Just ordered the black twill soft top for my LJ. I was thinking of buying the bulk material to make matching rollbar covers. For those who made their own rollbar covers, how many yards are needed for the job ???
Jeep LJ Rollbar Covers
- Thread starter Ericshere03
- Start date
-
- Tags
- roll bar twill upholstery
Does he make them as well??? That would be my next step, getting an upholstery or marine shop to make me a set.
Well he’s not in that business- But he has a background in designing things that manufactures put into production and really he has a gift for exactly the kind of thing you’re thinking about- This is a guy that wanted a different hardtop and he built it and did it so well he sold the design-
The at symbol I put in front of his name notifies him- I also think there would be some other members interested in what you figure out-
He is simply the most qualified person I can think of to help you with your question- I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anybody with more of an affinity to work out things like this than him. The width of the material and the seams are going to be a factor- I think you’re going to want about 16 inches for each section that you wrap- And I can’t begin to tell you how to deal with the curvature but the old material might end up being a good pattern.
We would really appreciate it if you end up doing this if you post how it goes-twill is fabulous material.
I haven't sewn roll bar covers yet so I can't tell you how many yards you need but if you find a shop that's willing to do the work for you they'll be able to estimate the yardage necessary.
What may be hard is locating the twill fabric, so this may help: https://www.haartz.com/index.php?q=exteriors/twillfast. The factory soft top twill fabric is Haartz Twillfast RPC which can be found on that page. Haartz doesn't sell small quantities to end users, so you'll probably have to call around to automotive upholstery and convertible top shops to see if any of them have the fabric or can get it for you and if you're lucky you'll find a shop that's both willing to sew them for you and can source the fabric. A few years ago I checked online and found a few places that would sell it in small amounts and it's about $90 per yard so sourcing new fabric and getting a shop to do the sewing for you will probably be an expensive project.
Another source for fabric is Craigslist - I've bought a number of used twill soft tops I found on Craigslist, most of them being sold because of bad zippers, bad windows or some other flaw people didn't know how to deal with but the tops were a great source of reusable fabric and the reclaimed fabric from each top (2-3 yards depending on whether the top was from a 2dr or 4dr JKU) was way less expensive than buying it new. Another way I got some - when my local dealer moved to a new building a few miles away from their old one they had a bunch of soft tops in their storage room that were the result of warranty replacements and they didn't want to move them so they gave them to me and I'm still using the fabric from that haul for new projects
.I've sewn quite a few things with twill from used soft tops, including the roll-up soft sides (shown rolled up in this photo) for my homemade LJ Safari Cab hardtop and the cargo bag hanging on the spare...
Twillfast RPC is a really nice fabric to work with, but may be a challenge for people sewing at home - an inexpensive home sewing machine may struggle to sew through multiple layers, it's pretty thick and the typical mostly plastic home sewing machines around today may not handle it. That wouldn't be a problem for an upholstery shop but I mention it in case someone wants to try sewing with it themselves.
I haven't sewn roll bar covers yet so I can't tell you how many yards you need but if you find a shop that's willing to do the work for you they'll be able to estimate the yardage necessary.
What may be hard is locating the twill fabric, so this may help: https://www.haartz.com/index.php?q=exteriors/twillfast. The factory soft top twill fabric is Haartz Twillfast RPC which can be found on that page. Haartz doesn't sell small quantities to end users, so you'll probably have to call around to automotive upholstery and convertible top shops to see if any of them have the fabric or can get it for you and if you're lucky you'll find a shop that's both willing to sew them for you and can source the fabric. A few years ago I checked online and found a few places that would sell it in small amounts and it's about $90 per yard so sourcing new fabric and getting a shop to do the sewing for you will probably be an expensive project.
Another source for fabric is Craigslist - I've bought a number of used twill soft tops I found on Craigslist, most of them being sold because of bad zippers, bad windows or some other flaw people didn't know how to deal with but the tops were a great source of reusable fabric and the reclaimed fabric from each top (2-3 yards depending on whether the top was from a 2dr or 4dr JKU) was way less expensive than buying it new. Another way I got some - when my local dealer moved to a new building a few miles away from their old one they had a bunch of soft tops in their storage room that were the result of warranty replacements and they didn't want to move them so they gave them to me and I'm still using the fabric from that haul for new projects
I've sewn quite a few things with twill from used soft tops, including the roll-up soft sides (shown rolled up in this photo) for my homemade LJ Safari Cab hardtop and the cargo bag hanging on the spare...
Twillfast RPC is a really nice fabric to work with, but may be a challenge for people sewing at home - an inexpensive home sewing machine may struggle to sew through multiple layers, it's pretty thick and the typical mostly plastic home sewing machines around today may not handle it. That wouldn't be a problem for an upholstery shop but I mention it in case someone wants to try sewing with it themselves.
I did source the fabric! And confirmation the particular flavor that Bestop uses, which is RPC, like you said.
I like your idea of getting used JK twill tops to salvage …
But I believe 2-3 yards SHOULD be enough … and I found black twill RPC for $81/yd … so 250 bucks plus zippers. Not bad. If I can get quality labor for 250, I’d feel ok investing $500.