Building my own pop top (1 Viewer)

[sfluke]

Unfortunately no update yet. I've been in Latin America without my car for the past month but will get back to working on this end of the month. I can't wait to finish up the last few things.

One thing I did manage to get done before leaving though was finally covering up the 1000 holes from the cladding with black bed liner and mounting an ARB front bumper and a kaymar rear. I have something special planned for my dual swing out rear bumper: I'm ordering a big aluminum toolbox to put on one of the swingouts for extra cargo. Once I'm back from Brazil...

 

[MANUCHAO]

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Thank you for posting this..
It helps us DIY'ers tons..!!!

 

[jamesurq]

Cool stuff! Subscribing.

 

[decoco]

would cutting a hole through the roof not affect, stablity, rigidity and handling?

 

[greentruck]

would cutting a hole through the roof not affect, stablity, rigidity and handling?

I doubt it - or at least within acceptable boundaries. It's already been done with a number of conversions. Moreover, the welded frame helps stiffen the perimeter structure of the roof. I suspect since it's aluminum, with the roof section removed and it in place, there's probably little if any weight gain. Add the tent/pop-up and there may be a little more weight, but no more than many roof racks add.

For on-road handling, yes, a little heavier once done, but remember what was just said about roof racks. Off-road, yes, wanna be cautious on sidehills and may affect ultimate tip-over angle -- but I prefer to stay well clear of that sort of thing anyway.

In other words, some minor adjustments versus a stock vehicle, but nothing of great concern as far as I can see.

 

[sfluke]

It's been a long time since I've had time to work on the roof. I spent 2 months out of the country and wasn't able to do any work on it at all. In the past couple of weeks I was mostly focusing on the interior of the car and a few other silly mods (more on that later).

But a few small accomplishments on the roof: I did mount the rain gutter clamps and I have gotten struts and we're mounting them as I speak. For now we've tack-welded them onto the roof for fitting. I've also put on neoprene gaskets (which was in hindsight a mistake - with the welding I had to pull them off again).

I am going to be traveling (without my car) until after christmas but the canvas tent company can hopefully start working on my tent in the meantime so I'm ready to mount it when I get back.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Are you just planning on 3 clamps per side to hold it all down? Or are you putting interior clamps on as well?
Sure looks fabulous, very impressive idea put to practice.

 

[sfluke]

It's been a very long time since I've had time to actually work on the roof. I've mostly been focusing on the interior (hot water heater, water filtration, propane stove). But a few weeks ago we finally did it, we cut the roof and glued the top down with sikaflex (a caulking like glue).

I initially planned on cutting just behind the sunroof. However seeing how small that hole is and how much headroom we'd gain by cutting more, we decided to just keep going and cut some more

Once cut, we glued the roof down with sikaflex. The roof won't be coming off anymore like that. As for stability issues: the roof is pretty sturdy itself and should easily compensate for what was cut out.

I also found a pair of 100W solar panels that fit perfectly onto the top. Along with two 120L Alu Boxes in front, the roof will be pretty loaded. But for the kind of traveling I'm doing, I will need the extra room. The alu boxes are bolted in through the roof, without breaking them open, you will not be able to take them off and that way I don't have to worry about ratcheting them down.

I took the car on a little shakedown cruise to test a few things, while the interior is still super rough, I've been able to test my espar heater, solar charger and how well my bed/bench works (and have some fun in the sierras of course!).

 

[cruiserpilot]

So glad for the update. Really have taken it to a high level, great work! J

 

[MANUCHAO]

We need/want more pics of said shake down in the Sierra's...!!!






Please....

 

[Rockymtnreaper]

This is incredible!! Can't wait to see the process!!

 

[sfluke]

The trip is still on going. but here's a small teaser: just north of Reno last night I found a cute little bridge that I crossed over to camp out with a few friendly cows as neighbors:

I was up skiing on Shasta this weekend and drove down through Lassen Ntl Forest. This was a short meal break just off 89.

 

[mervo]

Following along on this great build.

Can't wait to see a tour of the final iteration when you get everything finished.

 

[Road Apple]

Great way to follow through with you idea. Well thought out and looks like a quality built. Hats off to you.

Look forward to more updates...subscribed

 

[AaronM33]

So glad to see an update on this, I love seeing work of this caliber from everyday folks.

 

[890man]

Dude, i think i just saw you on highway 37 near blackpoint. I was in a white 80 getting off the freeway. I didnt see you until i was already down the ramp a bit. I remember reading your build and it sure looked like your rig. I only got a quick glimpse though but it is hard to miss.

