Well, a few folks have PM'd me wanting to see another CCV pop-top and hear about my experience, so here it is. I got it back about a week ago, but wasn't going to take the time to post photos of it with a primer gray top. Derek will paint your top to match your rig, but I chose to forego that because I have a friend who said he would paint it cheap. So I thought......... I took it to him when I got back and he looked (up) at it and said no way, so you'll also see some pics here of my homemade (um, low rent) scaffolding I rigged up to paint it. Hindsight being 20/20, nothing this high should ever be installed without being painted FIRST!!!! Anyway, It was my first paint job and I like to think it came out pretty well. I have a few sags and drips in the clear coat which I'll be addressing as soon as it cures another day or two, but it came out OK. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you are forced too. I was running low on play money after having the top installed, and I wasn't about to drive it with a hideous primer gray top on vacation, I wanted something nice to look at after taking the time and money to do this!
Just for kicks, here is a pic or two of before and during the painting. I would never do things in this order again, but it worked out well having a pop-top to paint: simply raise the top, shove a tarp in under the edges, and voila! everything is masked off except the Fantastic Fan.
For those curious, Derek is great to work with and he finished my van in the timeframe he promised (which I was a little worried about since I live 1500 miles away and had to drive/fly and arrange all of that both ways). There was one snafu on the location of my Fantastic Fan but he has promised to remedy that. I just noticed that I shot those interior pics while I had my mattresses out. Oh well, they look really sharp, I love the upholstery pattern. I'll try to add one of those. Extras that he did for me in clude a front mattress on the empty shelf shown (for a child's bed), outside lights, yakima rack tracks, a Fantastic Fan, and he put my interior/exterior lights on my key fob so I can turn them on anytime from anywhere in or out of the van.
One thing I think I should note is that depending on which top you choose, the layout of your mattresses, front shelf, etc. may be different. He builds each van custom to your needs but works within the given perameters of each specific top. Example: One thing I had hoped for is that I could flip the bed back with the top down, which would give me more standing room while travelling (by this I mean raise the top, flip the bed back, then lower it for travel with the bed flipped back). This turned out to be impossible given the height of my top, the lifting mechanism/motors will hit the flipped bed about 3 inches from 'top down' position. What I can do though is remove two bolts and take the forwardmost piece loose, then stow it on top of the rear pieces, then I would open up more standing room with top down. You can fold the front and middle pieces back with the top lifted though, which gives you lots of room to walk around in camp mode. I will measure this if anyone needs it.