@ cris - Maybe pop-top is the wrong way to put it... it's more like pop-shell. I'm putting a lift on each corner, similarly to how the pop-up campers work. They'll raise the entire camper shell off of the bed of the truck by 2 or 3 ft. There will be a vinyl/nylon skirt between the shell and bed to fill the gap. Unless I find a more economical way to do it, the lifts will probably be built out of a couple segments of strut channel and bolted together using strut channel
trolleys. Unfortunately, I this might be the most expensive part of the proejct, buying these roller trollies... Maybe I can get away w/ using loosely bolted claps to connect each segment and deal w/ the friction... I have a pair of trolleys on order, anyway, to see how they work/fit.
I'm not sure exactly, yet, how I'm going to build a door on the back that fills the gap and works properly when the shell is lowered or raised... might have some ideas though.
@Beau - I want to keep the shell all one piece just for simplicity. The shell and bed will meet on one plane, so I only have to cut square pieces of fabric to fit in the middle. I like the builds that a couple folks have done on here where a top section of the shell hinges up off of the cab, but I want more head-room than that.
I didn't know about the foam. This brand assures me that they're safe for the ozone layer. :P Not a good sign...
I marked and cut a template of the cab profile and copied that into CAD. That was used to create profiles of each x-section that I'll cut from foam to lay the outer layer over (hopefully) before fiberglassing.
