Old school campers often used an aluminum extrusion to attach
awnings. In cross section, these extrusions look like a C-shape with
a flat backing. A the hemmed edge of the awing slides into the C-
shape, and the flat backing part is used to screw the extrusion to
the side of a camper above the door.

My parents' old camper has one of these that works great and is very
easy to set up. They are still listed in RV catalogs, and are called
standard awning rails. Any canvas shop cam make an awning to fit out
of almost any material, all they do is hem in a 1/4 diameter flexible
cord to slide into the C-shape.

The advantages to using such a rig are several: cheap, strong, and
add but a pound or so to the weight of the camper (not counting the
awning cloth and poles), near-zero wind drag, no change in appearance
when the awning is not up, nothing to be out in the elements when not
in use, no moving parts, and, finally, a rain-tight seal above the
doorway.

The disadvantages: I don't know if they can be mounted on a vanagon!
I measured from my poptop seal to the bottom of the rain gutter, and
it looks like there's about 7/8 inch available before a plate would
interfere with the seal. The width of a standard awning rail is 1
3/16 inches. From the illustration in the catalog, it looks like an
enterprising and patient person could remove a part of the backing
plate that looks like it was meant to take a rubber cord-style
gasket, and get the width down to less 7/8 inch, than but I'm not
sure about that. It also may be that the poptop seals can deal with
an extra eighth-inch of material under them, but I'm not sure about
that, either. I don't want to try something like this and then find I
have air or water leaks or that the top and seals are being deformed
by it.

Anyone with any experience or ideas?

Thanks,

Jim