TheSamba.com :: View topic - Another Syncro Converted with a Westy top

Fri Jun 15, 2012 9:41 am

Picked up the clip roof from a 1984 Westy. I got lucky and got a supposed 1/2 year model so it has the screw in style tent.

I'll try and capture images of my slow conversion of my 1986 Syncro to a pop top camper over the next weeks/months and post them here.

Sat Jun 16, 2012 6:43 am

Here's a bit of a time warp to capture everything I did in the last week.

Filthy on the inside.

A little bleach and a scrub.

Sanded the stippled exterior to smooth it out and did some fiber glass repairs for various holes in the shell.

Looks like hell but nothing hours of sanding won't fix.

Painted and cleared.

Color sanded and polished...dog QA approved.

Onto the metal work. Drilling out spot welds next.

Sat Jun 16, 2012 6:48 am

Nice going.
Look forward to seeing more.

Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:39 am

Top work, keeping my eyes on your updates!

Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:07 pm

I feel yer pain. Just went through this myself.

Nice reflection in that paint, BTW. Hope it goes smooth. I'm looking forward to seeing this progress from the comfort of my easy chair.

Mon Jun 18, 2012 9:42 pm

dude! You're thread totally inspired me to do this. Thanks for posting it.

Mon Jun 18, 2012 9:52 pm

sweet!

Mon Jun 18, 2012 9:59 pm

I'm on a new schedule at work for the next few weeks at least. 3x12s means four days off so I've got a little time. With the days ahead off work I think I can get this cranked out and have the top at least welded on and prepped for paint by wednesday.

Today I got a bit done.

Here's the last few days to start.

Getting started on the inside spot welds.

Cutting

Splitting the skin off. This was just about as great as picking off a scab.

Have a little cancer in once corner. Gotta cut it out unfortunately.

Luggage rack template

In position for surgery after one last hurrah yesterday mtn biking with the dogs out at skookum flats.

Luggage rack looks ok.

Mon Jun 18, 2012 10:18 pm

Nevermind yesterday, here's what we did today. My mom and dad came over and helped out a bit today so with some help I got a bit more done than I would have otherwise.

Interior stripped.

Point of no return. Silling the drills!

We'll see how my template works. So far it's done a good job of scratching the paint.

Here's how I left it at the end of today. I should have it welded in tomorrow.

I had put aside some money to pay Kirk at northwesty (his minions, really) to at least do the metal work on this for me. In the end I decided to do it myself so I used the money to buy some extra presents for the van. One of them were a set of underseat drawers from Rocky Mountain Westy.

I installed one of the drawers under the drivers seat today (have had the passener side for a while) and I am now considering what to do next with this. They are set up for a Westy with dual swivel seats. The upper flange of the drawer is designed to bolt into the fwd flange of the swivel seat base. I don't have a swivel on the drivers side. Now I reckon I need to buy a swivel seat base or make an angle iron part to bolt the top of the drawer into. Probably strong enough as it is but not having anything there bugs me. Without the rest of the westy interior bits can you swivel the drivers seat easily enough to justify the swivel?

Otherwise, I've made a couple of mistakes so far. As the story goes, I could do this alot better if I had to do it again. Onto tommorrow!

I am sure hoping gowesty has a sale this 4th of July. I need some parts.

Sat Jun 23, 2012 3:41 pm

Last week I finished welding in the pop top. The welding took about a day of test fitting the roof, doing some trimming, popping it back on, then measure and repeat. Probably would have been a lot easier if there had been no rust in the one corner. I managed to find every single clamp I have and get the roof clamped up. ~21 clamps in all. Took about another day and 30-35 roloc 3m sanding discs to get the plug welds ground down satisfactorily. That was a PITA.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll start the final prep for paint then I can start putting it back together.

Sat Jun 23, 2012 4:15 pm

Well impressed!!!!!!!

Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:53 pm

I like the route you're taking on this. Best of both worlds. How'd that front weld treat you? If I was to do it again, I'd weld a doubler plate on the inside of that front weld. This would give that butt weld a little more strength and keep it from buckling.

Looks good. Keep up the good work!

