Rumour about the roof

[gatvol]

I heard from a vw guy that the Cali roof is now being made of a composite material. He did not know what this was, but he said it was not aluminium. He said this was the solution to the corroding roof problem.

I would be greatly reassured if this were true, as vw is useless at painting aluminium

Does anyone know if this might be true please ?

If it is, and our crap aluminium roofs were replaced as part of the warranty repair scenario, I would consider that great news.

 

[briwy]

Well if it's true I guess it won't be carbon fibre due to cost but GRP.
If so I would be concerned about the weight as to get it as strong as the aluminium it would need to be pretty thick putting more stress on the lifting mechanism which already seems to be a possible weak point.

 

[Californiaman]

I can't imagine for a minute that it would be carbon. I am confident in the repair process though.

 

[DavidofHook]

Our T4 WestfalIa Cali had what I think may have been a GRP roof. It was manual,
assisted by gas struts so the weight wasn't a problem from that point of view. Went up easily enough. It was relatively crude in appearance compared with what we get now....... But, it did't corrode!

 

[owen_h]

GRP = Glass reinforced plastic and aka fibreglass. This is what the vast majority of aftermarket elevating and hightop roofs are made from. Also most boats made in the last 30 years are GRP. Simply put its thin fibres of glass with a resin to hold them together. The strength comes from the fibres used. Variations come from the way the fibres are arranged, the type of resins used and the manufacturing techniques to 'layup' or 'glue' it all together. Carbon fibre is essentially the same process but the glass is replaced with thin strands of carbon.
If you have a look at other (non Cali) roofs you will see there is quite a difference in the quality of finish. Some have a nasty rippled look to them. The two market leaders are made by Reimo and SCA. I'ts quite (very) likely that the Cali roof is actually made not by VW but by SCA. (not sure who paints it!). I can quite imaging that there have been some interesting discussions between VW and SCA over whos fault the bubbling paintwork is. Possibly SCA now want VW to use one of their existing GRP roofs (this is just speculation by me!).