It's not necessary to mark the hinge. Leave the bolts a bit loose, but not too loose, close the top and line it up with the luggage rack so it fits perfectly, then raise the top just enough to tighten the front bolt and close and check alignment. Raise further to tighten the others.  Usually only a bit of sideways adjustment is necessary.

Now is a good time to check your lift bar for wear.  The upper part should not be visible (sticking out) when looking at the hinge open.  If it is, the cross bar is being cut through and will eventually fail and the top will hit you on the head.  

I fixed mine by welding the gap and grinding. David Beierl was more sophisticated but either method works. https://picasaweb.google.com/117189706757545167023/VanagonPopTopHingeTroubles?noredirect=1#5497921924520735490 

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Edward V Barger
Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2016 1:31 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Removing top

the van is being painted so will not have a way to mark the hinge plate position 

any ideas how to get the hinge plates back in the old position or will it just be trial and error ??

ed
Edward V Barger
edvbarger@mac.com <mailto:edvbarger@mac.com>
310 922 6251

> On Jul 5, 2016, at 12:53 PM, Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA> wrote:
> 
> Oh and one more thing. Mark the position of the hinge plate to the van so you can get the roof back in the same position .
> 
> Alistair
> 
>> On Jul 5, 2016, at 11:24 AM, Edward V Barger <edvbarger@MAC.COM> wrote:
>> 
>> HI 
>> 
>> Need to help my body shop person remove the pop top for painting 
>> 
>> just did a web search and did not find any thing on removing the entire pop top …..    lots on replacing the cloth 
>> 
>> any one know the weight  planning on having 3 of us to remove it  will it be too heavy for only 3 people  ?
>> 
>> any one know  the weight ?
>> 
>> 
>> ed
>> Edward V Barger
>> edvbarger@mac.com <mailto:edvbarger@mac.com>
>> 310 922 6251