2003 Suburban 1500 Pop Top Conversion

[rayra]

The foam you described is about as good as a foam solution would get. have you considered an air mattress? Takes up very little when not in use, especially compared to the foam. And what 'expedition' vehicle doesn't have an air pump? But go with single-widths. My missus doesn't enjoy gettign tossed off one side when I move around on the other side of our double, when tent-camping.

 

[boll_rig]

Would love the compatibility of an air mattress but blowing one up is about the last thing I want to do after driving all day so Im thinking I am going to get the 2 inch memory foam and add a 1 inch or 1/2 inch dense foam underneath if I need it.

Ordered some jeep hood latches yesterday for about 65 dollars that Im going to use to hold down the sides of the topper. Figure front and latter half of the sides held down will be enough..

So to continue the process of interior support I went down to Alreco in north denver and picked up a bunch of 3/4 in sq tube 1/8th thick. Here i cut and bent it to go across the belly and up the sidewalls. I had all these three cross pieces welded up to make the bends strong..

And here is the flat stock that I bent, had a bar welded into, and sanded down. These are for L brackets to support the roof rack bolts.

Here is everything laid in before epoxy..

and being clamped..

All glued in

Decided to just mechanically fasten these after they were epoxied

And finally the 1/2 insulation going in between the metal and ply. Figured I'd rather have the headroom than put it over the ply. going to put cork board over the front piece to tack things into and keeping the back piece exposed, sanded and stained, as the rear hinge will slide across it on plastic.
You can see that there is either a cross piece or L bracket everywhere a roof rack bolt will come through, 4 total mounts..

Working on the LED light strips, wiring, usb outlet, and tacking in a tapestry over all the insulation in order to finish up the interior so i can get it on the roof..
Are these photos still coming through?

And an FYI if you were curious, the whole thing weighs in at 100lbs even right now. Pretty happy with that weight. Was down at colorado camper van and their raised roof are around 300lbs, granted about 1-1.5 feet high..

 

[Mushin_Noshin]

Pictures coming thru just fine. Really cool that you are tackling this yourself.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[rayra]

My kind of fab, nice work. Love building **** from scratch.
The aluminum perimeter rail is going to be both gasket / mating surface and attachment for the fabric sidewalls?
Good weight for such a large project, too.


I'm about to go delete my front factory cross brace and replace it with a flat strap on my roof rack deck, to see if I can get rid of that wind moan. I'm real curious how the front of your pop-up will fair as a fairing.

 

[justbecause]

will there be enough space with the top down to leave 2" or 3" of foam on top of the roof?
I think the memory foam is preferable if it will fit, I think it is more comfortable, and do better about retaining some body heat in the winter. But, if you dont have the room to leave it up there all the time you can get 12v self inflating mattresses, or a 12v pump for a conventional mattress. A queen (at least the two I have) are still pretty large when stored, about the size of a gatorade cooler, but i believe the more expensive "camping" ones pack down smaller.

 

[boll_rig]

Thanks Mushin, still surprised its working.. thus far..

And trying to figure that one out now justbecause. I think that I will have enough space to leave at least the 2 in foam up there and you're right I like it for the winter! Going to do some measurements today.

Rayra, its been a long process to get where it is but I'm pretty happy with the structural integrity to weight ratio! And ya the perimeter sq tube will be where I mount the canvas into, not really going to touch the roof though that will be all on the bulb seal below. Thinking though that when I mount canvas to the car I will sandwich with aluminum L angle stock so that the upper vertical wall will block any water that does creep past the bulb seal. Also need an air dam in the front in hopes that it won't have a horrid wind moan like you say you've got going on.. Were you able to have any luck fixing yours?

Realized that before I can finish up the interior I need to mount the lights and roof rack to cover up the inside bolts meaning I need to apply monstaliner first.. going in for the sand/clean nightmare of a job this evening then applying epoxy primer. Hate this sanding crap, excited its the last time.. wish me luck.

 

[boll_rig]

Also wanted to share a couple photos from yesterday. Started out as a nice little saturday trip to 4th of July Bowl above Nederland then we ran into this:

Not sure if you heard about the fire here in Colorado but was pretty nuts. At one point we were seeing 200 foot high flames. We were the last car allowed to continue on the Peak to Peak highway to nederland (Pictured).

We decided maybe it wasn't the best idea to take a dead end trail with a raging fire and Ned being evacuated so we went exploring around Rollinsville. Proved a good test for the hitch carrier. Bottomed out within a minute and had to take the bike off and still proceeded to scraped on almost every rain dip over the course of the next couple hours. Thinking I'm going to cut it and have it welded at a steeper angle to give it another inch of clearance.

Sits nice and high on the other side though

It made it fine though only a few dirtbike crashes, a 30 year old diving board into a lake and some solid exploring and we were back in Ned, fire hadn't taken the town as they luckily don't go downhill well.


I will say that I'm going to miss my rear sunroof like crazy when its covered up.. A candid photo my friend took of us putting gold hill road. Its almost like being on a jeep safari.

 

[justbecause]

apparently my wife isnt sold on using our mattress topper we were using in the RTT.... she just sent me this. It does look pretty nice and is much cheaper than the ones I looked at. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CWZE642?psc=1

 

[rayra]

Yes, I got the noise down to 'scarcely noticeable' and when I run with the factory sunroof tilted up it vanished completely in the regular noise of that.

That open roof would be fun / funny for a sort of safari rig. Or a couple mounted machineguns.

That bike a 250? My last was an XL500R, but that was many years ago. I keep reading KLR topics with lust in my heart.

