Just bought a '08 JK X. The seller states that the top is off an '18. He didn't install it, the guy before him did. What differences, if any, would there be between an '08 and an '18 soft top? I want to make sure I'm folding it correctly (not sure if it folds the same as the earlier one), and eventually get new windows for it. Also, were all '18 tops the Sunrider style or was that a differently-optioned soft top?

Thanks,
Darel

 

The '18 JK top is just fine on it. The early tops were real crap and teh door surrounds were different cuz the tps have to clip in above the doors . The rear window was a different dimension too if I recall. The update after that was tops were held in place over the doors with tnesion instead and that made them a lot better. The improvement over that was a "spring-assist" back at the rear rollbars which made putting the tops up/down a lot easier. That is pretty much where things are. The tops are all interchangeable as long as all the hardware with the specific year top is used (door surrounds, roll bar brackets n stuff). If you were to get new windows just make sure to get windows that will include '18.

The only other thing to mentioned would be if the top is the standard material or the premium twill. It's pretty hard to mix those two materials up as the premium twill is monumentally nicer in every aspect from looks to texture.

 

Thank you very much!

 

OK, follow-up to this. I tried to open the soft top yesterday. I undid the two header frame latches, but the top would not lift up. AT all. I was pushing up hard enough I thought something was going to break or bend. I watched a couple videos on the later style tops, they just undid the two latches and lifted. I do not have the older style with the plastic channels that snap over the "boomerangs". Do the top bows snap down into the boomerangs or something, such that there's some resistance to get the to pop up out? It really looks like it should have just lifted up but I really didn't feel like breaking anything. The header bar would push up just a little bit but it really felt like the resistance was in the sides of the top, above the door surrounds.

This is a 2-door BTW.

This was at about 8 am when it was still 50 degrees so it wasn't frozen or anything. I was NOT dumb enough to try this at 8:05 when it was -3.

Thanks!