Refresh the Luggage Tub

Over ten years ago, I purchased and installed the Riviera pop top, bed and luggage tub. In an Agile-like spirit, some of the steps I took were good enough to demonstrate the feature, but not great for the long haul. Today, I re-approach the luggage tub.

 

Why Now?

finished work

A logical question to ask when you take apart something that is functioning is why now? This is an especially good question since I am in the midst of a significant noise control effort already. Well, it was the noise control effort that brought this to my attention. When I was working on the cab ceiling, I discovered that some of the original 1972 Westfalia stuff was not keeping the ceiling sealed. To access the leaks, I had to remove the luggage tub, and things kind of grew from there.

Ceiling Repairs

I mentioned that there were ceiling seal issues. Consider that the hinges and the front-center latch for the original 1972 Westfalia pop-top attach to the top of the bus above the front seats. These are mounted by passing bolts through the ceiling and then threading into some flashing which have embedded nuts. The bolts had been removed, or broke off, but the leaks were coming from where the flashing/nut bit touched the ceiling. These had broken down over the last 10 years and were weeping. So, I removed the flashing, the nuts, and anything else remaining related to the old pop top mechanisms, leaving six holes.

 

cleaning under the luggage tub

In an ideal world, I would have used no-longer-with-us Travis' welder and repaired the holes the correct way with replacement steel cut into small circles. Unfortunately, when Travis passed, a grave-robbing vulture (Bob) swooped in, claimed he and Travis were "like brothers" (say it all deep and blubbery to get the effect), and took everything he could fit into his truck and trailer over multiple trips while my sister-in-law worked through her grief. Bob the vulture took all 4 of Travis' welders. Yes, that's right; all 4 of them (Travis was a pipe-fitter by trade so welded pretty much anything) and a TON of other things, like all of Travis' other tools, for example. Like the Grinch, Bob disappeared as quickly as he had appeared and cleaned out all of Travis' valuables. Just as he was a non-entity before Travis passed, no one has heard from him since. May you die alone, Bob; you are the worst. I was suspicious of you then, and deeply regret not honoring Travis' memory as you cleaned out his legacy. I digress, but suffice to say I do not have access to a welder anymore, so I solved in a more ShadeTree way.

 

heat shrink before/after

First, I closed up the holes from below with the Constrained Layered Dampener (CLD) since I was applying it anyway. This left small, shallow, circular indentations, about the size of a US dime (in diameter) in the top. I filled the indentations with FlexSeal. Once dry, I painted over the FlexSeal and the rest of the top with the same white Rustoleum. Of course, around this work, I removed the tub, cleaned the top (picture above-right shows how filthy it was), and addressed the surface rust with converter and then encapsulator, both from Eastwood. With the tin-top good enough for another 10 years, I shifted to the luggage tub.

Tub Cleanup

The luggage tub needed it's own help. The rack bars were starting to show some rust, and one of them had become disconnected at one end. 10 years ago, when I initially installed the tub, I quick painted it with the white Rustoleum and attached it to the top with 4 long wood-screws. I had completely forgotten I had done that, but it had held on without issue. To my surprise, all 4 screws threaded right out of the metal top when I went to remove the tub. These holes served as the starting point for the more robust mounting I did later.

doing the doing

With the tub now on the floor of my garage, I drilled out the rivets holding the bars to the fiberglass. Over the course of many hours, I sanded them down to bare metal, and got off most of the rust. What remained got the converter/encapsulator treatment and then some white Rustoleum. Unlike the bars, the metal supports that run from side-to-side were in perfect rust-free condition, after sanding off the paint. I chose to leave them unpainted, and polished them with steel-wool before shooting them with clear-coat instead. When I purchased the top and tub, one of the luggage cleats was missing. I chose to replace all of them with stainless steel cleats (footman loops) which I bolted (M3 Allen bolts) instead of rivet'd in place. Incredibly, the footman loops that I used to mount the big speaker box into Oliver, the 1978 MGB, were a perfect fit. While everything was apart, I hauled the tub outside and applied a fresh coat of white Rustoleum to the fiberglass tub. Once the paint was dry, I set the tub on some old carpet bits to protect the finish a little bit.

