Denver or Front Range pop top swap shop or help?

[Obsesso]

Hi,
I am trying to get my franken syncro, an 87 with a carat interior swapped in, converted to a pop top. I have an early pop top roof clip and top. I have read all the threads I can find on methods, of which there are many, but I have no welding skills. Apparently I won't be able to just rent a welder and learn how on this project

I have tried to find someone in CO to do this for me, Joel/escorial syncro/green syncro is too busy currently, RM Westy stopped doing them, Bavarian Wrench is apparently out of town living the dream in his syncro, Dai at opt overland would consider it but has yet to do a roof swap, he's installed his cool power roof with the country homes top and I would prefer the wider westy bed.

Anyway, bottom line question, is there anyone in the CO area(or within a days drive) with some experience to help me with or do this job? I was thinking of doing the spot weld method as I have a dent on the rear of my tintop anyway...I'm handy enough that I believe I could do the drilling and grinding to get the roofs ready but would need welding and paint help.

[nepawesty]

I'm in Denver and would be happy to help. Although... No welding skills. Do you have a workshop?

[termuehlen]

I know that you are asking for help along the front range, but if I were you, I would contact a few of the west coast companies that do this work. Who knows, maybe if your schedule is flexible, something can be worked out.

I would call:

Santa Cruz Campers
North Westy
das Mule

Can't hurt to ask.
_________________
1988 Westfalia automatic Subaru OBD1
1986 syncro tintop wbx

[fleetwood41]

I had an early model pop top grafted to my 1987 excellently by Joel at Green Syncro last year. I don't have the skills needed to do this job or to be much help, but if you want to take a look at a professionally converted top, maybe we could figure something out. I tried to stay involved in the process as much as possible.

I'm northwest of Colorado Springs in Woodland Park and do travel to Denver occasionally.

Best of luck with the Conversion!
_________________
1987 2WD w/ 2.5 Subi & Poptop Conversion

[davevickery]

It is pretty expensive to have a shop do it, lots of detail and time. But the "small hole" method is the simplest, pretty much just cut hole and bolt the top on. The process is well documented and final result looks nice. If you aren't doing a full westy conversion, this is worth considering. You can still manage to have a full width upper bunk, you just have to store the front upper mattress over the engine compartment when the top is down which is only a minor inconvenience. I did my first van this way.

Alternatively if you are committed to full roof skin swap, you can prepare the roof skin, you can have a body shop can weld it down for you. I started out thinking I would do a full roof skin swap, but it was difficult to separate the roof skin from the donor. It was tedious drilling out the spot welds but got a little easier with practice. I gave up after just trying to do one side. But if you do that yourself, then just start working on separating the roof skin from the donor roof clip all the way out to the gutters and front to back. If you get it off and in good shape, you are half way there.

I did my current van with the "overlap method using panel adhesive up top and welding inside. I did not go all the way out to the gutters and found it reasonably challenging but doable for me. I paid a shop to weld/glue on the top. Here is my thread.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=612349

[Obsesso]

[DenverB]

Are you the guy who called me (rocky mountain campervans) a few months ago about this? If so, I have had about as much finding someone as you have.

my advice: unless you do it right, you're going to devalue the thing. Nobody wants a hacked-on roof on a top-dollar syncro.

do yourself a favor: do the interior swap, enjoy it as a tintop camper for now and wait until you can get someone to do the top correctly.
_________________
-------
'77 Transporter/camper (Bussy - Reef Blue/Pastel White)
'67 bug (Santos - VW Blue)
'84 Vanagon Westfalia (Pink Flamingo - Pastel White/Pink)
'88 Vanagon GL Westfalia (Frankie Says - Wolfram Gray)
'02 Eurovan Weekender (Green Apple)
'95-'03 Eurovan full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'84 -'91 Vanagon full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'72 Porsche 914 (Greta - RIP)

www.RockyMountainCampervans.com

[Bulli Klinik]

I may have an interest in doing your project. What is the time-frame? You can see some of my work in the gallery.

Feel free to shoot me a PM.
_________________
I've never met a Bus I didn't like.
Mike K
Bulli Klinik
Colorado Springs

[Obsesso]

[Obsesso]

[jimf909]

[DenverB]

word. let me know if you need to come by and look at a camper for any reason.


_________________
-------
'77 Transporter/camper (Bussy - Reef Blue/Pastel White)
'67 bug (Santos - VW Blue)
'84 Vanagon Westfalia (Pink Flamingo - Pastel White/Pink)
'88 Vanagon GL Westfalia (Frankie Says - Wolfram Gray)
'02 Eurovan Weekender (Green Apple)
'95-'03 Eurovan full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'84 -'91 Vanagon full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'72 Porsche 914 (Greta - RIP)

www.RockyMountainCampervans.com

[E1]

[3dig]

Try OPT Overland in Ft Collins, they will do you right.

[E1]

Thanks for that!

We're having RMW do some things while there anyway, I've yet to ask if they do those installs. May take it on ourselves, too...
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[Obsesso]

[E1]

Thanks for all the insights, Obsesso.

We may get an Atelier tent if we can. We did a commonly-available one last time and it's just not great material, whereas Sunbrella is. Our awning from Fancher uses Sunbrella and has been up over 1,000 days (at least) and withstood Hurricane Matthew 40 miles inland (seriously).

Atelier does installs for $225 for the stapled style, and $160 for the later, screw-in style. They must be really fast because that is one great deal! There's a certain race in Montreal every June, I was at the first 40 years ago (witnessing Canada's finest racing day ever to that point) and an excuse like this is pretty tempting...

Being it's hard to find someone doing these tents, it seems to me to be a cool thing to offer -- the idea being some customers find more work to have done for the specialized service (I do, anyway).

Thanks Again.
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[SyncroChrick]

Obsesso,

I am in the process of finishing the conversion of a 1988 Vanagon Syncro into a Westfalia. My van has 330000 miles on it, but at this point virtually everything has been replaced so the miles don't mean much.

I did tons of research and I was going to do it myself, but here is my advice - if you are going to do it, do it the right way. There is only one way to do it to replicate the factory and it is to remove the skin at the spot welds.

I ended up having the Kombi Haus in Sacramento do the work, and they did an excellent work. It was $4500 + tax for the rough job, that did not include any painting or reinstalling the poptop tent or any of the interior work. In my case I was lucky because the roof came from a van of the same year/color, so there was only a few "scars" to cover.

I am extremely pleased with the result.

Pics soon...

[joetiger]

If you decide to do the hole-in-the-roof method, Matt did a really nice job with his:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

Part of me thinks that this would be an excellent Saturday afternoon barn-raisin' type project if we could get Matt or Dave involved, but I can't speak for other people's availability.

I am planning to eventually do something similar (haven't decided on a top) for my Syncro, but have never done it before and don't want to learn how on your Syncro.

Whatever direction you end up going, please keep us posted, and come to one of the Vanagons and Microbrews get-togethers so we can check it out!
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[Obsesso]

I decided to bite the bullet and pay big bucks. Mike at Bulli Klinik has been great to work with and is an artist with sheetmetal. Unfortunately my top was in rough shape so it was taken back to bare metal before grafting, which was spendy compared to just welding it on with the prep, treatment, etc but will be best long term. I've attached a few pics. Mike doesn't do much paint, so now I'm in need of a shop around here. I'm going to contact the commerce city maaco, I know Wheels of Time have done a few paint jobs also, but given this is mostly covered by the fiberglass I'm not sure I need a show quality finish and the cost that comes with it....