Great advice! You need a top quality proper size hardened screwdriver for
this job.  The Phillips screw is designed to "cam out", which you don't want
to happen just because your screwdriver is junk.

I looked up the story of the Phillips screw awhile back.

The Phillips screw was designed by Mr. Phillips to cam out in a production
environment to avoid damage to the work piece:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_screw#Phillips  This screw was
invented before the days of good torque control on powered drivers.   The
much better Torx screw came along in 1967 once torque control was common:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torx

I marvel at how they were able to drill these screws into the body sheet
metal at the factory.  Perhaps they pre-drilled the holes, but I doubt that
would be the case in a production environment.  These screws are very hard,
and I expect they were self inserting.  How would you like to have this job
at the Westfalia factory???  Whoever did got very good at it I'm sure.

Buying a new proper size screwdriver is imperative!

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
mark drillock
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 2:42 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Canvas replacement comments & video

This is true enough that I would suggest that one take a screw to the
hardware or tool store and buy a well matching new philips driver for the
tiny screws that hold the canvas to the roof. Even small wear on the tip of
an old driver can lead to grief on some of those screws, taking them out and
putting them back.

Mark

Tom Carchrae wrote:
>
> Also, as general advice find a screwdriver that fits the screws really
> well.  Philips head screws are such a bad design - the tighter the fit
> of the screwdriver, the easier it is to get them out (and not strip them).