North American High Tops venturewagonhightops

North American High Tops.

-Ed Anderson - yes the Ed Anderson who created the ADVENTUREWAGEN - contacted me March 22 and graciously offered to let us use the ADVENTUREWAGEN name for the tops. So be it. The tops will be called what they are, ADVENTUREWAGEN high tops. I am very grateful for the offer and, out of respect for the pioneering work in terms of creating hightops for North America, would not be using the name had he not done so. Thank You Ed!!!

We modernized the original molds to eliminate the need for proprietary windows and skylight.

Unfortunately we have found that there is a basic design flaw in the original AW top that results in long term water infiltration.

Until we are able to solve this design problem, we will not be producing tops from the AW molds.

As of June 2017

jacharl_@bell.net

The North American ADVENTUREWAGEN High Top (AW top)

Welcome to North American High Tops / Canadian High Tops. We provide conversion High Tops for VW vans for the years 1980 - 1991

In the past we dealt solely with tops imported from the UK. The tops made in the UK that we imported were of high quality and were a tried and true top design. They were sized to retrofit on either a standard tintop van or to replace a Westy poptop.

In November 2012, after chasing them for the best part of 2 years, I was able to track down and purchase the molds for the iconic ADVENTUREWAGEN hightops. I had the molds shipped from California to Lewiston N.Y. where I picked them up and trailered them to my fiberglass fabricator.

We are currently assessing the molds and making some minor changes to them in order to update them. We will be beginning production here, North of Toronto of new ADVENTUREWAGEN tops. The AW top was available, to the best of my knowledge, through the entire production run of T3’s, from 1980 to 1991. Somewhere in that time period the AW molds were revised in some minor detail around the front of the van. We have both the older and newer versions of the mold.

We also have the mold for the fiberglass interior that was unique (in North America) to the AW top. As we assess the molds and get a handle on production times and costs we will begin the process of making these tops available to the North American Vanagon/Westy community

The original AW tops were produced with a chopper gun process throughout their production run. However, the tops that we will be producing and selling will be hand laid. . The hand laying fiberglass method is more time consuming than is the use of a “chopper gun” process but the final product is stronger and lighter. (See footnote below)

Our objective is to supply North Americans with high quality High Tops that have been produced in North America for the North American market. The NAFTA free trade agreement between Canada and the US does not differentiate between vehicle parts produced in Canada or the US, thus there is a free flow of vehicle parts back and forth between our two countries.

We hope that the availability of these tops will help people preserve and continue to enjoy one of the finest and most versatile vehicles ever made.

contact jacharl_@bell.netOR

john@northamericanhightops.com

In the chopper gun process short strands of epoxy soaked fiberglass are “blown” onto a mold. The randomness of the landing of the strands means that some are always crossed with others, creating a random matrix. In terms of wood, it is similar to OSB (organized strand board)

In the hand laying process, layers of fiberglass mat and cloth impregnated with resin, are laid cross wise in each subsequent layer. The end effect is a very strong multi-layered product similar to plywood in terms of wood. Google up “hand laid fiberglass” and you will find lots of articles and videos.

Can OSB be as strong as plywood? Yes, but to have similar strength it will have to be thicker and weigh more. The same analogy applies to the chopper gun production method compared to the hand laying process.

March 15, 2013

At last - the new tops - the first production hightops specifically made for T3 Vanagons made in North America in 20 years

- just a few pictures of the new top