Riviera top refurb.

["G. Simmons" <gls@xxxxxxxxx>]

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