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Sat Aug 14, 2004 12:04 pm

I've stumbled across several early Westies in the junkyard (1980 to 1983) complete sink stove and fridge units. I have also noticed several non westy, non sunroof wasserboxers for cheap(1987 to 1991). What is likelyhood of taking two and building one sweet westy? Can I just peel the westy top and mount it on the wasserboxer? Does anybody know of anybody doing this? Seems like its getting harder and harder to find a Wesy these days why not build a few?

Sat Aug 14, 2004 1:14 pm

Yes it can be done, and fairly easily if the bus already has a sunroof opening. You'll have to drill some holes for drains, lines, and mounting the top, but it's a lot easier with a flat-roofed vanagon than it is with a split or bay.

Mon Oct 25, 2004 2:25 pm

I cut the top off my 86 pass and easily mounted the pop top. Removing/ replacing the cross bar is important to get the bed to line up___ you need a welder

Wed Oct 27, 2004 10:09 am

The westy poptop roof is totally different, you cant just cut a hole, I converted one by cutting the roof off at the window posts, took a long time. If you take the poptop off you'll see what I mean. There are some guys who do just cut a hole and then beat the rest of the roof down with a sledge hammer...not a good idea. The Westy roof has layers of structure, difficult to do right. The sunroofs are bigger openings, dont work right. Riviera roofs are very easy, they have wood bows and are designed for hardtop conversions. They pop straight up, quite a few early ones running around.

Fri Oct 29, 2004 8:56 pm

Are the posts single or double wall, thanks in advance.

Wed Nov 03, 2004 11:16 am

One of the last guys mentioned that the sunroof hole is bigger....... but on my '82, I converted from a westy to a sunroof, and the opening was the same, but the holes to mount the mechinism were not drilled. Unless they changed the opening size in later years, going the other way should be easy...