I have an idea, and I need some opinions before trying this out. It is near impossible to find a hard top in my area that someone is getting rid of, and shipping one here costs around $500 (on top of them already being stupidly expensive). Now, has anyone tried creating a hard top from a soft top by using something like herculiner or durabak? Something to give it some sturdiness and insulation? Or would the top need a little frame to it to keep from sagging before the compound dried? I have a trektop for my 2 dr JK right now, and was wondering if this could be a low-cost option instead of shelling out $2500 for a hard top.

 

in all reality i think it would be more trouble then it is worth unfortunately if anyone else wants to chime in with suggestions. i just think it would be to much weight for it and sag.you would need alot more support than what the soft top hard ware would provide. idk im moving up that way and i would say i could get you a hard top if you found one and bring it to you but were driving my jeep and i don't have a trailer or anything plus i wont be up there till around may or so

 

Appreciate it...no one seems to get rid of them up here, and companies use the excuse of "you're so far north, so we *need* to charge you 25% more on everything than we would anywhere else in the country". I used the shipping calculator on 4wd.com and it told me $80 to ship a hard top up here...I got an email this morning from someone at the company saying that it would cost $500 to ship a hard top up here, so I'd really like a different option

e: building a frame out of plumbing pipe and sheet metal is definitely an option

 

yea i mean im sure you could make something work make a skeleton then wrap it with sheet metal and then use that insulation foam bored on the inside idk how well it would work but i guess something is better than nothing. that is outrageous that it went from $80 to $500 though Im kinda nervous about buying stuff for the jeep when we get up there because of shipping. Is it really cold with the soft top up there? My jeep fortunately came with a hard top im still thinking about getting the insulators for the inside tho

 

I ran a stock soft top for 2 winters up here and never had any issue with the cold. The only reason I replaced it was because it was getting too noisy on the highway (driving at 50mph and the wind noise was too much to even hear someone yelling). My jeep's heater must contain a bucketful of full somewhere in it. That thing puts out some *heat*. At a certain point, it doesn't matter what kind of insulation you're running, it's just cold outside and you learn to deal with it by either letting your car warm up (takes around 30 minutes for my jeep) or just putting on enough layers to keep you from getting frostbite for however long you'll be in the car or however long it takes for it to warm up.

 

well that sucks haha it will take me and my wife some time to climatize i guess. and yea the heaters in the jeeps are like the fires of hell haha

If you don't build anything for it or really haven't done it yet by the time i get there i think that would be a fun project to help on. it would defiantly be a different one thats for sure

 

I think an olive drab green "hard" top with a black jeep would look interesting, to say the least

 

haha yes it would

 

i guess it doesn't matter though as long as your warm haha

 

Yeah, a few guys over in the Builders' & fabrication corner of this forum had a look at it. One guy cut off the rear of a hard-top (wanted to change the angle of the rear from memory) & fabricated his own rear section using fiberglass and some aluminum flatbar for bracing.

Seemed to be that if you have some prior experience working with fiberglass then it is doeable, but the guy that did it stressed that it is time consuming to do it properly and he used every bit of his prior knowledge as a builder of fiberglass boats, but the end result was pretty good.