Toyota 78 pop up roof (1 Viewer)

[renago]

hi guys ,

north african trips are off limits for a while , due to local turbulent times.
I'm afraid they this trend will go on for some time , 10-20 years .
so I must redirect my trips to some other nice places , but all are more cold and wet then Sahara desert.
my car was nicely fit for desert trips , but the roof tent was well used after 10 years , and when cold and wet weather was around , it was OK , but not really confortable

so my new project was to make a pop up roof , so to stay inside in a warm and cosy setting even if out side was wet and cold .
and sleep in a comfortable bed .
ideally I should be able to stand inside as well.
I am 180 cm high
all must be strong for really off road riding , simple , economic to build , and nice looking .
After looking at many ideas and solutions I focused on this solution :

I live in Italy , and unfortunately no one was doing these pop up roofs .
only in Germany , Switzerland ,Austria , there are some small companies doing them.
but....price very high , minimum over 10.000 € complete, better version go up to 13.0000 € ,
timing , they ask always 2-3 months for the job , and they were at least 600-800 km away from my home town .
no DIY kits aviable either .
so i decided to make my own pop up roof .

many designs , ideas come through my mind , at last most of details and spec were decided .
this is how my car WAS !!!

now starts the intersesting transformation :

 

[renago]

to be honest I was sad and a bit shocked when we cut off the roof .
it was an irreversible step .
an I NEVER mad a pop up roof in my life , so there were good chances that something could go wrong .
I am not a professional metal worker , actually I am in sales and marketing of textiles .
so far away from metal - cars transformation .
I used a workshop of a friend of mine , that has many tools and some good skills.

more to follow .

Renago

 

[murf]

Yikes, I will be looking forward to the transformation!

 

[scrapdaddy]

Renago,

You are a brave soul! I thought about doing that to my FJ55, but just couldn't do it. I'll be following with interest.

 

[renago]

some more steps in this transformation :

this is the front part that will be put over the windscreen .
it is not easy to make , due to the several curves and round shape of the corner .
all the roof is made in marine grade aluminium 3 mm .
we had to cut several pieces and then weld them together .
well they had cut and weld , I designed and directed them in the details .

above is the whole base made up , it took aprox 4 days .
cutting , folding , grinding , welding , cutting , grinding , welding , grinding
the problem is that you start with a rough idea , but you are not certain till all pieces are weld together .
the first stage was quite nervose , on unknown ground .

back side corner , trying to simulate the corner of the car .
the first step is to allocate a rubber seal , that should keep out air and water when the roof is closed .
the second step is to allocate a pressure pump piston that will lift the roof , and keep it in position while open .
the third step is to fix the tent on the bottom frame , and out of the mechanism of lifting and closing .

rear view .
I tried to keep a similar line to the original form .
we will see at the end is it will look as a box on top or a decent roof .
I am still a bit worried .
this week was very intense .
we'll see next week how it works out .

more to come .

bye

 

[sfcruiser]

That looks great!
And thank you for posting!

 

[scrapdaddy]

Question... How are you fastening the top to the body? I think you nailed the look, blends good.

 

[renago]

the base of the roof , will be glued !
to find the right structural glue took some time , but I think we found the right one .
it is a polyurethane base glue , that is strong and still a bit elastic , in order to play with torsion and vibration.
we will glue it mid next week .
the roof or the moving part is attached to the base via a hinge.
here under you can see the hinge

this is a heavy duty rubber -alluminium hinge that is water proof .
in order to have a pop up roof that is water tight in all conditions and after years off road riding is not so easy .
hope that all design effort that I put in will be right .

bye

 

[renago]

some little progress today :

front view .

this is the inside of the roof.
15 x 25 mm bars to give some stiffness to it .

more to come in the next days .

bye

 

[cruiserpilot]

Don't make me wait too long! This whole unit just sits in the existing gutter trays? What are you suing a sealant between the aluminum
and the steel rood structure? I've been designing this exact type of structure for my 60 series. We have a product here called sikaflex
that is quite popular, a polyurethane sealant. The kind that doesn't wash off, it wears off! Not nice to use, but very effective.

 

[renago]

Sikaflex , funny never heard of such sealant , !!!!

I am planning to use or Sika 252 or 292 I .
most probably the last one .
if all goes well we should be able to glue it end of this week , I hope .
I'll keep you posted .

bye

 

[cruiserpilot]

I would think it would be the same product by the number. Post a pic of the tube of Sika 252/292 when
you get it. Curious now. This is fabulous workmanship; what is your total proposed height above the gutter
line? Looks like about ~ 12"/30 cm.

 

[e9999]

wow, it does take balls to put a saw to one's roof!

Very nice work.

(Will you be adding some structural reinforcements, with the integral roof gone?)

 

[MANUCHAO]

What an awesome project !!!

Could post close up or part numbers of that hinge ?
What type of aluminum did you used ? You said marine.. would it be 5052 aluminum ?

Thanks for sharing !!!

Frank

 

[renago]

the aluminium that we selected is 5083 -111 .
the hinge is a rubber hinge , completely water proof , I think is made in Japan , can't recall the name .
asap I can make a closer picture.

progress is going ahead but not as quick,
we decided the hight of mattress bed level.
so we can fix some other details inside .
small area to work in ,and difficult to make good photos.

a side look of how the pop up roof will look like.
the final hight will be increased of aprox 10 cm , from original hight .

this is a back corner , not very precise , we need to get the corners in line.

this is the inside , or the panel that will close the gap between the main frame and car .
all will be painted in white as the car .
on the right side you can see a L shape ,that is the level of the bed , and where it will lay when driving .
when parking it can be lifted attached to the roof .

front corner .
Ihave a very useful console that I strongly wanted to keep.
both for hight level and for use .
the final inside hight of the closed roof be slightly lower then original , aprox 2-3 cm

that's all folks for today !

 

[scrapdaddy]

Renago,

Coming along very nice! Faster than I thought. Are you going to run that inside panel, all a long the inside and will it be fastened to the body, as well?

 

[scrapdaddy]

Double post.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Keeps getting more impressive.

 

[DamoPeru]

what a great undertaking, i congratulate you just for starting it!

sad to hear your favorite piece of the world is out of bounds, but equally you are now one of the lucky ones to have enjoyed it while it was possible.

 

[renago]

thanks for all the kind comments.

last week the work went ahead but more in fine details then in major things .
such as fine tuning the corners, precisely setting the hinge , placing the spots for the hydraulic pistons , making the inner side panels , bed rail, bed hinge, rails for the lateral tent , tent details , roof sand panel housing ,closing mechanism system ecc.
not much to see but a lot of small important work.
for the bed panel , in order to reduce the weight and keep a stiff panel , I like a stiff bed , I opted for a honey comb aluminium panel .
15 or 20 mm still we have to make some tests.
the bed will be hinged aprox 25 cm from the wind screen .
the bed will travel with the roof , when I lift the roof.
and will descend when I want to go to sleep.
quick and easy , no mess around with sleeping bags ecc.
all will be fitted between the mattress and the roof ceiling .
the bed must be always ready in 10-15 seconds, you never know....

next week should be conclusive .
painting , white a s the car .
and glueing the base to the car frame .
glueing also side and roof rails for tents , veranda and roof racks .
hope we have chosen the right glue !!!
mounting , and testing .

then I must wait aprox 2 weeks for the tent and winter coat .
hopefully for end of October we should be done .

as soon as I have new significant pictures I'll post them .

most probably end of next week .


bye