My YJ has a factory hard top. It isn't mint but is reasonably tidy, and I'm not planning to replace it with a soft top for the foreseeable future. However, we get a couple of hot days a year so I was thinking of just fitting a front sunroof to the hard top. The fact the top is satin black means it is like an oven inside on any sunny day - and no AC.
A folding canvas/vinyl one (ala old Webasto's on MGBGTs) would be nice, but I'm probably not going to find one that is short and wide enough for the Jeep. I have the chance of an old tilting glass one, where just the rear opens and lifts up, which seems simplest at present, but does anyone make a sliding one where the whole unit mounts on top of the roof? I have vague recollections of them being available back in the '80s when this type of thing was popular (and many a nice muscle car was destroyed with a big hole cut in the roof).
Any reasons why this shouldn't be done? The top is a single skin of fibreglass, isn't it?
You will ruin a perfectly good hardtop doing it and destroy any value it has. Besides the area over your head is where you WANT shade not sun beating down on you. The best option for air circulation is to remove the rear window it gets more air moving and will not destroy the hard top.
The simple pop up glass ones were popular back in the day. Pretty easy to cut and seal in place. The sliders that were on cars were a lot of machinery that was hidden under the headliner. When we salvaged those for resale, we just chopped the whole top off and the customer did the same and welded the entire roof on.
There were aftermarket hardtops that had a separate front "targa" top panel that removed. You find one of those, and you will love it for what you are looking to do.
Don't remove just the rear window. It will suck in the exhaust and give you carbon monoxide poisoning.
I do it all the time but i usually have the doors off and i don't do much stop and go in city driving, but valid point. I don't like to see people cut up perfectly good hard tops. I seen a guy post a YJ top on facebook where he cut the rear section off mad made some kind of weird, really stupid looking bikini top. It looked like a flimsy POS and people were actually praising his work. Hard tops and sawzalls don't mix!
Thanks guys, some food for thought. By the time I've decided on a plan, the rain will be back and I'll probably be more concerned with stopping water getting into the car
If you want to cool it down...tint the sides, rear, and full door glass...really cuts down of the greenhouse affect...I had to tint mine cause we get 50 and 60 degree days in Dec thru Feb...and with sun out it would get warm...worked really well..
I wouldn't cut up a perfectly good hard top ( or even a reasonable tidy one). I'd simply drive around with the doors off if it isn't illegal there.
I don't think it's a good idea to drive around with the back glass up for reasons stated above. If you do, be sure to have the windows open and the door vent windows aiming fresh air into the Jeep.
Here in the US, we have cars, trucks and Jeeps. It may be different across the pond. You guys call a hood a bonnet and a trunk a boot.
A Jeep is a JEEP, dammit!:happyyes::happyyes:
I was just trying to avoid repeating using same word - I think Shakespeare would have done the same.
On the roof, I'll hold off with the sawsall for the time being, and have been eyeing up one or two soft tops as an option, although swapping the hardtop on and off will be a pain if I go that route.
Quick update: found a reasonably priced Bestop soft top so the sawsall is back in the toolbox
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