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Tue Dec 04, 2007 4:40 pm

Hey all, has anyone ever fiberglassed the luggage rack shut? Essentially making it a non-luggage rack.

I'm going to be doing some painting and fiberglassing soon on the westy and am accumulating ideas and final plans. I've heard of people complaining of poor drainage in luggage rack, rust forming underneath, etc....

Has anyone seen a flush luggage rack?

as always, your comments, detailed drawings, and life observations are greatly appreciated!

-wa

Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:15 pm

In Europe, there was an option for a "non-luggage rack" There is a plastic piece up there but it looks different than the standard one. Supposedly there is less drag with this option.

Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:16 pm

Personally I like the luggage rack. Drainage is an easy problem to deal with if it is a problem. If you don't want it, you can always just remove the thing altogether (very easy to do) and sell it on e-bay for $1000.00. I need the space though and would not even think of filling it in.

Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:22 pm

Yellow Rabbit wrote: In Europe, there was an option for a "non-luggage rack" There is a plastic piece up there but it looks different than the standard one. Supposedly there is less drag with this option.

Interesting, I will research that. It would save me some fiberglassing. Thanks for the tip!

Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:27 pm

sure, why not?...glue in some stiff foam, glass it, sand it, paint it. I think someone on here did that recently, but hadn't yet painted it.

Here he is: Jackbombay. Page 2 photos.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2...p;start=20

Tue Dec 04, 2007 6:12 pm

Man, it would be really easy to fill.

Cut two sheets of thick urethane foam sheet (like the blue or pink insulation you get in the home center) that fit roughly into the opening and glue them together. The double thicknees will give you enough height to be able to carve the surface to the desired curve and still have enough foam left to be rigid.

Cut some chunks of foam to lay down inside the hole that will both add support to the foam upper but also shore it up to the desired level. Lay some glue on top of each of these chunks and lay the double layer foam on top.

Use that expanding foam in a can to fill any gaps between the sheet foam and the edges of the hole. Be careful, that stuff will stick to anything and is really difficult to get off.

After the spray foam sets, use long cable saw stretched front to back over the opening to cut the foam to the exact contour of the peice.

Finish up with a little hand sanding and fiberglass away. Doing it this way will be lightweight and getting the contour of the peice just right will be really fast with little to no touch-up sanding.

Okay, maybe I didn't need to go into all that detail but it was easier for me to just type it as it came to mind.

Carry on!!

Tue Dec 04, 2007 8:34 pm

There were some river-rafters thru here this summer, with a Westy camper/chase vehicle.
They actually cut the middle out of the fiberglass luggage box.
and mounted a set of roof bars and a Thule style(under slung) wire mesh basket in the opening....the original fiberglass acted as a wind deflector...no drainage issues.
I asked the driver about it, he said "The original was a weak POS and this worked much better"

Owen in N.Cal

Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:02 pm

Jackbombay just did this.

He's a busy boy, what with his poptop airshock venture, and this as well. :)

jackbombay wrote: md2020 wrote: Dogpilot wrote:
I was toying with the idea of getting another luggage rack and modifying it with a door that would incorporate my solar panel and seal off the well to make it a dry box. I think a lot of Westy noise comes from wind in the well.

If someone came up with this, I'd be very, very happy. We've never kept anything on top of the westy....

I looked into rigging a solar panel up there, but to make anything that would fit halfway decently up there and match the curves of the roof you'd need to do 2 35 watt panels, fairly expensive watts at that point, and there wouldn;t be much storage in there after you stored a 50' 10 gauge extension cord in there so you could put the panel in the sun while the van was parked in the shade.

So, I eliminated the bin from the top of my van, at 55 MPH my van is damn quiet inside now, and thats with a Diesel clattering away in the back ;-)

I have my flame suit ready :lol:

I cut the bin out then "framed" in the opening with 2X4's that had eliptical curves cut to the top side of them (I removed most of them once the glass was cured), I then covered those with 1/8" masonite cut into as small of pieces as needed to get fairly smooth curves, it has 3 layers of 6 ounce fiberglass on it. I wouldn't stand on it, but my wife probably could. It still needs a bunch of sanding, some more glass, some bondo and some paint, how long could that take? LOL

Next summer I hope to foam the entire roof and blend the main roofline with the front bit I have already modified, that way a solar panel will be able to sit flush with the top of the foam and fiberglass with cord stored underneath it, I'll have an insulated roof for winter camping/cooler van in the summer, it'll be way more aerodynamic, the roof will be a lot stronger as it will be "3 dimensional", and the fuzzy crappy looking fiberglass will be gone forever.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:32 am

I love the luggage rack, and seeing how I dont ever plan on taking off the poptop, I was thinking about cutting the bottom out to give me some extra room. First though, I am working on a form for a fiberglass lid that will swing on hinges towards the front, to have the advantage of aerodynamics, (not that a breadbox needs it) and locked, weatherproof storages. I am planning to make seals out of generic auto weatherstripping, and having a recessed cubic area where I can lock it. That way I have space for jumper cables, tools etc. without worrying about theft. I will let y'all know how it goes.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:52 am

Here's a thought...