 

Before I bolted (rather than rivet'd) the now-rust-protected-and-white bars back to the tub (M4 hex bolts), I tried 3/4" inner-diameter clear PVC/Vinyl tubing onto the round part of the bar. I thought this might help the paint last a little longer as well as soften the rack for things placed onto it. Unfortunately, the tube is just a shade too loose. I did not want moisture to wick underneath, and the gaps at the ends just didn't look that great. So, I pulled that off and used 3/4" inner-diameter clear heat-shrink instead. I warmed it carefully with a propane torch, just enough to engage the shrink and have it snug up on the bar. The picture above on the right shows how well the heat shrink sealed the bars. Honestly, FlexSeal probably could have done the same thing.

riv-nut tool set

Keeping with the whole noise reduction thing, I added some Noico to the hidden inside of the tub. I figured that it would reduce the vibration noise a little bit. Similar to the effect of adding this stuff to metal, the sound from tapping on the fiberglass changed to a much deeper note after the Noico was added. There is no way to know if this helped at all, but it seemed at least a little logical. The addition of the Noico added maybe a couple of pounds to the luggage tub, but if the noise on the highway is meaningfully reduced, this could be a contributing factor. Something is increasing the noise once we get up above 50mph, and since the luggage tub is right above our heads, it is a reasonably assumed source.

The last thing I did before installing the tub, I added a white pinch-edging around the outer edge. Originally, the Riviera pop-top shipped with a white edging like this. When I purchased this top, it did not have one. I don't think it really does much other than dress the edge a little bit. I could reduce some vibration transmission into the roof from the wind-whip at higher speeds, though. Again, like with the addition of the Noico on the underside of the tub, I'll take every fraction of a decibel reduction I can get. For those thinking of doing this to their luggage tub, it took 15 feet of piping. I had purchased 30 feet, thinking that woudl be enough to do the luggage tub and the pop-top. Clearly my guestimates were way off. I'll need to get more to do the pop-top, and I have enough left over for someone else to do just their tub. 

Tub Install

parts-express foot

Of course, I did not want to return to 4 long wood-screws holding the top on. While that appeared to work for 10 years, I did not want to press my luck. In a traditional install, the ASI/Riviera folks would bore 4 holes into the top and weld nuts in place from the underside. The top install would consist of 1 bolt per corner from above, passing through a thick rubber puck into the welded-on nut. Again, I do not have access to a welder, so I could not exactly repeat the original design. I could, however, pop in riv-nuts. A riv-nut installs like a pop-rivet: using a squeeze gun that has a mandrel and riv-nut sized for the job, you put the riv-nut on the installed mandrel, set it through the hole and pop it like a rivet. For the rubber puck, I found 4 rubber feet at a stereo-supply place (parts-express) that are 1-1/2" tall by 1-1/2" across. These feet have a central hole through the center.

 

I drilled out the old mounting holes large enough for the M5 riv-nut to fit. I applied the riv-nut from below: Since the riv-nut has a flush side (side where it is installed from) and a sticks-out side, it would be better for the sticks-out side not to be pointing down towards my head. As you can see from the stock picture of the foot, one end is wide, allowing the sticks-out side of the riv-nut a ready-made home inside.

 

view with the edging

I thought I could counter the Riviera install, and I run M5 stainless steel bolts from inside the cab up through the stereo-supply feet. This did not work for a reason I could not determine. So, I followed the original model with the bolts heading down from above instead: bolt through a fender washer, then the tub, through the rubber foot and into the riv-nut. Fortunately, the bolts I had were long enough to reach the riv-nuts but not so long that they protrude past the flush-side.

This whole affair became an incredible time consumer that I did not plan for. Once I saw the holes, I had to solve. Of course, I did not have to repaint the tub/top, nor swap out the cleats, replace the pop-rivets with stainless hardware, etc. This finished product looks better, will work better and is set up for seasonal maintenance. Which prompts me to encourage you to consider when was the last time you removed any of the plastic bits off your ride to clean up accumulated organic material. Your paint, and perhaps the integrity of your ride, will thank you.

Well, that's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-