Stripping off my top - part two

If you have not read part one - go there first.

A few things came to mind as I was reading part one to check for iPad spelling 'corrections'.

First - after the luggage rack came off, I started to remove the cleats that come from the factory.  30 years of weather really did a number on these.

The cleats are held on by two rivets. However when I initially tried to drill out the rivet, I was not getting a straight shot through as the surrounding corroded metal was softer than the rivet!  I got around this by drilling the rivet heads with a 5/16 bit until I could see the cleat and center part of the rivet.  Then I used a 3/16 bit to carefully drill through.

There are 8 of these cleats on a Westy. Stainless ones are available from the usual suspects.

The other VERY important note is that once the tent is removed, prior to pulling the top off, you MUST compare the old tent with the one you intend on replacing it with.  I have seen too many plans go afoul when the tent sent is the wrrong one.  You put a hole in it to install and you own it regardless of wrong one sent.

I compared my tents (old vs new) very carefully for size and the new one for any defects.  It is correct, and looks to be well constructed.  As you can see, I went with a synthetic fiber tent.  Although the older one lasted 30 years and I am sure I could be quite happy with the same material for a number of reasons - the one thing that always bothered me was the stains and difficulty I experienced with cleaning. Use too little cleaner and the stain won't budge, use too much and you bleach out the color and stain it permanently.

Aside from a staple mishap (sucker went in deep!), I am in a good place with the progress.

Stripping off my top

Not too risqué of a title is it?

Started the removal of the pop top tent for a complete rehab of the pop top itself.

Planning to replace the tent

Scrub clean (for good) the inside flocking of the pop top

Rebuild the vent window

Paint the top

Stainless cleats on the luggage rack

All stainless hardware for the pop top and luggage rack

Paint the luggage rack

Reseal the pop top and the luggage rack

And have it all done in a few days.

Started this morning.

I have an early 'stapled' style of pop top tent.  Later models have a 'screwed in' style.  They are very different, both in application and in tent size.  Be sure you know what you have prior to starting, or ordering a replacement.

First thing was to arrange for a few guys to come over later and assist getting the top off the van.

Then, with a deadline in place, I needed to strip the tent out so I would have easy access to everything else and so that I will have maximum ventilation to work on this 87degree summer day.

To do this I started removing all the small screws on the bottom rails of the van.  I went all the way around, carefully marking each of the 4 aluminum retainers with their location and direction.

This allowed for an open air ventilation - much like I am expecting with the new three window tent.

Then, started on the upper staples, easing them out at first, in order to start a strip to grab on to then pulled them off.  I also needed to unattach the front torsion bar to get the strap and staples behind the screws.

I started getting a bit excited and put my foot through the canvas.  Laughed quite a bit - wife did not find it half as funny.

I then started removing the few single staples that were still holding up the canvas.

So the tent fell down, unattached anywhere, like my pants on the floor in the morning.

Now the van has had the top removed.  My friends came over and we easily removed it from the top of the van.  The way we did it was to leave one of the screws in the torsion bar to position it.  I had two guys at the rear of the roof holding it up as I removed the final bolts through the hinges.  As they held up the top, and kept it from sliding, I positioned myself to unattach the torsion bar and slide the roof from the upright position to laying down in the bottom position.  Then we slid the roof off the back of the van making sure the hinges did not scratch the flocking or roof scratching the paint. I also removed the luggage rack as well - surprised how much crap was under there considering how recently I had that part off the van.

Previous picture was just prior to removal.  I marked the position of the hinges on the inside of the pop top before removal with a sharpie.  Hopefully will ensure a good seal when the van goes back together.

So now I have the top off, and I want to do something about the black stains on the flocking.

The upper left corner has a solution of 10% bleach and 90% water.  The stains disappeared right before my eyes.

All came out well:

Alarming development

With a pending heater system being planned, I went ahead and installed a CO2 / LP gas leak detector and alarm in the Thingamajigger this weekend.  

