When I first got Bruno in 2007, the pop top looked the worst! It has lichen all over it, and it had been hit by a fallen tree branch in the front. There was a hole in the fiberglass. The branch had also slightly bent the rain gutter, but that was fixable.

 

One of the first things I did was pull the top off and begin refinishing it. I fixed the hole with fiberglass and resin, sanded and painted. I used marine topside off white paint. (this was later changed to bright white to match the bumpers during the body restore). I took off all the hardware, replace all the screws with a new one and used rubbers washers everywhere. I also replace the canvas with a great set from the BusDepot guys. My suggestion here – don’t get the cheapest. It’s worth a few extra $$ zip windows, good zipper hardware, and a good fit.  Ii used an electric staple gun – I started with a handgun, but quickly exhausted my muscles and borrowed an electric unit from a friend.

 

When taking off the luggage rack, the rubber mounts basically disintegrated. I found a decent replacement at ACE hardware. They were rubber stoppers, I put two together to get the right height and had to drill a  hole through.   I also took off all the luggage rack hardware. It was rusty. I salvaged the bars, but the cleats were rusty and ugly. It was many years  (2016) until I finally got around to repainting the bars and replacing the cleats.

 

The cleats were from GoWesty! They came with the installation hardware as well. They are not an exact match to the original, but so close no one will notice. (I think they match the later years) 

 

The bars were sanded, treated with rust converter, and repainted with Rust-oleum, black hammered metal. It looks great!

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