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This is a photo guide to replacing your canvas. Matts pop Tops does a brilliant written guide which I will attach to this post.

First thing you will need to do is to take out the screw cover strip that is around the metal band that holds the bottom of the canvas on. Take out the screws and take off the joining plate and the metal things that you hook the pull downs onto.

Take out the screws and it will lift free.


Lift the canvas out of the way and you can now get to the roof brackets. Undo the nuts that hold on the roof and you will be able to lift the roof completely off.



Don't worry, it is not heavy but you will need one person in the van and two outside to get it off. If the nuts will not undo as was the case in ours as they were rusted on, you can undo the bolts that go into the roof. Once it was on a work table I used a mini grinder to cut the old bolts off.

The Canvas is secured in place by this alloy track[img][/img]

Using a flat tool such as an old blunt chisel or flat headed screw driver, slowly work your way round prising this apart. You just need to open it about half an inch. Just enough to free the canvas.

You see the track open and both the canvas and headliner. As you can see they are stitched together. Using a sharp stanley knife of scalpel cut the stitching releasing the canvas.



You will also see although not on my photo that there is a white plastic strip stitched to the top of the canvas. This fits into a groove in the track of the metal band the canvas sits in. The new canvas you buy will have the same thing on it in black. this stops you pulling the canvas out of the track later. Make sure you do not harm the roof liner as you will need to keep this on. You will need to reglue this to the roof before fitting the new canvas. You will now have the canvas free. If you are making one yourself use this as your template. Make sure you clear the track of all debris before fitting the new canvas.
Fitting the new one.
Sit the new one into the track first making sure it is the right size. When our new one arrived it was six inches longer than the old one but fitted into the track perfectly, we don't know why but the old one was thinner material and stretched really tightly. If in doubt use a piece of string to measure the track and then measure the string, that will be the length of material you need for your canvas.
[[File:canvas 14.jpg|none|auto]]

Once it is sitting in the track go round with a stiff blunt piece of metal and push the black plastic strip under the ledge in the track.


When you have finished and it will take a while you are ready to crimp back the edge to grip the canvas. I needed to use a lump hammer to tap it back in place, you may want to wrap some cloth around the hammer. It is very stiff metal and needed to be hit quite hard. Take your time. It needs to be tight as this will hold it all in place.


It will look like this.
[[File:canvas 17.jpg|none|auto]]

Now reverse what you did at the beginning. Thing to keep in mind is : When securing the canvas to the bottom rail you need tuck the cord at the bottom of the canvas into the outside of the rail. the push the rail into place trapping the canvas between the rail and the fibreglass roof lip.


Make sure you fix the corners first, it is really tight here and you will need a gclamp to force it down, make sure you use a block of wood to protect your roof liner.


Screw the whole lot back in place make sure you have marked the bottom rail so to get them on the right side so the holes line up.you will need to replace the screw cover vinyl strip as when you take it off it will stretch. it is called a Herzim strip and you can find it on ebay.


Here is the written one that Matts soft tops gives you. We paid £178 including postage from Matt. He has Orange or beige for this or for roughly £20 more you have a choice of 35 colours all in in top quality waterproof acrylic canvas.

I hope this helps.

Regards

Mark, Lynnsey and Harrison