The instructions state to place it 4 inches above the floor, but no more than 20 inches.  For a point of reference, 20 inches is about the height of the Westy table screw tensioner.  The other requirement is that it is not within 12 inches of a vent or door.  We also need to make sure that nothing would block the path, so up aside the table screw (aside from being blatantly obtrusive) could be blocked inadvertently by a pillow during a cold night.  

That screwed me up for a while, as I did not need this to be obtrusive, and the logical place would be where my speakers reside on the bed base fascia.  The other point of consideration is that the bed fascia has a metal bracket along the top of the panel, that drops 1 1/2 inches below the top along the rear of the panel that further complicates installation.

So here is what I did.  I decided that up against the upper lip of the metal panel was my best location.  Less likely to be blocked by gear, tighter against seat for obscuring the look, and a location fairly easy to install.

I used Frog Tape to mark off my location and measure out the hole I planned to remove.  Drilled four 1/4 inch holes at the corners, the top two through the metal.

Then, I slid a coping saw blade through the hole, assembled the saw and cut out the lower portions of the hole.  The coping saw blade will not cut the metal, so don't try.

If you angle the blade right, the metal band on top can be used as a guide for a straight cut.  Once all the lines that are not backed by metal are cut, remove the coping saw.  Replace that with a hack saw with a metal blade and cut up the line through the metal to your top holes.

My next task was to cut the metal part hole to hole along the back.  I marked this off with a sharpie, and grabbed my whizzer.  Cut through the metal and removed.  Then it was just reinserting the coping saw and cutting out the remainder of the hole.

The holes at the corner also provide relief for the corners of the alarm unit.  It sticks through about 1/4 inch on the other side, so I will need to be wary of that when packing the tools back into the storage space, but otherwise I am pleased with the location.

An hours worth of creating and running a harness up to the Blue Sea fuse box panel, and then a couple screws and the install is complete!

Have a sinking feeling . . .

Had a ShurFlo faucet in my garage that was destined for installation.  Finally got around to installing it.

Here is how it went:

First, I read the directions and realized they were almost useless. My faucet was operational, just wanted a bit more than than the on/off functions.

 

I removed the three screws that held down the base.  Lifted it up and looked at the connector.  Opened the cabinet and removed the stuff on the top shelf.  Simple enough.  

Disconnected the power to the faucet at the connectors.  Then disconnected the hose fitting. 

Test fit the new faucet in the hole to see the direction of the bottom fitting, then realized it was adjustable and I could direct it in any position I required.  Cool.  This meant I really only needed to be wary of kinking the supply line.  

As per the kits supplemental instructions for the city water hook up, I cut the supply line and installed the check valve against the rear used a couple loom clips against rear wall to support it and keep it out of the way.

The hard city water supply line was the difficult line - would not flex the way I wanted and with the flared end, I did not want to mess around with cutting and reforming. It's only slightly off vertical, thereby maintaining the check valves operational integrity.

Connecting the other end of the line was simple enough.  Slid right on and clamped down securely.  Connected the power, zip tied the line away from the cabinet space, and proceeded to secure the faucet.

I used a dab of silicone around the base of the adapter plate and around the base of the faucet.  With all this new tech at my disposal: I will want to play and water could get everywhere.  Silicone just ensures that water will not drip down on top of my battery maintainer located in cabinet below.

Last thing I did to complete the sink modifications was to cut out a piece of cutting board to fit in the well of the sink.

I will have to get back to you folks on the dimensions, but here it is:

I prefer to use the flexible cutting boards when camping, as they easy serve the purpose and double as a funnel when everything is chopped up. But I had this board around for this exact purpose, so I felt it necessary to do.

Love handles

There has been one modification on my list for sometime - just never got around to it, until yesterday. Partially because I was never enamoured with the quality of the brown grab handles I was finding available. 