I wonder if we could make a 'bubble' that would attach to the tie-down straps in the existing rack, then raise the profile of the rack smoothly to produce something more like the Riviera air flow over the van--something you could attach when you wanted it, that would still hold things, be waterproof, and... Maybe... Help mileage.

I like that better than permanent loss of a pretty good feature!

Best!

Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:02 am

If your bound and determined to eliminate some roof top storage space , here would be a real simple way to accomplish that.

Make a template of the top edge cirrcumference of the luggage rack outa butcher or any heavy paper.
Cardboard would work well too.

Locate a class 8 truck junk yard and find a wacked hood.
They usually are damaged on the nose or fender's, the tops of them are most of the time untouched.

Tape the template to the top of the hood, and cut the section out.

Go home with it and either 3-M body panel adhesive the lid to the top of the luggage rack, or glass it on.

Finish the edges depending on your taste or capabilities.

This section from the hood of the truck could be painted to match your Westy--and hinged at the front, clasped at the rear for covered, wind cheating storgage.

There's all kinds of easy possibilites with this method of covering that hole up.

Don't use styrafoam as a filler, and then glass over it.

The resin will melt the foam prior to hardening.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:09 am

thanks to all for the tips and suggestions! much appreciated.

Still haven't decided. I will post pics once it's done. The luggage rack will need fiberglass work, so I thought maybe while it's being fixed to just plug the hole. We'll see.

Thanks again.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:18 am

loogy wrote:
Use that expanding foam in a can to fill any gaps between the sheet foam and the edges of the hole.

Fiberglass resin will eat expanding foam, the non-latex stuff at least, not sure about the latex variety though, and it will certainly eat white foam, not sure about the blue/pink stuff.

The thing I didn't like about covering the existing hole vs. cutting out the bin and then fiberglassing was that you are left with a somewhat awkward shape if the bin is just filled and glassed over.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:24 am

Well, if I did do it, I would make sure to make it look like it fit in. If I couldn't, then I wouldn't even do it. It would have to look aerodynamic, and follow the line of the pop top.

And yes, resin(of all kinds), should be tested for compatibility before using it on any type of foam. I'm not sure I would go the filler route, I would be tempted to get 1/8" marine grade plywood and glass over that. Of course, it would be a lot more work, but hey, fiberglass is a beeotch anyway.

That being said, if anyone comes across one of those nifty euro spec plastic ones, pm me. Also, if anyone has a stack of luggage racks laying around and wants to offload one for cheap :D pm me please!

Thanks again!

Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:50 am

You can see here that the luggage rack screws the aerodynamics massively, the hight top has better aero, and even the transporter with the giant camper has better aero,

Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:59 am

interesting picture, good find. It's probably the hole in the luggage rack that causes the turbulence. Not that I'd do it, but if a person was to chop up the luggage rack and make it more tapered, it would perhaps be more aerodynamic.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:08 am

Well if you are going to do it, how about starting from scratch and making an entirely new piece which is wedge shaped. Starts at the widshield and slopes up to meet the pop top. Sure it's work, but most things worth doing are a bit of work.
I saw a Westy once that had the luggage rack removed, the pop top had the front section glassed so the canvas was not visable and the steel roof above the the driver had a pop up glass sunroof. The pop top just didn't look finished with the squared off front.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:13 am

Terry Kay wrote:

Don't use styrafoam as a filler, and then glass over it.

The resin will melt the foam prior to hardening.

jackbombay wrote: Fiberglass resin will eat expanding foam, the non-latex stuff at least, not sure about the latex variety though, and it will certainly eat white foam, not sure about the blue/pink stuff.

Epoxy resin!!! Sorry, I forgot to mention that earlier. You can also paint the foam with latex paint and use any resin you like.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:28 am

I like the idea of making a removable cover not to be weather proof but a place to store some tarps and other camping gear some sort of hinged front with a couple of dzus fasteners at the back. It shouldn't be to hard to make it close to weather proof though.

I have been thinking of this for a bit but it is not near the top of the list so time will see.

Dan

Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:53 am

Here's another simple way of enclosing the luggage rack to make it slick to the airstream.

A snap on Sunbrella cover.

A bow in the middle would be simple to make, the snaps would be nothing special, and the sunbrella can be had to match the Van.

Bada Boom--Bada Bing.
This project could be done in record time.

If you want one sewed up drop me a line.

I was also thinkig, I have several Mack truck hoods I use for parts sections to repair blasted hoods.
I have the tops of them available for a glue on , glassed on, hinged on luggage rack cover.

Let me know on that--I'll cut the appropriate piece out.