NAC VW Eurovan Camper top question

[Tony Hoffman]

Just wanted to give an update on this project, for those interested.

We talked to the customer, and he said if we needed to put a new top
on there go ahead with it, but call him with firm prices. Well, just
teh top is about $3600 shipped, and he wasn't OK with that. So, I
decided to take the top off the Van, and dissassemble it. It is made
up of two pieces of plastic, with a basic framework and some foam
insulation inside. It is cracked nearly in half in one spot, there is
probably 8 inches that is not cracked. The rest of the way across, it
is. It also has several other cracks on the edge of the perimeter.

So, I cut the inner plastic, and seperated it from the outer shell. I
cut only where you won't see it on the inside when it's all finished.
There is a layer of foam inside, about 2" thick, that was very nearly
100% saturated with water. I split the pieces into four black sarge
garbage bags, and each one is nearly ready to break. That foam was
seriously heavy!!

It is glued on both sides, and keeps the inner and outer surfaces
together so they don't "drum" going down the road. I'll have to find
some foam to put in there, but for now I need to fix the outer shell.
I'm using uni-strut to reinforce it, and I'm going to fiberglass all
the cracks. I'm also going to rivet a piece of sheetmetal on the
bottom side of the spot that is nearly all the way across. The
uni-strut will go the whole way back on each side, and be bolted and
faberglassed in place. I will also be fiberglassing over the bolt
heads (I'm using carriage bolts) and the rivets. I'm going to do as
nice a job as possible, then paint the whole top. However, I'm no
professional body man, do it won't be perfect. Either way, the
customer seems very excited that I am willing to fix it at a cost much
lower than a new one. This way it will probably come to $1200 or so.
And, there will be no more problems.

I'll take pics as I go along, anyone that wants them just let me know.

Tony