Sat Jun 23, 2012 6:03 pm

Wow, looks like you're doing a really nice job. I look forward to seeing the final results. I like the look of the smooth fiberglass top, that must have taken many many hours of sanding to get it to look good.

Sat Jun 23, 2012 7:48 pm

Gotta say, I'd be at Pucker Factor Ten cutting off a roof as nice as the one you had on your van...

Nice work, mate. Keep us posted!

Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:03 am

FNGRUVN wrote: I like the route you're taking on this. Best of both worlds. How'd that front weld treat you? If I was to do it again, I'd weld a doubler plate on the inside of that front weld. This would give that butt weld a little more strength and keep it from buckling.

Looks good. Keep up the good work!

I really didn't get too badly warped when I welded that section. The parts I was really concerned about were at the edges where the crago cover won't conceal the metal beneath and they came out fine. Towards the center of the panel I had some more warpage which I smoothed out with a little bondo...which no one but me will know about. Otherwise, a doubler would have made things easier as that entire weld I used a copper spoon to back up the in process weld and that was a pain. I hopefully won't be doing this ever again. But now I know and if I did it again I could make some serious improvements and I'd make a doubler.

Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:08 am

Vango Conversions wrote: Wow, looks like you're doing a really nice job. I look forward to seeing the final results. I like the look of the smooth fiberglass top, that must have taken many many hours of sanding to get it to look good.

Dark Alley Dan wrote: Gotta say, I'd be at Pucker Factor Ten cutting off a roof as nice as the one you had on your van...

Nice work, mate. Keep us posted!

Thanks guys!

Right before I started drilling the roof welds I asked myself...are you sure you want to do this? Then I started drilling and haven't looked back.

Bigger pucker factor came when I started welding on the new roof. I test fit the new one about 20 times before I was happy but still it's a lot of work to undo welded on sheet metal.

Mon Jul 02, 2012 10:17 pm

It's been more or less done since last weekend but photobucket stopped working from my work so I have to post pictures with my work computer from home and I've only got a couple days off at home this week.

I reckon I'm going to turn this into my build log just cause.

When I took the hatch off for this I tore out the rear wire tubes and as this is more or less a custom resto project I was going to replace them. I ordered in a pair of driver side tubes from the VAN CAFE as they didn't have the passenger ones. The next day they called me to ask if I made a mistake. Top work on them but I’d read you could use the oval shaped driver side on the passenger if you needed more room to run wires, albeit NOT much.

Made a rubbing of the driver side and used that to make a stencil to cut out the passenger side using a carbon burr. Heaps harder on the hatch than on the body of the van.

This image skips all the cussing it took to get the wires through the tube…added a couple 14g wires for the speakers in the rear hatch.

I had to go back and re-wet sand and polish the rcamper top and luggage rack after letting them get oversprayed.
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I’ve now more or less got a syncro westy.

My father in law admires. And gives a plethora of advice.

Still had a few more things to do at the end of this posting. Broke some screws off inthe fierglass when putting in the new tent from Northwesty. Bonded in some blocks of oak and screwed the test into them instead. More pics to follow. Planning to polish the entire thing, minus the top, again tomorrow to get rid of any remaining defects in the paint, then were off to Ocean Shores for the holiday.

Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:50 am

Well done!

A little soapy water does the trick when fishing everything through those tubes.

Now, go and enjoy that pop top. :D

Tue Jul 03, 2012 8:05 am

The process you used is the only way to add a poptop I think. Anything less
just looks hacked and ruins the value of the van. I would like to see
some more pictures of the tent if you got them. It looks like
the rear of the side screens is rounded instead of coming to a
point. Your doing a nice job and you'll be real happy with
the added room when camping. Maybe add a set of the poptop
shocks for the final touch.

Tue Jul 03, 2012 8:19 am

I would like to see some pics of your headliner when finished. I have an 86 Syncro Seven and a 85 Westy Parts bus. I plan this same conversion for my Syncro. I have skinned lots of roofs on roll over cars and SUV's so that should be easy just time consuming. Interior may need to be sent out. Looks good. Love the Syncro pop tops.