Hardtop Refurb & Mods **pic heavy**

  • So over the past month or so, I've been working on my hardtop repairs and mods. I picked up this CJ7 top for free back in June from a guy who was just going to scrap it!! I couldn't let that happen so I went up and picked it up. The back hatch was rotted out but he still had it and the glass was intact so I grabbed that too. I didn't really put much effort into it during the warmer months due to having a lot of projects I was working on already and not really "needing" the hard top for colder weather (heat in the YJ is phenomenal).


    After following a couple of threads of on Jeep Forum and seeing other YJ guys getting their hardtops ready for the Winter, the creative juices started flowing and I started finding motivation to get this project underway. I am of the mind right now to do away with the soft top completely and stick with just the hardtop... possibly running a bikini top in the warmer months. My want is to set my Jeep up more for camping/overland type of activities. So that is the goal for the foreseeable future. I don't have any illusions that I'll ever be driving it out to Moab or Yellowstone or Colorado but I want to get the family out more around the area and we all love camping!


    So this will be a multi-part posting. There are a lot of pics coming so I will try and keep the different stages and their associated pics relegated to separate posts within this thread. Hope y'all enjoy! :thumbup:

    Your life is made up of 2 dates and a dash... make the most of the dash!

  • Stage 1: Hardtop Rehab


    When I picked up the top, it was white... weeeell, a grayish white since it was sitting in the woods behind the guys house for more than a coupld of years. It definitely needed a good cleaning and a coat of paint. Since I already have plans to paint my Jeep a darker gray color, I didn't want to keep the top white. It didn't look bad on the Jeep as it sits now with the snow camo but I figured it would be a very stark contrast against the future color of the Jeep. With that in mind and also with a few mods planned for the top, I figured I'd just paint it the traditional blah blah black like 90% of the other ones out there. So once I powerwashed the grime off, it got a good couple of coats with some Rustoleum flat black. I had some minor issues with the paint running due to condensation from the temps dropping at night but it turned out ok. I'll touch up any needed spots once the weather warms back up.


    Bringing the new top home from PA:

    Your life is made up of 2 dates and a dash... make the most of the dash!

  • Stage 2: First mod - Roof Rack


    Thanks to a few fellow YJ owners on JF, I decided that I wanted to add a roof rack to the hardtop. There is an excellent write up on use of an XJ cargo rack and I decided to go that route. This first project led to a couple of other mods as well and I love the way that it all came together. I managed to score an XJ rack for $10 and set about to planning out the install. Thanks to the JF thread, it wasn't too involved on my end. The first thing was to get it setup and mark out the mounting holes to be drilled. ONce that was done, the installation holes were drilled, hardware acquired and then mounted to the hardtop. The PO also had a CB hanger on the interior roof of the hardtop (4 bolts front center). The bolts were a bit rusty so I swapped in some brand new ones before I painted the top.


    After the successful install, I got to chatting with some guys on JF and a few ideas popped into my head. So from that point, I decided to run a length of slotted steel down both legths of the roof rails but inside the hardtop. This would serve to distribute the weight of a load on the rack as well as provide the beginnings of some sort of modular storage on the inside of the hardtop. A few guys have used cargo netting to store small, lightweight items overhead so that will probably be the first use I put it to. Well see how it progresses from there. I did round over the corners and add some rubber door edging to prevent any trips to the ER for a split scalp.


    The next idea occurred to me when I was overlooking my project. I realized that the side rails were solid with nowhere to latch a tie down or strap to from side to side. So after running a few ideas through my head, I decided to replace the mounting bolts on the 4 corners of the rack with eye bolts. This gives me a couple of tie down anchors to secure any cargo to the rack when needed. I had to set a nylock nut about 8 threads down from the eyes in order for the eye loops to sit above the rack's rail but also allow me to tighten the inside retaining nut enough to lock down the rail. It turned out better than expected but I don't like the shiny. Once the weather warms up, I'll Plastidip the eye loops.


    Set it & Forget it! **Bonus content included if you click pic #2**


    Interior railing:


    Eye bolts added:

    Your life is made up of 2 dates and a dash... make the most of the dash!

  • Stage 3: Rear hatch scheme


    So due to the OEM rear hatch being a rotted out mess, I had to devise a way to add a servicable rear hatch to keep the elements out. I planned out a few ideas from a wooden hatch to a plexiglass hatch to some sort of soft hatch. Due to limited funds and time, I decided to give the soft hatch a crack. From there, I tried my windjammer, my rear softop window and then a JKU rear soft top window for fitment. None of them were the correct size/shape so I took another approach.


    The idea is rather simple as was the planning and construction of the soft hatch. I had a couple of used rain covers that had a couple small tears/holes here and there in them and they were just collecting dust in the shed. I figured that either one would be a good candidate to sacrifice for the project. I opted for the older of the two as the material was a little heavier and I figured that it would stand up a little better to the buffeting from the wind. So, after that decision was made, I set to making a template in order to cut the material correctly. On the 2nd attempt, I had what I needed.


