OP
I have been looking for months for an oem hardtop. But nobody around here is selling them. I saw one that was for sale for $2,300 but wasn’t in the best shape.
Looking for a aftermarket hardtop
- Thread starter matt4282
- Start date
06TJ35's
TJ Addict
I would message people selling their TJ if they would want to sell their Hard top someone might want to sell it. If you have a soft top you can give them the soft top for they can still have a top.
OP
These are actually extremely well built. There’s a guy on jeep forum that created this top and sold the rights to the company that makes it now. He’s a master with fiberglass and made a CJ front clip for a TJ and a Jeepster Commando front clip for a TJ as well.
Just google “cj grille conversion kit tj lj project build thread“ it’s a massive thread but well worth the read. Lots of pictures.
Joedert
Member
My BullDawg is every bit as good as Mopar imo. All I could find around me in OEM was 1000 or more that all needed some sort of repair.
Thank you .
Factory tops are out there .
I love mine . Looks, fit, function are all there.
Planning on selling mine. Maybe my wife can take it as Check in Baggage when she flies Texas in a couple of months. Hoping to get enough for mine to make a Garvin or Gobi Roof rack to not be as painful
+1 OEM all the way! Also no tax and shipping costs so it really is a good deal if you can find a one in decent shape for under a grand.
Even my overpriced gr8tops hardtop is not as robust as OEM, but the coolness factor far outweighs the lack of stoutness. I really wish Jeff Scherb would have licensed out to a quality builder, or just sold his designs or a build kit. The guys at gr8tops are nice, and tried to help me out, but the only help I needed was a quality build, with no holes and cracks.
As you see in my other post, overpriced due to the poor build quality. Otherwise it's a great top and just about every day I get into a conversation with someone about it.
Very sorry about that, unfortunately I have nothing to do with how Gr8Tops manufactures their tops.
The one I made 10 years ago in my home garage (before Gr8Tops licensed the design from me) is still going strong though. I don't baby it either...
Wow, I love your Jeep Jeff. When I bought the hardtop we had a lengthy talk on the other Wrangler forum. I've been meaning to find you but your inbox is full. I always wanted to ask you if you have the specs for the metal hardtop legs, when you only have the "hat" on and no windows/sides?
Gr8tops had to send me two hats because the first one literally had holes in it and water always poured in. I would love to covnert to a summer partial hardtop like the one you designed if you can spare the specs.?
@Chris - Jeff joined the forum woo-hoo. Jeff is the king of fiberglass and jeep overlanding. Great addition to the forum!!!
You're talking about the rear stanchions to support the roof when the sides are off?
I had them set up to be production products although unfortunately Gr8Tops never went ahead with them. About two years ago I arranged for a small production run for a handful of Safari Cab owners on JeepForum, here are some of the parts from that run.
MORryde manufactures them but a minimum production run needs to be 4 or 5 sets.
If you wanted to make your own, I made the first prototype set out of EMT conduit, they're in this photo alongside the production parts. I don't know if the production parts actually work with the Gr8Tops Safari Cab without modification because I don't know where they put the bolt holes in the roof or the tub. They're not too hard to make though...
BTW the original design of the Safari Cab also allowed for the rear panel (and barn door) to stay in place when the side panels are removed; that's the way I mostly run it in the summer these days (with the roll-up soft sides). Unfortunately Gr8Tops decided to mold the sides and rear corners as one piece; in my design they're separate pieces so this is possible:
jgaz recommended the forum to me; he's a good friend of mine from the Expedition Portal.
If I knew you before I purchased from gr8tops I would have attempted to hire you to build this. Your top is just nicer, so maybe I should get in touch with morryde about this since I have a second hardtop hat in my yard.
Once I found this forum I abandoned the other Wrangler forum. Much better group of people here who help each other out...and less ads and pop-ups because of our beloved admin @Chris
You could attempt it but it wouldn't work, I'm not for hire. I design and build things as a hobby and I never do work for hire
.Thanks. I like mine a lot better than the production version too. It is a bit disappointing that the original Safari Cab design as so many features that never made it into production.
MORryde probably wouldn't know what you're talking about, I arranged the production run through the engineering department so the parts aren't on the standard MORryde product list. If you wanted to get some made I could help arrange that but you'd want to find a few other Safari Cab owners to go in with you, getting MORryde to do a production run of 1 would be expensive.
Good to see you over here! A lot of us have been following your work for a long time.
Thank you. I've been working on some new TJ projects lately (fiberglass, hardware and fabric projects) and having given up on the other wrangler forum, when my friend jgaz recommended this forum I thought I'd join and maybe post about some of the projects here to get suggestions and criticism about the projects
.You could attempt it but it wouldn't work, I'm not for hire. I design and build things as a hobby and I never do work for hire
Funny - I would have given my best effort numerous times...like asking you to help me out with a "hobby project" in exchange for an envelope full of a green paper-like material.
Thanks for the offer, could you ballpark the cost of the rear stanchions if a 6-pack was ordered? If the price is not over the top I would buy them and try to sell the others. I love the look and I have a second hardtop just laying in the yard and I keep thinking how to make use of it. My best idea is a paintball target and that just doesn't seem right.
I'd guess in qty 6 pairs they be maybe $60/pr. plus shipping but I'd have to ask MORryde for a current quote.