nice pics and awesome pop-up.
My "Element C" pop-up down in Baja
EOC Amigos - Just back from Baja supporting an adventure race this week, finished wrenching a little modification on my E just in time for this one. Spent a super long extended weekend tearing around off road, moving our camp from one checkpoint to another. Thought the EOC might enjoy a few pics!
If you haven't been down that way, Baja is a great place to explore - remote beaches, empty deserts, you can see every star at night and there's still plenty of places to paddle/hike/bike or get lost. The E took it all in stride, excepting some minor "Baja pinstripes" from brush & cactus. (maybe those will polish out) This is all in an area about 2 hours from San Diego, a little south of Ensenada.
The new bits fit pretty well - so can someone cross my name off the "waiting for the new VW Westfalia" list, 'cause I'm happy now.
ok, better get back to catching up from those days out of the shop...
cheers
John
If you haven't been down that way, Baja is a great place to explore - remote beaches, empty deserts, you can see every star at night and there's still plenty of places to paddle/hike/bike or get lost. The E took it all in stride, excepting some minor "Baja pinstripes" from brush & cactus. (maybe those will polish out) This is all in an area about 2 hours from San Diego, a little south of Ensenada.
The new bits fit pretty well - so can someone cross my name off the "waiting for the new VW Westfalia" list, 'cause I'm happy now.
ok, better get back to catching up from those days out of the shop...
cheers
John
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Awe Ensenada brings back some great old memories... now if I could just remember that beautiful beach godesses name??? (LOL) 
Thanks for telling me about your POP-UP and the photos. Do you crawl through the rear sunroof to get up there? If you have another post telling more about it, please post it here (I'll also check you prior post listings...)
Very nice setup. Hope to learn more about it. Cheers, Lee
Thanks for telling me about your POP-UP and the photos. Do you crawl through the rear sunroof to get up there? If you have another post telling more about it, please post it here (I'll also check you prior post listings...)
Very nice setup. Hope to learn more about it. Cheers, Lee
Wait ! A GPS and a map. But your still lost ?
Nice Photos. Looks like fun
Thanks for posting them .
Dom
Nice Photos. Looks like fun
Thanks for posting them .
Dom
Modifications and stuff
"Wait ! A GPS and a map. But your still lost ?"
inside joke - there's only a couple real paved roads in Baja, but thousands of dirt tracks. Even the topo doesn't show all the roads so you're rolling along and things "Y" where there's nothing on the map...is that a road? a wash? a cow track? Make a guess and then a mile later you see that you're heading 90 degrees off course...time to get the GPS out, 'cause you ain't where you think you are!
Pop Up...little side project. Built the whole thing in house. In my shop we do sewing/composites/assembly so turns out there's a lot of rather handy tools around...
How's it work: Stripped off all the plastic and built a fiberglass base that mounts on the roof to maximize space/level roof, and also takes the place of the cladding. Molded up the white cap to cover it and then fab'ed a few things, bought some hardware and sewed up the canvas. There's a hole inside that's matched to the sunroof hole (removed some of glass hardware to clean things up). Climb through, and there's drop-boards to cover the opening. It's about 4' wide and 7' long inside, and the aft is all screened and also there's zippers to open up the back (for when I get a ladder made..)
The big parts are all cored composite with a liberal dose of carbon fiber, the whole deal weighed about 100 pounds net, can't even tell it's there driving, and the top is matched to the lines so not really any (more) windnoise. With one board in the sunroof hole, one person can sneak down if there's a need to "get out for a minute" without wakeing the other up. Eh, don't have as many detail pics but will try to take/post a couple when I get back home (travelling at the moment)
Where to get one...eh, this is just a little more involved than other small parts done for few EOC folks so if there are those interested I would have to figure out some things. Like how to cut hours involved - maybe do a batch or something.
Still working on some minor things, 'cause I'd like lighting up there, and wife and I are heading up to mid-California coast next weekend for more camping fun!
A lot of people stopped me in Baja and the real riot was the Westfalia full of surfers going by with a set of heads all swivelling as we were parked at a mercado. Same van we later passed on the uphill side of the mountains:grin:
cheers
John
"Wait ! A GPS and a map. But your still lost ?"
inside joke - there's only a couple real paved roads in Baja, but thousands of dirt tracks. Even the topo doesn't show all the roads so you're rolling along and things "Y" where there's nothing on the map...is that a road? a wash? a cow track? Make a guess and then a mile later you see that you're heading 90 degrees off course...time to get the GPS out, 'cause you ain't where you think you are!
Pop Up...little side project. Built the whole thing in house. In my shop we do sewing/composites/assembly so turns out there's a lot of rather handy tools around...
How's it work: Stripped off all the plastic and built a fiberglass base that mounts on the roof to maximize space/level roof, and also takes the place of the cladding. Molded up the white cap to cover it and then fab'ed a few things, bought some hardware and sewed up the canvas. There's a hole inside that's matched to the sunroof hole (removed some of glass hardware to clean things up). Climb through, and there's drop-boards to cover the opening. It's about 4' wide and 7' long inside, and the aft is all screened and also there's zippers to open up the back (for when I get a ladder made..)
The big parts are all cored composite with a liberal dose of carbon fiber, the whole deal weighed about 100 pounds net, can't even tell it's there driving, and the top is matched to the lines so not really any (more) windnoise. With one board in the sunroof hole, one person can sneak down if there's a need to "get out for a minute" without wakeing the other up. Eh, don't have as many detail pics but will try to take/post a couple when I get back home (travelling at the moment)
Where to get one...eh, this is just a little more involved than other small parts done for few EOC folks so if there are those interested I would have to figure out some things. Like how to cut hours involved - maybe do a batch or something.
Still working on some minor things, 'cause I'd like lighting up there, and wife and I are heading up to mid-California coast next weekend for more camping fun!
A lot of people stopped me in Baja and the real riot was the Westfalia full of surfers going by with a set of heads all swivelling as we were parked at a mercado. Same van we later passed on the uphill side of the mountains:grin:
cheers
John
Yeah, I would never guess that was homemade from your pics....wow.
The pop-up is handmade? With access through the skylight? :shock:
That's awesome! I would definitely love to know more about it. It looks very professional. Excellent work.
That's awesome! I would definitely love to know more about it. It looks very professional. Excellent work.
nice pix! nice ride
well done!!!
well done!!!
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