I 'come now' s Iso Top lV, unfortunately there are no assembly instructions in Italian language ... damn Germans! ... But I also hope with your help I could get by. The buttons Velcro stickers are put in the back? And they stick where? on the canvas of the Cali bellows? Someone gives me a tip, thanks
Hello Alter,
I recently fitted an Isotop lV into our T6 Beach. I hope this description helps.
The top rear of the Brandrup Isotop IV should be attached to the wider velcro strip which itself has been stuck to the transversal aluminium strip of exposed roof situated directly behind the rear roof light.
If you do not have the roof lighting option then just follow the internal roof liner towards the rear of the vehicle until it stops and you will discover a narrow exposed section of the aluminium roof, running from one side of the van to the other. From memory you have to cut your velcro tape to fit the gap from side to side but within the brackets/raised fitting that you will see in each corner. If you have the roof lighting option you will discover an electrical cable which supplies the lighting. You will need to pass the Velcro behind it and then stick it down. You then have to fit three circular velcro pads to each rear corner. Again from memory, one pad should be stuck to the bracket/raised fitting and the other two pads to the remaining exposed aluminium section beyond the bracket/raised fitting in each corner. As with the rest of the Velcro strip you need to leave it in place to become properly bonded for 48 hours before attempting to fix the liner in place.
The other fixtures that need to be put in place before fitting, are the two large black Velcro pads that are fitted, one in each rear corner. To fit these you need to prize the roof liner down a little in each corner and stuff the Velcro pad into place between the roof liner and the roof itself. It is a tight fit! However my advice would be to wait until you are going to fit the liner in place. Then offer up the liner to ensure that you are fitting these pads in the right place to correspond with the mating Velcro pad on the liner. If you don't then you may have to remove and refit them.
The other potential problem area for me at least, was fixing the three black Velcro tabs that have to be screwed into the front of the roof liner/ceiling of your new Cali. Brandrup's intructions and photos on this area aren't that clear. My advice here is to stick to their exact positioning measurements and double and treble check that you have positioned them correctly before attempting to screw into the roof liner. I marked the roof lightly with a pencil around the tab once I was happy with the position. The marks easily clean off. I didn't drill any pilot holes as the screws supplied are self cutting. Just ensure you use a good well fitting screwdiver and apply pressure whilst screwing into place. It will put up a fight but will eventually give in. When fitting the liner I did find that the black Velcro roof tabs could have lined up better with the mating Velcro tabs on the liner but I personally would be reluctant to screw holes anywhere else in the liner just in case it damaged the roof. The one thing about their instructions that I felt could have been clearer was the need to only screw these tabs to the beveled section of the roof liner. IMO their photo wasn't big or clear enough.
In this photo of the front top off side corner (UK offside), you can just pick out the beveled part of the roof liner which runs accross the roof from side to side. It is approximately 25mm wide.
When you come to fit your liner, the process is straight forward enough. Having fitted and left all the Velcro strip to bond for 48 hours, take your time and fit the liner to the vehicle by attaching it's lower edge to the Velcro strip around the roof aperture first. To do this find the exact centre of the front of the liner by measuring the distance between the bottom of the two vertical zips that you will find, one in each front corner of the liner and obviously then just divide by two to establish the centre line. Then start attaching your liner with this liner front centre line married to the centre line of the front of the main roof canvas. There is a reinforced strap in the middle front of the canvas roof to help the roof canvas fold inwards on closure. So finding the exact centre should be easy. It is essential to get this positioning right because if you don't the various fixings on the liner will not marry up well with the attachment points on the vehicle. When I fitted ours I started attaching the liner at the front in the middle and worked towards the rear down both sides.
Once the bottom edge is in place the rest is straight forward. The front just attaches to the black Velcro tabs previously screwed to the inside of the roof ceiling/liner. The next fixings, in order, towards the rear of the vehicle are:
This last fixing takes the form of a wide stiff plastic strip attached to the internal liner which you feed into the top of the roof canvas reinforcing strap which is itself a sleeve. Once you get it started it's just a case of shoving it down in. It makes an excellent fixing.
Finally you attach the liner to the rear upper fixings which are all Velcro.
The whole thing is a good fit and is very effective at keeping the upper deck dark, very dry and cosy even in driving wind and rain. So far all of the fixings have stayed in place and we have had no issues.
Only one criticism apart from the vague instructions and the price is that Brandrup should include an extra sachet of cleaner and glue. Being a thorough sort of chap I found that the cleaner sachet ran dry half way round the van.
I hope that you find these instruuctions useful.
Best wishes and good luck with your fit.