 

[sfluke]

@890man, yes that's very well possible! I've been doing the SF to Sonoma (where I've been building 90% of my car at a friend's place and at Mudrak's) a few dozen times...

I've been working day and night on my build and it's now in the final stages... I've never started a proper build thread because I knew I'd easily spend as much time writing about the build as building. Which would have made this 1 year project take even longer... But with nearing completion, I do wanted to post a bit of an update and a few random insights on my build and will gladly answer any questions you might have!

First of all: the goal of the build was to create a (very) comfortable home for myself with room to carry gear for my action sport addiction (climbing, mountain biking, kite surfing and skiing). I love the cold and I want to take this rig into the deepest of winter and use it as my basecamp. This is the main reason for me why I wanted a poptop: I can stand up inside the heated car, get dressed, get into my sleeping bag and even sleep at night with the heater on. Heck I can even get my ski boots on while inside of the car (and for the skiers among us - you know how hard they get when they're frozen...) It's made to go far, to go on dirt roads, cross creeks and small rivers and up mildly challenging trails but if the trail gets too hard, I don't mind switching over to my mountain bike and get to where I want to go the human powered way. Weight and top heaviness were not a big factor for me. It's not made to go fast through off camber turns or on over

I have spent a decent 45 days per year camping in the back of my truck just on weekends the last 3 years I've owned my first 80 with a very simple sleeping platform over the rear seats. I've decided to upgrade for a 6-12 month trip down to South America I'm going to embark on in the next couple of days.

We managed to hit the first snow in Tahoe a few days ago when we took the car to small shakedown cruise...

What are some of the other things I did:
- 25 Gal of water storage tank with a 3 stage (pre filter, 15nm active coal filter, then katadyn expedition filter) to make the worst of water drinkable (filters out giardia cysts and other micro organisms).
- Eberspacher Hydronic 4: provides fuel based heat by heating up the coolant and running it into the cab by repurposing the rear heater. From there I go to two heat exchanges (one near the kitchen and one in the tent up top) and to a 2.5 Gal hot water tank for showering/washing
- Long Ranger extra 43 Gal tank because with that much weight, about 6900lb without fuel, water & passengers we will need it.
- 200W solar on the roof with a dual battery system
- SMEV stovetop with 3 burners and a little sink....
- Kaymar rear bumper with heavily modified swingouts to carry a huge aluminum toolbox for light cargo and room for bikes on the back

About the roof itself: The initial tent I had built by a specialized tent shop was not a very good fit and we decided to toss it and redo it. I found an amazing upholstery guy in Sonoma who was willing to go through the pain (and yes it really was pain for me, my friend and him) to redo the tent. It involved cutting a plastic template first with the roof in place, then cutting the material with the plastic template, mounting the unfinished material then marking where to cut the lower edges and where to sew it together. Take it down, put in a few stitches to test, put it up, mark up adjustments to tighten fabric, take it down, sew some more, put it back up again. All in all, we put it on about 4 times before mounting it for the final time. In short: don't underestimate the complexity of building a tent. You want a very tight fit otherwise the flopping in the wind will be really annoying and any creases will be areas where condensation collects and water will start to drop down.

Other than that, I had to one other adjustment (picture of that will follow soon): the piano hinge that went along the entire front of the vehicle didn't hold up the weight of the roof. The problem was that the rectangular tubing that built the sidewalls of the roof pushed mostly on the outside and the weight wasn't balanced along the full length of the roof. We ended up cutting out the piano hinge completely and screwing on two burly stainless steel hinges with a 1/4pin on each side.

My two favorite mods on the truck definitely are:
- permanently mounted aluminum ladder on the side of the truck - because what's sexier than a bunch of aluminum on your truck?
- 110V with a magic bullet and a fridge in the car = smoothies wherever you are! (the three burner stove is a close seconds because pancakes & eggs at the same time.... almost as awesome as a frozen smoothie)

 

[drowssap]

I love when ingenuity and talent comes together. Hats off to you sir

 

[Funner]

Looks like it was a lot of work, hope it works like you want. The last side view of your trucks looks heavily weighted to the back, may want to look into airbags.

 

[sfluke]

@Funner, I'm waiting on getting the heavy duty OME coils. Previous owner put Mediums in there. Hoping that will do the trick! Should give me 1600lb above GVWR. Airbags are next if that doesn't work. I haven't been able to take it off the road much in Tahoe for fear of bottoming out the coils and breaking the shocks unfortunately.