 

[boll_rig]

MonstaLiner done

Yes, I got the noise down to 'scarcely noticeable' and when I run with the factory sunroof tilted up it vanished completely in the regular noise of that.

That open roof would be fun / funny for a sort of safari rig. Or a couple mounted machineguns.

That bike a 250? My last was an XL500R, but that was many years ago. I keep reading KLR topics with lust in my heart.

Scarcely Noticeable is pretty darn good. I can only hope to get to that level. And ya some mounted defense machines would be sweet haha. Seriously though I like the rear opening so much that Im already thinking about how to put a pop open door back there to stand out of.. that or a large window?

And the bike is the 350. honda only made them until 87 or 88 I think. I always liked the XL500 though! almost got that one first. Id say drop in on a KLR!

justbecause
apparently my wife isnt sold on using our mattress topper we were using in the RTT.... she just sent me this. It does look pretty nice and is much cheaper than the ones I looked at. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CWZE642?psc=1

Haha always hard to please. That one does look really nice. Think I am already en route to go foam though. So far I have received the 2 in memory.. its not enough as I expected so Im going to supplement it with either 1 or 2 inch dense foam from foam factory. Cant decided on which though..



So I finished monstalining the topper. Man that was a pain in the a**. Just trying to sand away the polyurethane paint took about 6 hours and the belt really dug in in a few spots which Im not happy about. Careless. Either way the Monstaliner somewhat cleaned it all up. I used 2.5 gallons and that was about 3 coats. Actually really happy with how it came out. Love the color, so far, and the texture was really easy to get from the roller brush. used 6 of them.
Taped the bottom for the first two coats for the bulb seal to easily snug back onto.

Epoxy Primer:

Found these little cord shoots, no idea what they are actually called, at home depot for a desk. Epoxied them into the back for the rear flood light cords.

Heres a close up of the texture. Came out surprisingly even.

 

[rayra]

Looking good. Looking very good for a home-brew project.


I got my stereo today (pioneer AVH-280BT) double din touchscreen, DVD player etc etc etc. I'll probably wind up in my headliner next week trying to re-connect/-wire my 2nd row ceiling display and will probably try installing some of that radiant barrier stuff then. Depends how ambitious I am.
btw, the double din isn't a natural fit in the 2000-2003 dash. It's a blend of 2004-2006 dash bezel, relocating the air controls downward and some adapter plates. I'm trying another method tomorrow, I also pulled the in-dash cage from the junkyard late-year donor vehicle that I got the dash bezel from. Got a pile of wiring adapters etc waiting to go in. When it's done it ought to look like this -

 

[fiddypal]

Check out teton sports mattress pads. I have 2 single person ones that lay side by side between my wheel wells in the back. Then I threw a gel infused memory foam mattress toppers over that and end up with a pretty comfy bed. The only reason I went with the small single person sleeping pads was so I could roll them up and bring on a hike if we wanted. If you plan to exclusively sleep in the truck, might wanna just get some plain old foam and throw a mattress cover over it.

 

[boll_rig]

Rayra that will look pretty good I think! your mods always impress me.

Check out teton sports mattress pads. I have 2 single person ones that lay side by side between my wheel wells in the back. Then I threw a gel infused memory foam mattress toppers over that and end up with a pretty comfy bed. The only reason I went with the small single person sleeping pads was so I could roll them up and bring on a hike if we wanted. If you plan to exclusively sleep in the truck, might wanna just get some plain old foam and throw a mattress cover over it.

Fiddy those mattresses look great. Would actually do exactly what you described if I didn't have to custom cut a size. And ya leaving it up there permanently.

Did a little work this morning and cut out my rear cigarette outlet, spliced it into some longer wires and routed them up above the back doors and down. Then wired them to the goal zero input plug.

Forgot who else did this with their GZ battery but thanks for the tip! Fits nicely

 

[fiddypal]

Since you need a custom size then ya i agree just get custom foam cut to your needs. I would go for a very dense foam (not like the sleeping pad foam, but the kind they make RV/Camper seat cushions out of) and then throw a mattress topper over that. You want a thick base layer that won't easily deform when alot of weight is applied to prevent "bottoming out". Then you throw the memory foam on top for extra comfort

Let us know how it turns out!

 

[rayra]

boll I'm curious why you didn't put that battery pack up on top of the trim panel above the plug location, it's looks short enough to fit on that shelf. But that does put it out in plain view.

reason I ask is I'm hauling a lot of 4'x8' material with my Sub and your install location would totally interfere with that. Too, there is a lot of dead space behind that panel in the picture, especially if you aren't using the factory scissor jack that is stored in there. In particular there's a nice void right behind where you have that battery pack. It's not quite big enough to fit it, though.
I'm planning to come up thru the floor in that void and out the panel right behind your goal zero location with a pair of fat cables and an Andersen power plug, which runs back to the factory 2nd battery tray. That will be my feeder for the narrow storage box / power conversion module I have planned as part of my storage drawer / platform design. I'm also thinking to modify some jumper cables with a similar cable and a like port on the back end of the power module or even set in the bumper, so I can jump a vehicle from my rear, like a mil truck 'slave cable' arrangement.

Stereo install was a bust. All my 'one piece at a time' shopping for all the adapters etc needed and I totally missed that I needed an aftermarket module / wiring interface to work with the Bose amp & speaker setup. Blind spot, been dacades since I last installed an aftermarket stereo. I got a pigtail adapter and a few other bits, antenna adapter etc got everything hooked up and seemingly working right, bluetooth hands free iphone ops, DVD playing Drive, but NO SOUND. So back to the factory stereo for another week.

But it sure looked pretty