The Lime - Pop-Top Replacement Part 1

Last weekend I started what I thought would be an easy job - the replacement of the pop-top canvas on my '76 Westy. It turned out to be a very time consuming job in the end. I followed the procedure as written in an old issue of VW Trends, except I left the top on the van. Basically it entails removing the old completely, measuring, marking, and tack stapling the new tent into the top, then fully stapling it with tacking strips, followed by a reinstallation of the aluminum retension strips with hundreds of small phillips screws at the roof of the van. It was very tricky to get the new tent to fit just right but in the end I am happy with how it looks.. Well, almost.. Read on.

The pictures above show the old tent in the process of being removed and fully removed. The item I'm holding in my hand is a sample of the tacking strips I manufactured from PVC door stop since the originals shattered.

The final picture is what I hoped would be the final product... It looks good, but it's WAY TOO TIGHT at the front!!!!

See the next post for my solution..