Hi,
 Well a club member of mine has done this to his 85 Vanagon. I was soooo jealous I wanted one, but we haven't got around to it yet. Here is what he did.
    He had put  small piece of wood(2/4 size) on each size and drilled them into the body. then he measured the back and cut some wood to make a platform. He did through place hinges in the middle, then placed carpet on top. Looks great! You can't see whats undernanth unless you have the back open. The only thing about his is, for those of us with A/C that goes the length of the van, you would have to cut it to go around . 
   He has also went to Home Depot and got a 10 * 20 size carpet(it was already precut) and placed it into the center. He had taken out his middle seat, so it fit right in, of course I am sure some cutting had to be done. It looked REAL good and less expensive then getting the orginial carpet ordered. WEll of course I went home that next week adn tried to find this carpet and but some for mine. Well  of course they didn't have my color! So I went to a WEST Lumber store and they had carpet remenants in the back and got some blue for about $3.50 a yard. I took out my padding and cut the carpet to the length of those.(I already had the old carpet out! Its been out for two years, since when we purchased the van, the couple had 7 children adn the carpet pretty much was trashed!) I placed in my Van this past week and looks GREAT! Made a whole lot of difference in the appaerance of the Van. I did though leave a place for the rails for my center seat, but placed a throw rug over it. 
   Well when we get around to doing this, I'll try to remember to take some pics and place the process on our club site for the rest of yall.

Later from South Georgia,
Kathy and Lonnie Jacobs
87 Vanagon
www.sevwc.com 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Riley Kettner 
  To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM 
  Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 3:01 AM
  Subject: Retractable luggage cover

  Has anyone ever tried to create a retractable cover for goods in the back of a vanagon/wesfalia?

  I am refering to something that would attach to the back door and could be pulled to hooks in the back of the seats.
  And could just as easily retract back.
  Basically putting a vertical windowshade into a horizontal postition would do the trick.
  I have a blanket right now that i throw over my area, but i was wondering if anyone has developed a more
  permanent solution like i had thought of.
  IT WOULD BE VERY SIMILAR TO WHAT A CONVERTIBLE USES TO HIDE THE FOLDED DOWN ROOF.
  This would be something to prevent curious people from looking at your stuff.

  Thanks to the list,
  Riley Kettner

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