JK 4-door to 2-door long wheelbase conversion.....

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Or something a tad longer?

 

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or maybe more front end power? A longer hood to sleep on?

 

[Metcalf]

really......

 

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really......

that last two were just joking, but the first one I was being serious. Is that what your looking for?

 

[Metcalf]

that last two were just joking, but the first one I was being serious. Is that what your looking for?

Pretty much, but I would probably ditch the side windows and make it more of a 'commercial' looking top. I think painting the top in body color will help make it look more like a 1-piece top. A black top ( on most other colors ) makes it look half finished to me. It's weird, but I always hated body color tops on other jeeps.....weird.....

 

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specific color your looking for in a jeep?

 

[Metcalf]

So far just plain white is winning in my head....boring I know....

 

[Metcalf]

Yup........boring old white. I guess it pulls off the simple commercial vehicle look the best. White body matched top and black flares...

 

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I like it man. I would have bought that instead of the 4 door if I had the option.

 

[McZippie]

OK you silly boyz, enough already... 22 pages of chatter... pony up and start building this long wheel base 2 door JKU!

A good body-guy can sheet metal the rear door area over, cut the top to the correct trim line and fab a sheet metal panel for the top's side.
These are basic flat panels with basic attachment points and simple reinforcement. Bondo and paint.

Upholster shop can cover up the inside with simple/basic panels. Or make panels yourself and carpet over them.

 

[Metcalf]

While I think something could be done with patches, welding, and bondo that is not the direction I want to see this concept idea go.

Using the jk8 body parts gets you almost there. The challenge is making the custom top in a way that it will meet or exceede the longevity, quality, and features of the stock quality top.

 

[jscherb]

Using the jk8 body parts gets you almost there. The challenge is making the custom top in a way that it will meet or exceede the longevity, quality, and features of the stock quality top.

I haven't studied the factory JK hardtop enough to know how much work this might be, but it seems to me the factory hardtop could be modified to have removable side panels, and a set of new side panels could be made to run all the way up to the back of the front door (or probably to the front door jamb from the back door). I think you could cut off the sides of the factory hardtop, make molds for new upper sills to finish off the cut-off bottom of the roof panel, and then make molds for longer, removable side panels.

Door filler panels for the lower part of the rear doors would be pretty straightforward to make in fiberglass, although if you really wanted to do this right, you'd use the seamless JK8 panels instead of filler panels where the door outline would show.

Based on my experience of building a modular hardtop completely from scratch, I think it would be reasonable to build a "conversion kit" in fiberglass that would offer the following options:

- Modular, removable side panels; both hard side panels and roll-up soft sides could be options.
- Factory length side panels for those who want to keep four doors.
- Longer side panels for those who want to do the 2-door conversion.
- Lower half rear door filler panels.

Just for reference, the rough parts for the LJ modular hardtop:

And those parts fully finished and installed:

 

[Metcalf]

If anyone knows jeep tops its you!

I like the idea of the modular top. How do you attach the panels together? To be honest a bolted joint makes me slightly nervous in the long term, but the factory top is basically just glued so what do I know.

I agree that a modular system that would allow just blocking the rear doors off could be very feasible and is probably the most affordable route to go. If the same top parts could be used for just about any configuration that would just be icing on the cake.

Thanks for popping by the thread!

 

[jscherb]

If anyone knows jeep tops its you!

I like the idea of the modular top. How do you attach the panels together? To be honest a bolted joint makes me slightly nervous in the long term, but the factory top is basically just glued so what do I know.

I agree that a modular system that would allow just blocking the rear doors off could be very feasible and is probably the most affordable route to go. If the same top parts could be used for just about any configuration that would just be icing on the cake.

Thanks for popping by the thread!

Yes, the panels are bolted together.

I've been running the modular top on my daily driver LJ for over two years now, with no problems at all. I've put probably 40,000 miles on the Jeep with the top on, including trail use at Moab and all over Colorado, with both hard sides and roll-up side curtains.

No problems with leaks either .

I think it would be possible and practical to convert a factory JKU hardtop to have these same features.

 

[Metcalf]

Do you use any kind of backing strip to reinforce the bolted seam? Any seal between the two panels at the joint?

Cool stuff!

The modular top approach could also solve the window/no-window arguement. You could even run a window on one side and no window on the other....