Pop Up Roof?

[Butternut]

<img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Grace/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.png" alt=""><font size="3"><font face="Georgia">Can anyone think of a good reason I couldn't add a pop up to my car?<br><br><img src="http://www.travelizmo.com/archives/gtrv-camper-van-class-b-motorhome.jpg"><br><br>hmmm... It would be in the future but how hard could it be? (yeay famous last words)<br><br><img src="http://up.picr.de/1403125.jpg"><br><br>Someone out there must have tried this with a van. Any tips?<br><br>Feel free to rain on my parade; I do have ridiculous ideas now and then. My biggest problem is that I usually follow through on them.<br></font></font>

 

[dprogram]

Would it be easier and more economically feasible to sell your car and buy a van?<br>

 

[Butternut]

Would it be easier and more economically feasible to sell your car and buy a van?<br>

<br><br><font size="3"><font face="Georgia">ummm... maybe. But not as awesome! I don't have any extra funds so a van is out of the question until at least 2012ish. I do have access to everything I'd need to (I think) to put this roof on. time consuming and I couldn't resell the car (not that's it's worth anything).<br><br><br></font></font>

 

[sl1966]

Funky! Wouldn't it cost you as much as a van to have the work done though?<div><br></div>

 

[user 423]

You could do it but the result would have limited utility. In a van with a poptop, you have room to walk fore and aft maybe 8 -10 feet so you can stretch while dressing, access storage shelves/cabinets or maybe use the loo. In a Jetta...about all you could do is stand up.<br>

 

[Khaosinc]

secondly, while there is room for the mechanical bits in a van, giving up 6" of head room in a jetta might be problomatic.<br><br>

 

[karl]

<font size="3">I once considered making a "sorta popup" on my van- it was to be hinged at the front and elevated only at the rear so that wedge shaped panels folded up to enclose&nbsp; it and support the top. It would only allow standup space in a small area, but it could be relatively simple and economical.</font> I wanted it to be secure and insulated so the height was limited to 1/2 the width (2' in my plan) so the panels could fold flat without overlapping in the down mode. The whole add-on was to be on a 3" high curb to allow me to build a flat popup on the curved van roof as well as have a lid like seal against water infiltration. If the side and rear panels were thin/light material and could be stored elsewhere and just latched into place there would be minimal engineering involved.<br>Seems like something like on the 4x4 pic, but with two solid panels- one hinged at the auto roof, and the other at the apex&nbsp; to create a bi-fold A shaped roof, and canvas (or inserted solid) endswould be very doable. Weather sealing being the hard part.<br><br>

 

[Les H]

I don't know about a true" popup", but sometime in the 70's or late 60's, popular mechanics offered plans to build a car-top fold up tent-camper. When it was collapsed, it was only 3-4 " thick, so not much wind resistance. I have also seen pictures on the net of a late 80's or early 90's Honda cvcc that had a small beach camper built in/on to it, and there is also an English company that made or still makes a car slide in camper, similar to a pickup camper, but smaller. You have to remove the trunklid, and I'm pretty sure that you need a midsized or larger car, but worth looking at for ideas. If you have the time and materials and acres to tools, your imagination is really the only limit to what can be done. I was at a grateful dead concert once ( no, seriously) and saw a bus that had half a vw bus welded to the top of it, a vw beetle welded on top of that and a half round plexiglass porthole on the very top of it ( like a layer cake) . Not stealthy in the slightest, lut lots of ingenuity and "wow" factor!
Les

 

[Butternut]

I don't know about a true" popup", but sometime in the 70's or late 60's, popular mechanics offered plans to build a car-top fold up tent-camper. When it was collapsed, it was only 3-4 " thick, so not much wind resistance. I have also seen pictures on the net of a late 80's or early 90's Honda cvcc that had a small beach camper built in/on to it, and there is also an English company that made or still makes a car slide in camper, similar to a pickup camper, but smaller. You have to remove the trunklid, and I'm pretty sure that you need a midsized or larger car, but worth looking at for ideas. If you have the time and materials and acres to tools, your imagination is really the only limit to what can be done. I was at a grateful dead concert once ( no, seriously) and saw a bus that had half a vw bus welded to the top of it, a vw beetle welded on top of that and a half round plexiglass porthole on the very top of it ( like a layer cake) . Not stealthy in the slightest, lut lots of ingenuity and "wow" factor!<br>Les

<br><br><font size="3"><font face="Courier">Those sound great! I'll have to track them down on google. Stealth is definitely important, but it would be nice to have some extra room for the times that stealth is not an issue. I do use camp sites and whatnot when I travel </font></font><br>

 

[Guest]

Come to think of it, I camped with a French Canadian couple in Oaxaca, MX that were driving some little car like a Celica or Honda of some kind..obviously I didn't pay that much attention to the make....and he had built a clamshell type camper out of plywood and as Les says it was only 4 or 5 inches high when folded and he had built it with a slanted front for a bit of aerodynamic slip....kinda like the photo I put on here....<br><br><br>Here is a link to a cool cartop camper too..<br><br>http://www.autohomeus.com/<br>Bri<br><br><br>

 

[Stillwater]

This is pricey but looks easy to build from non-molded materials.<br>http://cgi.ebay.com/Roof-Top-Tent-A...pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&amp;hash=item2c5e63a601<br><br>

 

[Stillwater]

Butternut - If you don't mind sleeping like the Adams Family, I've got this on my roof. It *is* 80". LOL<br><br>

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[vonu]

Butternut - If you don't mind sleeping like the Adams Family, I've got this on my roof. It *is* 80". LOL<br><br>

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<div><br></div><div>That would be more Abby's style.</div>