Club 80-90 Forums

My new van has a leaking hightop which, judging by the amount off sealant in the gutter channels, has been a problem for a long time.
In the long term, I’m probably going to be looking at doing a roof chop for a pop top but, I’ve got to get it dry, sealed and useable for the next few years.

I’ve stripped most of the interior out and there is quite a bit off corrosion in the top of the roof on the inside of the bottom edge where the hightop joins onto the roof.

Also, the front and rear edge of the roof appear completely detached so I’m guessing a fair bit of water is getting in there?

My plan, and I’m open to suggestions/advice here, is to try and clean all the old adhesive/silicone out, remove all the loose and flaky rust, repair to the gutter rail if required, then treat with a good rust inhibitor, paint and then when all dry and cured, get inside with some Silka or similar and reseal from the inside the bottom edge where the roof joins the metalwork.

This way, I’ll hopefully address some of the rust issues and prevent it getting worse and then hopefully, if well sealed from the inside, it will be watertight?

Thoughts?

I have this awful feeling that when you lift the roof off, you're going to find a lot of holes, where the rust has eaten through the roof. This is not uncommon - we've seen a number of similar posts over the years. Let us know how you get on.

^^^ Whs, you'll need to lift the roof to assess the rust damage, brace yourself.

Yes, it’s going to be bad, I can see that with the interior out.
I’m not going to take the roof off in case it’s so bad I can’t get it back on.
I just need to keep it dry for a couple of year before I can afford the new roof chop.

You can see what it’s like pretty easily without taking the roof off - it’s like this!

The only sign of leakage from this was an occasional drip into the back of the van - right above our heads when sleeping!

On a more cheery note, duct tape round the affected area (I.e. round the whole roofline) can be an effective temporary fix, and in the right light* can even be aesthetically pleasing! I used it to get through a holiday trip.


*right light = total darkness!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yup, it’s going to be looking like that!
If I could figure how to load pictures I’d show you the previous owners craftsmanship!
I’m hoping if I just inject loads of Silk from the inside, forcing it out from under the edge of the hightop roof, it should remain waterproof for a while?!?

I use Tapatalk on my phone to load pics, really simple to use.

The rust, not so simple. If you’re not dealing with the rust, you’re basically crossing your fingers until you have time to do it properly, and there’s nothing wrong with that as long as you know that is what you are doing.

I just took the roof off our hightop Westfalia. I didn't want to do it, but in the end I had to. The windscreen cracked and when I took it out I discovered rust behind the rubber from a hole in the roof had done the damage. It was just a small hole behind a heavy crust of rust but a screwdriver quickly turned it into a big one that had gone through three layers of metal and was junking the pillars and the base of the windscreen surround also.
It was as bad a job as I thought it would be except I managed to do it. If you've taken out all the furniture and cleaned out all the sealant from the gutters I think you're at least half way there maybe?
This problem turns hightops into worthless scrap so it's definitely worth doing. And if you put it off you'll have to take all the furniture out and scrape all the sealant out all over again. Also the better you do a temporary job the harder it will be when you do get round to it. The better the roof the harder it is to get it off I think which mught be a consolation of sorts.
My roof was nowhere near as bad as some of the pics - you might be lucky too?
But it's a dilemma because who wants to take the roof of a hightop - not me ever again.
I checked out how much a restorer would charge to do it for me and I've saved more money than I could afford doing it myself and it does feel fantastic when the roof actually comes off and you can finally get to grips with the problem. And if and when I sell it on it will hopefully be with a perfect hightop with the photos to prove it.

My drive for a ‘quick fix’ is that I want to use it this summer and my long term plan will be a roof swap to a pop top.
If I can get it waterproof, I’ll be happy as I can use it straight away, we’re supposed to be going away in it at the end of June so, the pressure really is on!!

When I bought it last month it looked like she was ready to go but, the more I prodded, the worse it got. I’m already having to replace the complete floor and the inner and outer sill on the opposite side to the sliding door!!

A quick update.
I basically cleaned all the channels out from gunk and previous attempts to rectify the problem - which took me about 2 days! - and then re-lagged with new silicone.
The good news - I've got a full summer of camping out of it - the bad news - my roof underneath is so bad, I need to replace with a new tintop.

Unfortunately, this leaves me another problem, my van is a LHD panel van so, I'm guessing the only vehicle that will be suitable for a roof chop donor would be the same vehicle? Probably not too many kicking around as donors in the UK?

This is my job for the winter, along with an engine upgrade if I have the time but, I think the roof will consume most of the winter!!

roof is same lhd or rhd so no problem there

I need the lower 150mm of the pillars etc so I was assuming it would have to be the same for the sliding door upper rail and not to be pressed for a window opening on the opposite side?