Hello,

I have been after a lowlight camper for soooo long now!! Can't find anything that's half decent, even for a project...
Now the question that might cause a LOT of controversy is about how and when the hole was cut in the roof? Did they come here as tin tops and then fitted out later? Only asking because of what I have read about Australian Campers / Fit out. I understand that they were done by VW but were they done here or imported like that?
Therefore is mashing a decent project tintop with a totally rusted camper sacrilegious to the VW community? I would be putting another Kombi back on the road...

Please haters be nice...

your car - do whatever you want

That said - I think you will find ALL campers are modified vehicles and would need to be engineered that way

i believe some came with VW aftermarket approval, but I dont believe any kombi rolled out of the factory as a camper

Personally I perfer full micro busses and would have a bus with a tent over a camper

I'm wrecking a later (74) bay camper which I'm told is a Sopru conversion. There is no mod plate even though they were not done by vw. The roof cut is very rough and I thought it was a home done job but apparently that's the way it was done. No reinforcing or anything.

I wouldn't convert mine because I don't want a camper. But if that's what you want then go for it. I agree though that you would probably need engineering mods for the conversion.

You could do a non pop top camper. Have seen plenty of them.

All campers here started out as Kombis then had a hole cut in the roof.

Sopru was the official VW conversion.

As a rule too, if you want it too look 'Factory' like a supro or similar, you need to mark the hole very very carefully then use an axe to cut it nice and rough and jagged

As said above, if you want to convert a tin top so be it. Tin tops are worth more and always will be as finding a good one is harder to do.

Depending on where you are I am selling my 68 camper. It has started resto and does have more rust work but is a good base. Plus it was complete with all the hard to find bits before I started. In Brisbane. I stopped working on it due to kids and spending my weekend surfing whilst driving my on road bus.

You will from time to time come across RHD campers that were shipped to Oz by British tourists in the 70's and never sent back. They have real nice things like 'limited slip diffs' that were factory fitted. When you look, you never know what you will find. Dave

Thank-you so much vassy66T1. I was a little doubtful on the pop top after lots of people have encouraged to just fit out a tin top...
Surely there's a camper out there somewhere...

Yeh bud! Keep looking

There is the odd Westfalia camper that has been imported here - very rare though - they are the ONLY VW factory approved conversion and used sunroof models with the hole already there before they were transported to the Westy factory and fitted with their elevating roofs. Early bay ones pivot from the front and late bays pivot from the rear.

Dormobiles are the next best version.

Most Sopru ones will be rotten under the fixed fibreglass lower pop-top roof section so be very wary of them.

Best of luck with your search.

There's one on eBay right now that has gone up a couple of times. Not sure where you are or if you are willing to travel but I saw this yesterday, finishes today though.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Volkswagen-Kombi-1970-Van-4-SP-Manual-1-6L-Carb-/1...