutter area, but as it cannot drain away, it is holding it to the join of the high top and original bodywork and it is seeping in by capillary action.

I had a land rover for 5 years - took me 5 years to work out where the leaks were!

Mine's got the original factory fitted van high top, and the original sealant was blocking both ends of the gutters leaving nowhere for the water to drain away to, so it just sat in them, rusting them away
I figure that all modern vehicles (T4's and T5's included) don't have gutters anyway, so are they really that necessary on a T3?
Anyway, anyone tried replacing just a thin bead of sealant along a high top join when its tucked right down in the gutter? Its impossible, far easier to just fill the gutter and smooth it over IMHO

Dave

I need to redo my sealant as it is starting to crack - what is the best type to use?

I've just used automotive polyeurythene seam sealant from my local motor factors, about £6 per tube, called Polyline I think. Other brands that have been recomended on here are Tiger seal and Sikaflex, but these are more expensive though

Dave