Custom cut out hardtop part 2

[Johnny Wayne]

OK so I cut out the top and finished up painting it. I installed it this morning, and should be getting sides and top finished this week or next week.

 

[shift1313]

how are you finishing the top? and are you putting glass back in the sides?

I just looked at the pics and was going to ask why but if you are getting some sort of cloth top for it thats cool.

i remember the days of going home at lunch and pulling the top off my bronco by myself, and then come to find out it was going to rain and having to run back home to put it back on /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[Johnny Wayne]

Yep hopefully have the sides and the top done this week or next week.

then the only thing else I need to do is install the shoulder strap seat belts. My bronco is a 90 and top is off a 92 so I also got the seat belts. Gotta keep the rugrats safe.

 

[Broncobill78]

Hey Johnny,

Just *where* did you cut yours ? I've been ******* w/other issues and mine's been sitting in the driveway ******* off the wife. I'm fixing to cut it this wk but wasn't sure if I wanted to use the side & rear lines up top as a guide or not. Sometimes if you cut stuff along the factory line it goes & falls apart on you but it looks like your cut-out is just about that size & that's what I'd been planning, but truth be told I wanted to wait & see if someone else had done the same thing & had their cap fall apart on them /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[Seabronc]

Looks real interesting, a nice alternative to a full soft top. However, if you are going to be carrying your Rug Rats in the back seat, a roll bar would be a great safety device. The unaltered top only offers minimal protection to rear seat passengers and anything less offers near zero. I've seen full tops after a rollover and they don't come out too well.

Any way, I like it and good luck,

>-

 

[BroncoJoe19]

Looks real interesting, a nice alternative to a full soft top. However, if you are going to be carrying your Rug Rats in the back seat, a roll bar would be a great safety device. The unaltered top only offers minimal protection to rear seat passengers and anything less offers near zero. I've seen full tops after a rollover and they don't come out too well.
Any way, I like it and good luck,

>-

Yeah... It really does look nice.

As SeaBronc said, you may want to consider getting a roll bar for the kids safety.

While this video is not a typical rollover, it makes one think.

http://broncozone.com/forums/index.php?s=&...ost&p=71442

 

[Broncobill78]

Looks real interesting, a nice alternative to a full soft top. However, if you are going to be carrying your Rug Rats in the back seat, a roll bar would be a great safety device. The unaltered top only offers minimal protection to rear seat passengers and anything less offers near zero. I've seen full tops after a rollover and they don't come out too well.
Any way, I like it and good luck,

>-

Unfortunately *none* of them do very well once you get them wheels-up. I didn't give much thought to hacking up the spare top since I honestly can't see it making a difference either way. Like Fred said, an intact top really won't offer any better protection (I *have* been kicking around fiberglassing in some rebar to reinforce the basic structure but I have no illusions about it helping out in the event of a rollover). I've put the 78/79's on their side several times with no major damage and managed to tip my 82' over as well, but the last one that went all the way over was my 73' (don't *ever* hit the brakes when you're airborne, it's a bad idea, don't do it. BAD things will happen when you land.) and that one didn't flip so well. I've been a big fan of frame-mounted cages ever since. Fortunately when the 73' went roundy-round the door-latch failed & I got tossed out like a discus. It HAS to be one of the *very* few times when not wearing a seatbelt saved someone. On the other hand, using your face to plow a furrow in the dirt is no picinic either. I think the overall best advise here is to do everything you can to keep the side with the wheels facing down.

 

[Johnny Wayne]

broncobill I went in about 3-5 inches from the crease and cut there. I tapped on the top until it sound real thin and then went in a couple more inches.

I will be putting in a role cage hopefully in a few months when I get some metal. I wont be taking the kids off roading unless its like trail riding, unitl I get a cage in it.

Thanks!

 

[Broncobill78]

Wow, you went *that* far inboard of the seam ? It somehow looks larger in the photos. How far back from the front edge (seeing as there's no front seam to use as a landmark)

 

[Outkast]

good idea man. iv been debating weather to keep the original hard top or get a soft top but this method gives you the best of both. one question (are/did) you put glass on top or are you gonna get a soft cover?

 

[Johnny Wayne]

Broncobill I will get the tape measure out in the next few days and measure the top and let you know. I drove it down the interstate tonight and got it up to about 75-80 and I couldn't see any flex and the wind wasn't that bad.

Outkast the top is open for now I am planning on have some leather pieces made to cover the top and the sides.

Thanks also.

