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Re: Riviera top refurb.



I recently repainted and refurbished my 72 Riviera's Pop Top and luggage
 rack, with lots of help from list member Mark Durrant.  I found some good
 sources of materials which I wanted to share with you all.

I took my old edge moulding to all kinds of plastics and moulding shops and
 they all looked at it like it was a two-headed chicken.  I finally did what
 I should have done first, and looked in the T2 library.  In one of the
 articles on camper restoration, there was a link to Outwater Plastics
 Industries 1-800-631-8375 www.outwater.com.  I ordered a roll of  part no.
 809-317, in white.   This is much better than the original Riviera
moulding.
 It has little metal stiffeners in it and followed the curves much better
 than the original stuff.  I still have more than half of the 100 foot roll
 if anyone wants to do theirs.

 I also got brand new shiny chrome plated springs at Home Depot which were
an
 exact match.  Just take one of your rusty old springs into HD and match it
 up.  They were cheap.

 Go Westy had the little cleats for the luggage rack in stainless.  I opted
 for these even though they were four times as expensive as the chrome ones
 in the hardware store because the old ones were a rusty mess.  I also made
 new bars for the luggage rack out of stainless tube, which I cut to length
 and flattened on the ends with a vice and sledge hammer.  The original
 galvanized bars were rusty in places.

 I removed the luggage rack and pop top and sanded, patched, primed and
 painted them.  To get the top back on, Mark Durrant and I welded up a steel
 scaffold out of square tube, put the top up on it, and drove the bus in
 under it.   Then, after the top was reattached, we cut the scaffold away.
 Probably would have been more efficient to bolt it together instead of
 welding and cutting.  But whatever, it worked.

 I painted the roof while the top was off.  Much easier that way. :)

 Regards,

 Grant