Come on man road trip lol

 

I painted mine camo. It blends in so good it almost disappears.

 

the standard black hardtop I had on my 2010 scratched up pretty bad. you cannot buff those scratches out. ..at least I couldn't.

the 1st weekend I had my 2012 with painted factory hardtop, I went out wheel'n and did scratch it up on the trail. buffs out easily, however if deep enough, you see black under the paint. touch up IMO wil lbe easier than the black...and it does make a difference in the hotter weather. Since i always have the dog with, I keep the hardtop on and freedom panels off. I can blast the A/C into the back for him if it get's too hot.
using the insulated panels (pic a brand) helps alot too. they also cut down on the hwy noise some too.

There's a couple threads on painted hardtops.

 

I know you are a lot closer, and yours is silver! Let's trade
Adam

 

Paint it Silver. That's the route i'm going just as soon as I get my floor linexed. I plan on painting mine Silver and line xing the inside of the hard top and panels as well, plus doing the head liners.
After owning my Jeep for three weeks and going on a trip where ten straight miles of the 800 mi. trip was this...

I decided that I want the benefits and looks of a matching Silver top.

 

do it,will help a lot with the sun heat, a guy in my club did it to is tj and its hardw r to see the scratches



another guy from office with a silver jku 07 did it and looks good... but he does not wheel it, the camo idea is also nice, i was thinking going that way using some vinyl sheets

 

Great input, fellas! Looks like I will be painting the top this summer. Just have to decide whether to spring the $650 for professional results, or DIY (I love me some rattle-can).

 

Why not just paint the top portion of the top white and leave the sides the way they are. Once you lift it high enough only tall freaks like me will be able to see it. There's a thread on here somewhere about painting just the top part but I can't think of what to search for.

 

Bradlybob, I think I have seen that on here too. Was it a red jeep with black top? I was actually thinking about that on the way home yesterday. Certainly an option, and not one I am entirely opposed to. I'm a bit tall too, but I wouldn't care one bit if it was cool inside.

 

I bought some reflective foil insulation, foam insulated board and 3M headliner adhesive from Lowe's, I bought some headliner material from a local automotive upholstrey shop and some 3M automotive trim double sided tape from Auto Zone, I think it was all around $100. The reflective foil goes on top of the foam board and the headliner material on the bottom, it's all glued together. The 3M tape was used to hold it to the top and I haven't had any issues with it sagging, even though last summer was a record for the number of 100 degree days. It ended up being about 3/4 of an inch thick, but the materials are very light.

It was probably one of the best projects I have done when it comes to comfort. Now the A/C can be run at half the blower speed when it's that hot out and it maintains a cool temperature inside instead of struggling at full blast before the insulation. It also seems to help with sound deadening and it doesnt sound like your talking in a can.