1967 Westy Turret Top (pop top) restoration

[demo four]

Hi Folks,

I am currently cleaning up my 67 Westy turret top,

It looked really bad at first, so I started with a good soap and water clean with a scouring sponge

This showed up the terrible emulsion paint job

So next up I spent some time with some 120 grit wet and dry paper to rub down the paint.

It's come up well, but what the photos don't show is that it seams to have lost most of the gel coat from the top and has lots of grazing, scratches and scuffs, not very deep but enough to leave the texture quite rough

There are some grazing on the side, and whilst some the gel coat has sanded down and looks ok, there are still lots of lines visible.

Hope they show up in the pics

So the question, is what next?

More sanding, primer and paint?

I have had a search and read up what people suggest, but looking for insights from others.

I have considered leaving as is, as i am not going super shiny resto and will be drving my Bus, not trailering it around

[earlywesty]

Renew the gel coat? You can likely find it at a canoe or kayak place or online. I have sone many boats over the years. Its a pretty simple process.

[Braukuche]

[busdaddy]

Yeah, there really isn't anything you can put on top of those cracks that won't start cracking again soon.

Remove all the hardware, sand off the remains of the old gel and spray or roll on multiple coats of fresh gel, then wet sand smooth and buff.
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[Kb65single]

Power washing wouldn’t be a bad idea also. That will help clean the cracks before putting anything on top. I do that on my pool furniture (poly wood) every spring to get the mold algae and dirt off

Ken

[House]

Any chance of taking some pics of the mounting hardware while you have it laying there?

There are polyester fillers that you can use that the body shop guys use on fiberglass but from everything I have seen they all shrink back over time and you can see the repairs in the right light. It depends on how nice of a resto you are going for, but I agree that the “right” way is new gel coat…

[BulliBill]

There is/was a guy in Arizona who made/molded brand new pop-tops, and another guy (a great friend of mine) in the Phoenix area who has re-fabricated the aluminum pop-top scissors mechanisms from scratch and they turned out very nice...

I'm just sayin".

Bill
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Thanks for any help!

[demo four]

Well I spent another day sanding the top down with 320 grit wet and dry and then over the top with 1200 wet and dry, and whilst it looks good, I think there is too much gel coat missing on top.

So I will look into getting some gelcoat sorted

[House]

[Clara]

[House]

[demo four]

[demo four]

[nlorntson]

[House]

Nice thread, thanks.

[demo four]

[demo four]

After a bit of a break, I am back to restoring my pop top.

Stripped and cleaned the front hinge mechanism. It was dirty and had loads of over spray, so a bit of degreaser, wire brush, 120 grit and some polishing paste its looking a whole load better.

Part way through, took about 20 mins a part.

Super shiny

My only question is should the one bar be bent? I did not think so, but thought I best ask before I straighten it out.

[demo four]

Today I stripped down and cleaned the right hand hinge.

Came up pretty well, nice and shiny and the muck and overspray came off in about 2 hours.

When doing the side with the spring, remember to hold it tight as you undo the first nut!

half way there

Super shiny

When reassembling the spring, I found it better to do the sliding side first. tightening it up super tight and this enabled it to be easier to pull the spring and fit the second side with only minimum effort to stretch it over the other bolt and attach the nut.

[nlorntson]

I've always been curious about the adjustment capability of the spring on our 1966 SO44 pop top.

I've only seen a couple of others like it in other peoples pictures.

Does yours have any such thing?

Your're doing a great job!

[demo four]