    From that point, I took the material inside in order to cut it to shape. I laid out the material and added 1.5" to the top and side edges in order to create a doubled layer on the edges for the means of securing it to the hardtop. Thanks to my amazing wife, we got it cut, sewn and ready for the next step.


    Your life is made up of 2 dates and a dash... make the most of the dash!

    Edited 2 times, last by Kuntryboy816 ().

  • Stage 3: Rear hatch scheme (part 2)


    So the plan from the beginning for attaching the cover was to use push snaps with screw in bases. So I started out by setting the snap bases into the hardtop. First lesson learned, drill pilot holes. After having to remove a broken screw shank, I drilled the pilot holes and installed the bases. I was a few short so I had to pick up another set. Before I ruined the new cover, I practiced setting the snaps into a scrap piece of material. Placing the first snap is the critical part and the rest are easy after that. So after we got all of the snaps set, I took the liberty to dye the cover black.



    Your life is made up of 2 dates and a dash... make the most of the dash!

  • Stage 3: Rear hatch scheme (part 3)


    Upon completion of the rear hatch cover, Dawn asked me how I was going to see out of the rear view mirror. I wasn't really concerned about the use of that mirror as I've driven plenty of vehicles without the ability to see out of the back. But her question had sparked yet another idea. I had a new Bestop windjammer that I had only used a couple of times but had never really liked the way it worked. So we came up with the idea to transplant the window out of the windjammer into the new hatch cover. It's not quite perfect, the window is about an inch lower than I'd like it to be but it's functional. For now, it'll work as is but I already have a plan to make a 2.0 version.




    Y'all may have also noted from the previous pics that I left the bottom portion of the hatch cover pretty long. This was part of the plan from the get go in order to be able to secure the bottom flap to the tailgate. There were several ideas we kicked around before we decided on the final design. Screw in snap bases were the first idea but I couldn't bring myself to drill into the CJ tailgate. Next I thought of utilizing some adhesive backed medical grade Velcro on the tailgate and a sewn in strip on the cover. Again, when the Velcro gets worn out and needs to be replaced, I'd risk damage to the tailgate and/or the hatch cover. So our final thought was to use magnets and a strip of slotted steel sewn into the cover itself. So, I cut and prepped the steel strip, rounded the corners off to prevent any chaffing through the material, painted it to keep it from rusting and then ran some rubber edging down the sides for extra protection from chaffing. When we were marking and pinning the cover to sew in the strip, the rubber edging was a little bulky... so we nixed the edging idea. After Dawn got it sewn in and we trimmed off the extra material, I set two more snaps on each side of the steel strip. The holes were already in the tub from the old rain cover that used the same snaps. So, like I mentioned before, it's not perfect but it's an excellent start to perfecting it the 2nd time around.



    My amazing wife who helped me get this project done!

    Your life is made up of 2 dates and a dash... make the most of the dash!

  • Free top is good. Not sure how I feel about the solid soft rear hatch idea.

    I have some more ideas that may come to fruition later in the year. Right now the soft hatch cover keeps the elements out. Future mods I'm planning out at the moment are:


    1. Lexan barn style doors for the rear hatch
    2. Removable side windows (Lexan)
    3. Lexan roof panel... this will probably be a fixed in place panel and not operational like a sunroof
    4. Definitely need to tint the rear windows
    5. Side awning that is either a retractable unit or fully detachable


    To be continued........ :thumbup:

    Your life is made up of 2 dates and a dash... make the most of the dash!

  • look really good! what did you use to sew the material? I always thought that a regular sewing machine couldn't go through the soft top material. Is there a special needle or thread or something?

  • look really good! what did you use to sew the material? I always thought that a regular sewing machine couldn't go through the soft top material. Is there a special needle or thread or something?

    Nothing special.. just a consumer grade home sewing machine. We've used it to repair the zippers on my older set of soft doors. We had to pull the foot and the needle off to get over the metal door frame but it penetrates the material just fine. She minored in HomeEc and my whole life growing up was a HomeEc lesson! At some point we're going to make a set of roll bar covers and hopefully re-skin the older soft doors. I took the doors to the upholstery shop in Newport and the guy gave me every excuse as to why he couldn't do the job. He told me his industrial grade sewing machine wouldn't get over the metal framing. I showed him the new stitching on the zippers around the windows, told him that we did that on a home sewing machine and walked away laughing. Guess the guy just doesn't like money.

  • Nothing special.. just a consumer grade home sewing machine. We've used it to repair the zippers on my older set of soft doors. We had to pull the foot and the needle off to get over the metal door frame but it penetrates the material just fine. She minored in HomeEc and my whole life growing up was a HomeEc lesson! At some point we're going to make a set of roll bar covers and hopefully re-skin the older soft doors. I took the doors to the upholstery shop in Newport and the guy gave me every excuse as to why he couldn't do the job. He told me his industrial grade sewing machine wouldn't get over the metal framing. I showed him the new stitching on the zippers around the windows, told him that we did that on a home sewing machine and walked away laughing. Guess the guy just doesn't like money.

    Is that a Singer Athena 2000? Probably the most advanced sewing machine in the world in its day! The guy in Newport sewed my doors but said never again! Sorry.

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