I see that you have a lot of Ideas over on the Expedition Portal.
How about making a Tropical Roof for the LJ.
I need to keep the sun from beating on the roof in the summertime out here in AZ
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Sorry I didn't respond sooner, I didn't notice this thread until just now.
Making a tropical roof panel to form fitted to the top of a Jeep factory hardtop would be a very simple fiberglass project.
First, a little more about the Land Rover Tropical Roof for people not familiar with it:
How I would do it: first, I'd make a mold from the top of the factory hardtop roof. This would result in a mold that's the exact shape of the hardtop roof. Then I'd make the tropical panel inside that mold and the result would be a tropical panel that's the exact shape of the roof and because it would be made on the inside of the mold that was made from the roof, the outside of the tropical panel would be an exact match for the hardtop texture. Painted hardtop color and installed on top of the hardtop with spacers the same way the Land Rover tropical roof is installed, it would look completely factory and it would work just like the Land Rover tropical roof does to reduce heat.
Done correctly, making a mold of the top of a factory hardtop would be quite easy and very safe - no damage to the hardtop would result. I've made molds from parts on Jeeps multiple times and I've never damaged the original part and always ended up with a successful mold. Here's how it's done (maybe more info than you're looking for, but I want to show that it's not too difficult to do).
A few years ago I designed flat fenders for the JK and to make them fit properly I needed a mounting flange that exactly matched the irregular shape of the mounting area on the fenders, so I made a mold of the flange right on the body. These photos are from making a mold for one of the rear fender mounting flanges.
1. Mask off all of the areas not to be molded. Be over-cautious and use lots of plastic sheet to avoid overspray.
2. Liberally apply mold release wax and when that's dry, spray PVA mold release film on the area to be molded (no photo). Wax protects the body surface and PVA protects the wax with a water-soluable plastic film over the area.
3. Spray gelcoat (a special resin that forms the surface of the part) on the area and follow that up with fiberglass layup - fiberglass mat soaked in resin. Gelcoat:
Fiberglass layup on top of the gelcoat:
4. When the fiberglass has cured, pop the part off the Jeep:
5. Once the part has been removed, remove all of the masking and clean the remaining mold release off the body. As you can see, no damage occurred to the Jeep, and doing the same to make a Tropical Roof mold on a factory hardtop would not damage the hardtop.
Using that procedure you can safely make a mold from the top of the roof which will exactly match the shape and details of the roof. It'll be a female mold (like a cake pan) that you can use to mold the final part in. Use that mold (prepping it with wax and PVA followed by gelcoat and fiberglass layup) to make the final Tropical Roof panel.
Once the Tropical panel is removed from the mold, the edges are trimmed and it would be mounted to the top of the hardtop with spacer blocks just like the Land Rover.
Really not a difficult project, if you'd like to try it I can give you as much detail on the process as you need.
