anyone got a DIY guide to chop the cargo roof and make it a soft top back
here's some ideas I'm looking for.

 

theres no guide.

get a sawzall. if you dont reinforce anything (like, with a cage or some sort of rollbar that ties into the body well), it'll pull itself back apart.

 

just looking for someone who has done it before

 

Make a straight line and stay on it with the sawzall. It took like 30min to chop mine. Took the glass out, headliner out, and hatch off. I followed the window frame for my cuts. You'll have to get a custom cut of material for a soft top. I never bothered to do it. I would make something like this if I were to.

 

first pic looks nice, iv always wondered how they move the top of the hatch right behind the rear seats so that you have a closed cab but still the little bed in the back

 

I see you didn't put a cage over the chopped section like the two pictures I posted....thought I read somewhere that the roof is structural to the rest of the frame....is this true and if so have you had any problems without that's section. is the cage only needed if you took all of the roof off?

 

That's just a pic of a wrangler as an example...

I would cut along the back window. But yes for sure your going to need to beef it up...

 

The roof isn't structural, but the pillar are and you lose the last one if you cut the top like that. You can weld a 97+ hatch in behind the back seat to seal it off or use the back of a Comanche cab. If you're only driving on the street it will be fine with adding a cage, rollbar, ect. If you're taking it offroad much at all you'll need to reinforce it.

There are no guides because it's literally just a matter of cutting.

 

The roof is structural, you should add bracing before you make any cuts to the roof or pillars

 

how are the pillars structural if the roof is not. is the strength pillar to pillar? hence the bars from rear corners to the middle pillars in the two pics I posted

 

I wheeled mine once with the back cut off before I caged it. The amount of body flex it had was scary. I even had unibody stiffeners at the time. I immediately put a cage in mine after that.

 

The roof is what ties all the pillars together... Making it structural

 

exactly what I thought

 

so to build a cage does it have to be a full cage or can I just build it to support the section cut out.....

and what to build it out of?

 

No, the roof provides rigidity, but that doesn't make it structural. A moonroof doesn't lower the structural integrity any more than removing parts of the roof does. The roof sheetmetal is no more structural than the doors are.