The A pillar grab handle on the passenger side, needed a symmetrical counterpart on the drivers side.

The necessity of removing the brown one, opened the door - I just needed to walk through. Once the existing one is off, a template can be traced out.  I used some light cardboard and taped it up to ensure the all important symmetry.

Once marked off, a center punch helps to locate the drill point and keep drill bit from walking around.  A 3/8 drill into the pillar will provide the clearance you need for the handle bases.

Note: there is a power wire snaked in the drivers A pillar, so be cautious when drilling.  Once I had one hole drilled, I used same center punch to keep that wire out of the way of other drill holes.

Mirror mirror on the bus

I had some one ask how to remove the rear view mirror a few months back.

Since I am switching over to the black interior, I thought I would take a picture or two and demonstrate.

First thing I noticed was that the black one looks longer. Great! Allow more visibility past the upper cabinet. I was wrong.  Yes the arm is longer, but it angles the mirror head more towards the windshield, not down towards dash.

To get the mirror off, grab the arm and rotate it to the left. It is on a cam, so move it enough and the looseness will become apparent. Once loose, you will be able to pull the mirror base away from the body.

To install the replacement, insert the mirror head at same left turned angle, press in towards body and turn to right to engage the cam action.  

Properly re-adorned with one of my Tough Mudder headbands.  Thingamajigger is ready to rock again.

Steering cover

With the impending change to black dash, I saw the covers at GW for the insertion of the seat heater switches and bought it figuring I could obtain whatever I needed later.

Well - the seat heater switches are no longer available, and it left me with a 'what the hell do I do with this now' feeling.  

Somewhere I saw a finished product for sale wherby an industrious person was inserting a remote temperature gauge into this housing panel.  Perfect use!  Got used to having one in all my other cars, liked the idea of having one in the Thingamajigger.

So tonight I played with the Dremel and figured out how easy it is to do this little project.  Here is what I learned:

Here is the housing.  Official VW part.  The switch hole is roughly a full 1/16th too narrow, and the height is off by 1/32nd or so.

When I started Dremeling out the hole, I started by evening the steps on three sides to correspond with the lower step. That gave me roughly half of the width I needed and all the height.  Continuing to Dremel the sides finally gave me the width and a straight file cleaned up the corners.

The temperature readout piece was bought at ebay.  

The final piece looks like this:

Once installed, it will make a nicely visible readout.

The hole is too large for a standard VW switch.  I suppose there are other uses for the housing that could be just as utilitarian.  It is not really large enough for a standard gauge pod. 

Adventure Time with the Thingamajigger

So there is this goofy TV show on cartoon network or some other channel my kid watches.  Has this show Adventure Time and I promised my son I would title this entry Adventure Time.

Our voyage this weekend was back to one of my favorite places: Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire.  I like the state park system along this road, and we head up there often.  I had forgotten that this was the beginning of Bike Week, and all the moronic behavior that the week seems to bring out of grown adults. We were spared for the most part from too much idiocy, but it reminds me of why I did not like the 'bike week' stuff when I was a frequent rider (7000 miles in first 60 days of owning my 2003 bagger - on top of the miles put on my daily driver 79 shovelhead).  I still have both bikes and may register one of them at some point again, maybe.

Back to the trip!

All boys like trains - most men as well.  So when we see one, we stop.  This one is at Loon Mountain.

 

 

 

This one is at the Hobo Railroad.

 

 

Kancamagus Highway.  Swift river and some rock play for my son to blow off some energy.

Found a couple Pinzgauers.

 

My son decides to check one out.

 

Also found a Crosley and an early Reliant Robin!

 

 

Kid did some aerial adventure stuff and some river water play.  Good times had by both of us, and that is what the Thingamajigger is all about.

 

 

Happy Birthday

My birthday card this year.

I swear that my family, although loving our adventures, finds it somehow amusing that the VWs are associated with the hippie movement of the 60's and 70's.