I had a 2004 factory hard top only that I wanted to swap out for a soft top, so needed everything. Chose this kit after asking around on this forum. Thought it might help if I shared my experience installing it here, with a few lessons learned.
First - this is a link to what I bought on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004P23X6W/?tag=wranglerorg-20
Lessons:
Find a youtube video. The printed instructions on their own are wholly inadequate.
It really could take about an hour, they say 3, most of that difference for me was the time I spent figuring out what to do.
Here were a few things that I found tricky that you can avoid:
First - this is a link to what I bought on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004P23X6W/?tag=wranglerorg-20
Lessons:
Find a youtube video. The printed instructions on their own are wholly inadequate.
It really could take about an hour, they say 3, most of that difference for me was the time I spent figuring out what to do.
Here were a few things that I found tricky that you can avoid:
- Center bow assembly: When assembling the center bow, do NOT attach the piece with the bow itself to the holes that are in the metal tabs. There are holes drilled through the tubes for attaching this piece. It's an easy mistake to make, the guys in one of the videos even did it. You know it's right when the bow is bowed up when it is installed and flipped back.
- Door surrounds: If you had a hard top, there will be a rubber molding at the lowest back point where the surround slips into a hole, on the body, rear of the door. Remove this. The surround should be sitting on metal.
- Top: They "suggest" letting the top warm in the sun. This should be seen more as "unless you are a linebacker, hate yourself and very patient, you will need to do this".
- Top: Back corner stiffening panels: There are zipper pockets in the back corners where you insert plastic panels to add support. The instructions and the videos all gloss over this and say "slide the panels into the zipper pocket" or something like that - this is BS. The panels need to be folded almost 90 degrees down the middle for the zipper to close - which makes sense as they go on the corner.
- Putting on the top: After you screw the top onto the header, order is important. You need to secure the back (at the corners with the tabs), then use the velcro to secure it to the center bow, then use the side pins to lock the center bow in place (which pulls the cloth forward), then clamp down the header. If you (like I did) try to clamp the header down after securing the back the cloth will not allow the header to align and close (pulls it back).
