Custom modular JK hardtop

J

jscherb

New member
A few years ago, I built a custom modular hardtop for my LJ. It's got a number of features that have turned out to be very useful on the road and on the trail. Since it's modular, in the winter I run hard sides and in the summer I remove the side panels and run with roll-up canvas side curtains. It's got a "barn door" in the back instead of a hatch, which I find much more convenient for cargo. And the roof rack on top is tied to the roll bar, so heavy weights can be carried on top, like a roof-top tent.

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I've been working on hardtop for my JK with similar features, plus a few more. I've made the molds, molded the parts, and I'm just about finished with the assembly and fitting. Here are a few photos taken over the past few days as I've been test-fitting the parts onto the Jeep.

I've got just a very few minor adjustments to make to perfect the fit, which I'll get done tomorrow. In these photos, the barn door hasn't been bolted to the tailgate yet, it's just sitting on top f the spare carrier so if it looks like the door gap is a little large, that's why.

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The side panels unbolt just like on the LJ hardtop - in this photo they're removed and I've drawn a roll-up side panel. I haven't sewn the side panels yet so for now I have to draww them :).

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An overhead view:

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An earlier photo of the components, in this photo there's still a little work to do on them before they can be bolted to the Jeep.

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Wow. Thats really damn impressive. It just proves that anything can be a diy project if you're patient enough.
 
Still think this top idea is a great one for those looking to stay with a hard top and have more options than factory. So cool how you design and make all this by yourself. Very smart how you make the smaller scale designs then transfer them to the larger scale. Are you still thinking about doing the hinged pop top?
 
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hinrichs said:
Still think this top idea is a great one for those looking to stay with a hard top and have more options than factory. So cool how you design and make all this by yourself. Very smart how you make the smaller scale designs then transfer them to the larger scale. Are you still thinking about doing the hinged pop top?
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Thank you.

I have designed the parts so they can be assembled as a pop-top camper, but for this first prototype I'll just build it without the pop-top feature.

Here's a mockup I did showing what a pop-top version might look like... in this photo the roof is just propped up with a 2x4, but it shows the idea. The top would hinge up higher than shown, this is the longest piece of 2x4 I had handy when I took the photo :). Also in these photos I've swapped out the side window for a cargo hatch/table.

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The canvas for the pop-top would look something like the pop-up I made for my Jeep-tub camper a few years ago:

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Wow this is amazing. Definitely really cool that you are making this all yourself it looks just like the new one from smittybilt if not better with all your customizations
 
piginajeep said:
Wrong market, build a JK8 version :)
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I've already done some design work on that... most of the same parts would be used except different side panels.

Here's a version with roll-up soft sides:

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With hard sides and a roof-top tent:

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The side panels could be made to swing up for access to gear inside:

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A while back I did a test with the side panels on my LJ Safari Cab to see what would be involved in making them swing up. They're just propped up with sticks in these photos, but actually hinging the sides to swing-up wouldn't be very difficult.

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allwhitejeeps said:
Wow this is amazing. Definitely really cool that you are making this all yourself it looks just like the new one from smittybilt if not better with all your customizations
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dchotrod said:
Very cool! You've got some creativity & skills. Keep it coming.[emoji106]
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Thank you very much.

I saw the Smittybilt top at SEMA a week ago. It's just a one-piece hardtop and other than the Alpine windows it doesn't have any of the features of my design - it isn't modular so you can't swap out the hard sides for roll-up soft sides, it doesn't have a barn door, it's not designed to support weights on a roof rack, doesn't have opening rear side windows, it doesn't even have drip rails to protect against water entry when you open the doors.
 
AllAmericanInfidel said:
Personal foul, 10 yard penalty! Lol! I think we need both versions! That pop up tent top version is sweet!
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I made it a modular design for 3 reasons:

1. So the same parts can be used on multiple Jeeps - the JKU, 2-door and JK-8 versions share a lot of parts.

2. So it can be configured multiple ways. With a one-piece hardtop you have no options; with modular components you can easily swap stuff out. Below is an anim showing some of the configuration options.

3. A one-piece hardtop would be too big for a DIY-er like me to mold in his home garage :).

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