Vanovations: The Poptop

This project may have had the most visible transformation and largest effect on morale, though it had the least effect on function, of all van components we had renovated up til this point. 

When Max bought the van, the poptop was covered in black mold with a huge rip in the canvas and rotted away edges. when you 'popped' the top, you could almost see the mold spores and rotted canvas floating through the air. And you could definitely smell the mildew. Max and Mark had been working on the underside of the van for years in a dark garage. The van had been on jacks for months and its livability was not just a question, but a seeming impossibility. Max and I were, at this moment, working full time on the van and with a "one step at a time" mentality, I decided to undertake the sun-bleached mold-infested top as my first major project. I had helped Max with the suspension, breaklines, etc. but somehow the satisfaction of executing a project has escaped me with the mechanical side of things. Now finally I felt I could handle this project in its totality. 

At first, I was under the impression that all the fuzzy material covering every square inch of the inside top of the poptop was all mold. After some research and debating just scraping the material off completely, I realized that the fuzzy material, called flocking (a fuzzy material adhered to the inside top of the poptop), was intentional and served the useful purpose of absorbing excess moisture in the air when you are inhabiting the van! The scary black mold had infested only half of the interior surface. 

We removed the poptop from the van and I started a routine of bleaching, scrubbing, and soaking the flocking in soap. It took two days to completely erase the mold.

Finally, the flocking was clean and safely breathable. I was surprised by how well the flocking held up to all the cleaning abuse I put it through. After 39 years, the original flocking was still functional and had pretty limited flaking around the edges! Only a slight fading of the color as a result of the bleaching was a signal to indicate what it had endured.

The poptop exterior had quite a lot of baked-in dirt and the color was quite faded by the sun on top of a sad greyish-purple color which some previous owner had decided to use. I had dreams of a gleaming off-white poptop. The first step was power washing everything. It was my first time using a power washer and I can confirm that it is just as satisfying as you would imagine. 

The same regimen of washing was applied to the luggage rack which covers the front of the van over the drivers.

Next, I began the paint job. I picked out the perfect "oyster white" paint and used a small roller to apply. 

The painting took about 3 days to complete after which we reinstalled the hardware of the pop top and put it back on the van. As you see, it was a late night push to install the poptop and the real affect of its installation wasn't really felt until the next morning. 

We awoke to a shining and clean-smelling haven on top of our van! That day we took a nap in the pop-top bed (which we had also cleaned). 

We had barely driven the van with all the new mechanics and the interior and exterior were still looking pretty rough. the van was a long way from being ready to drive, never mind ready to live in! redoing the poptop at that time was a huge moral boost. It really made the van feel like it was getting new life! I can't tell you how rewarding it was to finally wake up in our van, even if there was still a missing side panel and had a leak in the coolant system and had no cabinetry and etc. We felt that the far off dream was a little bit closer that morning.

This was also the first major project of the van that I had taken sole responsibility for. I experienced a lot of pressure (primarily from myself) to make the right decisions and execute the project well. This pressure usually resulted in a freeze response from me when I felt that things weren't going well. Max would find me staring into middle-space with a blank look on my face and an inability to respond to him calling my name. It would only be a second before I would shake the feeling, but it was in these moments where I could just feel my sympathetic nervous system kicking into high gear over a stuck bolt or a smudge of paint. It is just ridiculous things sometimes, but luckily I had a lot of moral support on that project. Once I got over those small moments, I was able to produce something really beautiful, something of which I can be proud.