 

[muddinlate86]

will a top from an79 work on my 86 if so im inspired to make me a custom top too?!

 

[Johnny Wayne]

I do not believe it will fit. but I might be wrong.

 

[Broncobill78]

will a top from an79 work on my 86 if so im inspired to make me a custom top too?!

No they won't swap. There was a thread on this a couple months back by someone who actually had a 78/79 top on-hand and tried to fit it to an 80-96 body tub (to be painfully honest I'm simply not ambitious enough right now to try & look it up but it's somewhere in the archives) and the dealbreaker was a change in the angle where the cap mates to the tub. They simply won't bolt up. any 80-96 cap will swap onto any 80-96 Bronco but the 78/79 tops will only fit 78/79 Bronco's. Sad but true. On the other hand I paid $75 for a spare top from the boneyard. It was glassless to begin with (they probably would have nailed me for another $50 if it'd had the side glass but that didn't happen due to someone's carelessness with a box wrench. I think it was Billy T who slipped & got careless) and I've seen similar prices here from other guys, someone here picked one up for $50. Regardless, a spare cap will run you a LOT less than a soft-top and it's something that after being cut you can paint it yourself with spraybombs and have it look good. If you have access to a compressor & spray-gun you're even better off but there's no reason why anyone interested can't pull this one of for less than $125 *complete*

 

[Johnny Wayne]

I have about $40 total in mine so far. Thats for the top, seat belts, and paint. Got the top off craigslist for $20, I just posted an add saying I was looking to buy a hard top and I had a few people email trying to get rid of theirs.

 

[benboy17]

This has inspired me as well so I started to call some salvage yards here locally and one guy here(get this) wants around $400 or $500 for the top. I think I ticked him off when I started laughing!!! Oh well guess I'm not buying one from him

 

[cphighrider]

has anyone tried doing this and putting glass in the top and sides just curious

 

[Broncobill78]

Well, next time someone quotes you a price like that bite your tongue to keep from laughing and ask him with your straightest possible voice if he sells a lot of them at that price.

Maybe *with* the sideglass I could see $200 but even THAT's a stretch. I was a little miffed at having to pay $75 for mine when I know good & well a lot of guys are getting them for $50 or so but in the end I figued a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush and decided $25 wasn't such a stiff penalty for getting what I wanted *when* I wanted it. Bill T was there to help my pull it off & drag it home so I just went with it. If he'd told me he wanted 5 bills for it I think I'd have had trouble not ******* on his shoes.

$hit, for $500 you can buy an entire parts truck. Keep laughing & keep looking.

I'm cutting mine this wkend & will have photos early nxt week. Arrgh, maybe not. Just remembered my mother is coming down to visit & will be here Sunday afternoon, but on the other hand I'm sure I'll be looking for ANYTHING to keep me out of the house for a few days so maybe it'll get done early, either that or I'll drag it out until she moves along. Not that I don't love Mom, baseball (after that $hit w/the Pats I guess I'm back to being a Red Sox fan) or apple pie, it's just that we get along best when we're NOT living in the same house & it's been that way since I was 17.

As for the glass question, it shouldn't be hard at all to find a top with the side-glass intact so that one's easy. As far as installing glass in the top that's a whole different story. While sure, you can easily get any glass shop to cut you any size piece to your specifications, getting laminated *safety* glass in custom sizes is a real BIG dollar proposition. The smart way to do *that* would be to find the largest piece of commercially available safety glass and then cut your hole to match it. Even after doing that you'd have to figure some way to secure it into the top. While I'm sure it could be done by someone willing to throw enough money at the problem I was just planning to drill a few holes, install some snaps and have a convertable/boat shop fabricate me a piece of clear flexible plastic (the type used for the rear window in convertables) that I could just snap on & off when I wanted. Truth be told I may not even go that far. The back end of the truck spends a lot of time getting wet already and I may just deal with it.

What you suggest would be a pretty slick modification, but I just don't know how cost effective it would be. a 4'x5' piece of safety glass can't be cheap, look at what the average windshield costs. We're talking about a piece of glass roughly 2.5x the size of most windshields. Add to that the entire purpose of the exercise is to make the rear of the truck as open-air as possible without actually removing the top. IF I thought the structure would take it I'd remove the rear portion entirely and just keep the front & sides, ****, for $75 I might try it just to see how it works out (but not until I get a 3rd $75 top into the yard /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> )

 

[cphighrider]

i am not really going to do it i was just curious if there were any pictures of it i think it would look real nice but i agree with the price issue on fabing something up like that