Converting a factory JK/JKU hardtop to modular

[jscherb]

The first step was to reinforce the cracked areas from the inside. In this photo the inner and outer skins are pried apart as far as possible, and I've applied several layers of fiberglass mat soaked in SMC-compatible resin to the inside of the cracked area. The repair is blue because SMC resin uses the same (blue) cream hardener as body filler. Masking tape is used to hold the cracked parts in position and to prevent resin from leaking out through the cracks.

In the photo in the previous post that shows the skins pried open you can see the beads of adhesive that were used at the factory to bond the inner and outer skin together at the factory; I ground that adhesive off before bonding the skins back together.

When that was cured, I applied fiberglass mat soaked in SMC-compatible resin between the separated parts and applied pressure with clamps while the resin cured.

Both front corners are damaged; I'm only showing the detail of the most damaged one but this next photo shows both in the process of being repaired.

 

[jscherb]

Once all that cured, the cracks in the outer skin were fixed. This started with sanding a valley around the crack. At the crack I sanded almost all the way through the original fiberglass, and I tapered the valley outward about less than an inch in each direction.

Fiberglass mat soaked with SMC-compatible resin was applied in the valley. Since the area was well reinforced from the inside, a minimal amount of fiberglass was be applied to the outside, just enough to bridge the crack.

Ordinary body filler will adhere to the SMC resin, so a bit of filler and some sanding will smooth and blend everything together. Then some primer:

The last step was to touch it up with MOPAR hardtop paint. The area needs a little more fine work to make the repair completely invisible, but since this entire roof panel really needs to be repainted, I'll leave it as is for now and it can be worked over someday during the prep for a repaint.

The gasket that seals the Freedom panels to the roof suffered a bit in the accident and should be replaced, but since I don't have a 2dr Jeep to put this top on anyway, replacing the gasket isn't urgent .

 

[jscherb]

One more thing before I cut the holes for the skylights, I'll add bolt flanges to the roof panel so it can be assembled with the other modular hardtop parts into a complete hardtop. I made up some fiberglass sheet stock to be cut into flanges and bonded to the panel as I've done several times before.

I won't post the details of the flange installation process here because I've shown it several times before.

 

[jscherb]

The conversion of the new roof panel to modular is almost done - in this photo a hardtop is assembled so the new roof bolt flanges can be epoxied to the roof panel in proper alignment. Once the epoxy is cured, the flanges get reinforced with fiberglass, the joints between the outside of the hardtop and the flanges get sanded/filled as necessary/smoothed and finally it gets touched it up with MOPAR hardtop paint. Should be finished tomorrow and then the skylight installation can be done.

 

[jscherb]

Done. Roof panel is repaired, converted to modular and the skylights have been installed.

 

[akpostal]

Holy crap, good job. That looks awesome. Look forward to the leak test.

Will those be fitted with hinges to vent like the kit for the Freedom Panels?

 

[jscherb]

Holy crap, good job. That looks awesome. Look forward to the leak test.

Will those be fitted with hinges to vent like the kit for the Freedom Panels?

Thank you very much.

They're designed as fixed skylights, I don't plan to hinge them to open.

It'll be tough doing a comprehensive leak test because I don't have a 2dr JK to put this on. Leaks wouldn't be expected though, the skylight is mounted the same way I mounted all the other fixed windows on both the JK and LJ Safari Cabs, and no leak issues there, even with the Alpine windows in the roof.

I'll try to get the new roof panel assembled with the rest of the parts soon so we can see how the entire hardtop looks, and what it looks like from the inside (I'll be assembling it in a spare room, not on the 2dr JK I don't have ).

 

[jscherb]

The inside of the roof panel.

 

[jscherb]

A modular hardtop assembled with the new sylight roof panel.

 

[jscherb]

With Freedom Panels.

 

[jscherb]

All of the modular factory hardtop parts I've made so far are interchangeable - now I've got two modular roof panels, more than 4 modular side panels, and one modular back panel. I do have one more back panel that was cut off the second hardtop - all I have to do is add bolt flanges to it and I'll have enough modular parts to assemble two complete hardtops. I'll probably add bolt flanges to that last panel soon (it's the one without the liftgate, might need to mold another barn door to go with that one because I don't have a glass liftgate).

