Hi Volks,

I did a westfakia conversion on my Baywindow bus, it took me about
100 man/hours of labour to complete the project but that also
included prepwork to repaint the whole vehicle. If I had to do
another I would do it the same way but knowing what I do now I could
do it in 60 hours, easy. Which is like 4 weekends... not too hard to
schedule into a slow winter.

I used the frame around the pop-top hole and used the full westy bed.
The results have been VERY good for the family and we have had 5
years of service from it so far and it is holding up just fine.

http://www.pottsfamily.ca/westfakia

Happy trails,

Greg Potts
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1973/74/79 Westfakia Conversion **Bob the Tomato**  LY3H
1977 Sunroof Automatic L63H/L90D
http://www.pottsfamily.ca/westfakia
http://www.busesofthecorn.com

On 29-Mar-06, at 10:34 PM, mark drillock wrote:

> Of course, you could do it that way and some have.But removing the
> windshield, all side windows, rear hatch, sliding door, etc, cutting,
> fitting, and welding all 8 pillars is not that easy. And then having
> body work and paint work to do before putting all those things back is
> not reducing the work. Why do you think it is? Most of us want nothing
> to do with that level of work. As for blending the paint at the welded
> areas, that only works if both sections started out the same
> color.Most
> likely the whole upper section will have to be painted, inside and
> out.You are also minimizing the work involved in interior
> finishing. The
> passenger models have headliner fabric running down all the rear
> pillars
> to the lower panels but Westys don't. So in addition to the exterior
> weld grinding, body filler, and paint work, the same must be done
> on the
> inside and then some decision made as to how to finish off  the rear
> pillars that were cut and welded, for the parts that show on the
> inside.
> Of course various wires run up through the front pillars and around
> the
> ceiling areas so that must be removed and then replaced after the new
> roof is welded in. And the entire interior must be removed or
> carefully
> masked off so the exposed welded  interior metal surfaces can be
> painted
> to match the original vehicle color. Yep, that is a lot easier than
> just
> cutting a hole in the roof and bolting stuff in.
>
> Mark
>
> Zoltan wrote:
>
>> Hi guys,
>> I was wondering why to do all that work when the whole pop top roof
>> and part
>> of the van that is made for the camper can be all installed onto a
>> van.
>> I would cut the donor at about the halfway at the windows around and
>> fit the
>> whole thing just like that onto the the other.  It can be taylored
>> to fit
>> nicely and weld some reinforcing inside before lowering it onto the
>> new one.
>> At the windows, it is easy to weld, to bondo, and to blend in the
>> paint.
>> The area is narrow.  As long as the windows will keep their proper
>> size, all
>> should be fine.  Now, I am not sure what is inside the columns to be
>> worried
>> abut not to cut.  Some guys on the list would probably able to
>> tell us.
>> There maybe some electricals that would have to be connected before
>> assembly.
>> Well, I think, it is easier to do this way and all the camper areas
>> would be
>> original.  There would be no difference.  No one could tell ever.
>> Only it
>> has to be done nicely, grind down the weldings, bondo it smooth,
>> paint it
>> correctly, reinstall the covering properly.
>> I think, I could do one for about $4,000 plus the painting.
>> I wonder what the list would add to this.
>> Zoltan
>
>