Custom soft top

[Jim K in PA]

Did you ever get farther on this? I have been slowly building my own soft top for my LJ for about two years now...

Yes and no. The good news is that the canvas lady gave me an awesome price for the custom top (About the same as the OEM replacement Bestop). The bad news is, I am not going to do the tub stretch on the LJ. This is due solely to economics at this point. My oldest son just started at PSU this fall, and we had hoped/expected to get some sort of financial aid, but did not. So, we are eating peanut butter sandwiches and sending all our cash and our kid to Penn State.

I would have her make me the top in a heartbeat if I could get the rest of the project done.

 

[squint]

So did you plan to make an entirely different type of soft top, or just basically make it similar to the OEM top, stretched? Mine is a completely different style. I have built and torn down the bows/hardware a number of times but I think I am finally moving forward with the final stages of the hardware. I anticipate the soft portion to be a bit easier. (crossing my fingers)
The mockups were really nice looking. It changed the entire look of the Jeep.

 

[Jim K in PA]

It was going to be essentially a stretched OEM top, but with the rear side window split into two sections. I wanted to use as much of the OEM frame as possible, and keep the interior room gains as large as possible.

I like the traditional Jeep soft top "look", and in fact, I think the LJ top looks much like the early Flat Fender Jeep tops.