Bought a Soft Top...

[Thealien]

please start a thread showing your soft top design. I know a lot of people would be interested.

[frostie_122]

Originally Posted by Effeckt

I like what you did there frostie. I have been wanting a soft top for ease of putting up and down but I can't bring myself to drill holes in my truck when I've spent time trying to remove holes and clean up the body. A design that combines yours with softtopper would be ideal!

the're are no holes drilled. it mounts to the factory four sun visor mounts.

[Effeckt]

Originally Posted by frostie_122

the're are no holes drilled. it mounts to the factory four sun visor mounts.

Yeah I got that with yours, which was why I liked it so much. I was referring to the holes that have to be drilled in the windshield frame for the other style from softtopper.

[frostie_122]

gotcha...yea i spent a butt load on shaving and body work. wasn't about to start throwing snaps all around. i used the factory hard top bolt holes as well with awning rail and made a tanoe cover.

[VanceH]

I as well would like to know how you did it, can you get some detailed pics and measurements fo build one!! That looks great

[frostie_122]

Take four 1" aluminum strips and bend them into L brackets. One side of each bracket drill a hole/slot that is in line with the existing four sun visor mounting threaded holes. On the other non-drilled side of the L bracket drill a few randomly spaced 1/8" holes. Now you have four matching L brackets that bolt to the factory hols and wrap on top of the windshield frame. top of frame has the random 1/8" holes. (see pic one)

Next tape off entire top off windshield frame and plastic off ALL surrounding areas...fiberglass is gross ****. Tape over the drip rail, tape off a good couple inches outside of where a hard top would touch down in the front. I used green tape. The tape acts as a release agent. Once the fiberglass is laid and kicks you can pull it off like a mold.

Take fiberglass mat and resin and make the first layer, prob 1/8" thick. MAKE SURE ITS STILL WET FOR THE NEXT STEP. Take the four L brackets, bolt them into the four sun visor holes. Make sure they are snug and the side with the randomly drilled 1/8" holes is touching the already laid 1/8" fiberglass, this is where a slot vs. a hole is nice because you have some adjustment. Make another 1/8" layer of mat and resin and sandwich the L brackets in. The random holes act as a mean of resin going from top and bottom of the fiberglass layers so the brackets don't just slide out. Really get the fiberglass and resin in the holes as much as possible (I also used chopped strand and cabosil, kinda of a powder to make a paste in the holes. Prob not necessary). Your final piece should have about 1/4" of fiberglass with the four L brackets sandwiched in.

Go get a good micro brew and wait for the glass to kick.

Once the glass is cured and is nice and hard pull the four mounting bolts and peel off the 1/4" fiberglass piece. Trim it up with an air saw or grinder and mimic the factory hardtop for shape. Next bring it to a local upholstery shop with a pic of mine and they should be able to reproduce the same effect. Different roll bars will determine length and shape. I ended up making three different roll bars till I found the one I liked and then built the soft top around that. I used snaps on the roll bar in these pics but ended up making a new bar and have straps that extend to about mid bedside in a triangle fashion and attach with a d ring.

This is about as good as I can come up with for a "write up" but a lot of people had questions so I gave it a go.

any more questions feel free to pm me.

colin

I attached a few more better pics that might help show what I'm explainin'