My JK is a 4-door, so the only action these hardtops will see for now is being set up in the spare room .

 

[jscherb]

A custom factory modular concept... if you lengthened your JKU like the Jeep Africa, a factory-style hardtop would be a fairly straightforward project. This project would start with a JKU hardtop and a 2dr hardtop.

A 10"-longer roof panel would be made by splicing the JKU and JK roof panels together to result in a longer panel. The rear panel would be the stock JKU rear panel. The side panels would be taken from the 2dr hardtop; they're already 10" longer than the JKU side panels, so if the tub were extended 10" they'd fit perfectly. The only panel mod would be lengthening a roof panel by splicing two factory roof panels together, the rest of the hardtop would doing a modular conversion on stock hardtop parts as shown in this thread.

Lengthening the hardtop more than 10" would also be possible using parts of the original hardtop or perhaps another hardtop, but more work would be required depending on how long the hardtop needed to be.

 

[jscherb]

One more modular hardtop concept, this one's for a JK8 (or a JKU converted to a LWD 2-door with rear door deletes)... using techniques described in this thread, a custom hardtop for a JK8 can be constructed without too much trouble. The idea is to remove the side panels from an early model JKU hardtop and modify them to bolt in place to fill in where the top half of the JKU rear doors would go. An early model hardtop is used for the fill-in side panels because its windows are narrow enough to fit in the space - the late model windows are too wide. The rest of the hardtop can be late model or early model; I'd probably pick the late model to get the wider rear windows as shown in this concept drawing.

The early model side panels would need to be narrowed a bit and bolt flanges added to enable them to bolt to the main hardtop; the main hardtop rear door openings would be modified to have matching bolt flanges. Overall it would be a fairly simple project.

 

[Verdecken]

Hi Jeff! Your work is truly amazing.

I live in KY, so if you're anywhere within driving distance of me, I would love to bring my 2door down and test stuff for you on some weekends.

I found this thread actually because of the venting skylights and I absolutely love the idea and the fixed rear skylights. The company you're working with to sell the kit, would they be interested in making a kit for all 4 windows? Cause I would definitely buy that.

Thanks!!

 

[jscherb]

Hi Jeff! Your work is truly amazing.

I live in KY, so if you're anywhere within driving distance of me, I would love to bring my 2door down and test stuff for you on some weekends.

Thank you very much.

I'm in Elmira, NY, which I think is a little over 9 hours driving time from Lexington, so I'm not sure if that would be "driving distance" to come by to test things.

I found this thread actually because of the venting skylights and I absolutely love the idea and the fixed rear skylights. The company you're working with to sell the kit, would they be interested in making a kit for all 4 windows? Cause I would definitely buy that.

Thanks!!

I don't currently have any plans to turn the fixed skylights into a kit, but they're are easy enough to DIY. Here's how:

An automotive glass shop can cut the glass for you. You've got two choices for glass - most shops can cut laminated safety glass to size, although that's generally not tinted, being mostly for windshields, so you'd probably want to do tint film on the inside if you went that way. The other option would be to find a shop that can do tempered glass, then you'd have a range of tints to pick from. When I did the windows in my JK Safari Cab I used a shop that could do tempered glass, it wasn't very expensive.

The glass is secured/sealed with standard automotive two-piece self-sealing weatherstrip: CRL Two-Piece Self Sealing Weatherstrip. For a roof application it's also best to run a bead of sealant in the both the glass-side and the roof-side grooves of the weatherstrip to ensure sealing.

That's all it takes to DIY this - a place that can cut automotive glass for you, some standard automotive glass weatherstrip, and some sealant. Also a lock strip tool makes the job of installing the weatherstrip much easier, I wouldn't want to do it without one: https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-47000-Windshield-Locking-Strip/dp/B000COA1CQ. Installing the lock strip can be tricky the first time you do it but I'm sure there must be youtube videos out there demonstrating the technique.