1972 Westfalia Canvas Replacement

[covelo]

So this weekend we replaced the old canvas in our bus. We used the Bus Depot replacement made by Just Campers in England, which turned out to work well. This is a challenging job that takes a long time, but it is not unpleasant work and the result is satisfying. Here are some pictures:

The old canvas was dirty and pretty torn up. It is attached to the top of the bus by metal strips with lots of little screws. The beading you see in the picture below is part of the canvas itself.

Here the canvas is off the bus and held in place by clothes pins.

We used our Toyota truck as a convenient step ladder/saw horse.

Before taking the top off, be sure to tie down the various metal parts to avoid scratching the paint of the bus.

Anke helped hold the top in place after the front hinges were removed from the roof and while I was unscrewing the rear supports.

After that it was an easy transfer into the truck bed. The roof is not as heavy as we thought.

Next a thorough cleaning of the roof...

...and the inside and outside of the poptop


We put the roof in the grass to attach the new top.

New and old:

Installation of the new canvas was relatively easy with a simple manual staple gun.

It helps that our bus had these handy rubber tack strips rather than wooden ones:

Ready to go back on the bus:

Back in its delivery vehicle

The stapling turned out quite well, except for the two rear corners, which were too tight. We had to remove some staples and reattach the canvas lower.

We were worried about this becoming a weak spot, so Anke used some canvas we had laying around to add reinforcements:



The last step is to go back and put all the screws back in to attach the canvas to the roof of the bus. Not a fun job, especially in the front where there is no room to work.



The end result:



Couple of lessons learned:
1. Make sure to measure the overall height of the canvas at the support legs before stapling in the new canvas.
2. Get a stubby phillips screw driver before you start
3. Ignore the direction of the Just Campers label when installing the canvas (it is upside down on ours)
4. This job is much easier when there are at least two of you.
5. Be sure that the top of the bus, the metal installation strips, and your tools are reasonably clean. Otherwise your new canvas will get dirty right away.
6. All together, plan at least 6-8 hours for this job. We took it easy and divided the job over two pleasant weekend days.

[Oregon72]

Hans, you did this about 50 times faster than I did. It really is a gratifying project.

What was the verdict with your bus not being able to make it to Maupin. Seems there was something that had you stumped - did you ever figure out what the cause was??

Nice job on the poptop

[justgimmecoffee]

That looks excellent!!

I need to do my top... next summer. Let us know how it holds up.

[Vdubtech]

Looks decent, it's not an easy job for sure. Well, I guess it really isn't all that difficult a job, just time consuming. One thing though--your tack strips are installed wrong. They're supposed to be installed so that the fabric of the pop top covers them and you can't see them from the inside. ALL Westfalias have rubber strips, that's not something exclusive to your Bus. No Westfalia came with wooden strips to retain the canvas.

[Ryno]

Good work and nice writeup, thanks!

[chitwnvw]

One thing though--your tack strips are installed wrong. They're supposed to be installed so that the fabric of the pop top covers them and you can't see them from the inside.

I suspect this is why he thought the directions were wrong. You fold over the top inch and staple the rubber strip from the 'outside', the fabric kind of goes up and over the rubber strip. But since it was already tight, wouldn't his canvas just be that much 'more' too short?

[Vdubtech]

One thing though--your tack strips are installed wrong. They're supposed to be installed so that the fabric of the pop top covers them and you can't see them from the inside.

I suspect this is why he thought the directions were wrong. You fold over the top inch and staple the rubber strip from the 'outside', the fabric kind of goes up and over the rubber strip. But since it was already tight, wouldn't his canvas just be that much 'more' too short?

That would be an issue with the canvas then, and it should be taken up with the distributor, BusDepot. Look on Ratwell.com and you'll see he was sent the wrong canvas at first as well and had to redo all of his work because the canvas was wrong. It definitely looks cleaner and has a better finish on the inside when it's installed properly and you can't see the staples or the tack strips. I hope Covelo used stainless steel staples so he doesn't have to look up and watch those staples rust and stain his new canvas. Personally, with a brand new canvas there's no way I would be modifying it and adding fabric to it to make it right. They aren't exactly giving these things away, and I would want the product I paid for to be correct right out of the box.

[covelo]

Looks decent, it's not an easy job for sure. Well, I guess it really isn't all that difficult a job, just time consuming. One thing though--your tack strips are installed wrong. They're supposed to be installed so that the fabric of the pop top covers them and you can't see them from the inside. ALL Westfalias have rubber strips, that's not something exclusive to your Bus. No Westfalia came with wooden strips to retain the canvas.

Good point. Thanks for noticing! I was wondering about that. I did fold it over on the sides (underneath the strip), so there might be enough material to do it correctly. The problem with too little fabric was limited to the rear corners where the legs are. I'll take a look tonight and may redo the top if I have enough material. I am not too worried about rusty staples. Very little humidity here. I did some outdoor upholstery with these a couple of years ago and they're still shiny.

[Vdubtech]

One other thing- when you're putting it back together and putting those 4 billion tiny little phillips head screws back into the roof of the Bus, it help to not have the top up all the way and the upright arms locked. Use an 8 ft. 2X4 from the floor to the roof and it will hold the roof up so you can get in there and do the job, buyt you'll have lots of extra canvas to push out of the way so you can intall the strips and screws to the roof.

[covelo]

One other thing- when you're putting it back together and putting those 4 billion tiny little phillips head screws back into the roof of the Bus, it help to not have the top up all the way and the upright arms locked. Use an 8 ft. 2X4 from the floor to the roof and it will hold the roof up so you can get in there and do the job, buyt you'll have lots of extra canvas to push out of the way so you can intall the strips and screws to the roof.

Thanks. Yes, that's how I did it. I just unlock one leg and leave the other locked. It helps a lot in the back. In the front not so much. There you need every inch of height you can get.

[Ritter]

Looks good. A well earned celebratory beer. It's nice to get the years of funk out of the screw rails as well.

The one I installed last spring is a Just Campers also and the label is upside down. WTF?