Metal Head

Soft top or sliding rag top would be sweet but there would be no way to keep thieves out of it. You could park it in the garage all the time but what if your out wheeling or camping? i suppose the point is moot if thieves really want in your Jeep they'll get in. IMO removing the whole top (hard top) would be ridiculous it would be heavy as hell and integrating the doors to function properly would be a pain in the ***. You'd have to cut a lot of the support structure for the unibody.

OEJ

I've been wanting to do the slider option. Its suck that Sliding rag tops only goes up to a 96 xj.

With money,time and talent, anything is possible.

Slim357

Very true thats why a cage is a must for it to be able to work. Also doing a custom full frame build may be needed the more I think about it.

Slim357

Dang really? Why foes it only go up to 96?

OEJ

Idk Slim. I was on that website and that was the year range....

no rdplz

They work on 97-01's as well. The roof never changed on the XJ.

Slim357

Thats what I was thinking unless maybe the bows in the roof are different

dysfunctionaljd

The picture on the websites sure looks like a 97+

http://www.slidingragtops.com/17.html

motorcharge

The guy that did it on Pirate basically made an interior cage so he didn't have to mod the the pillars, roof, ect then cut the top off as one piece the modded it to attach to the cage. I'll dig through my pics and see if I can't find any, I know I saved some of his build at one point.

Soft top is definitely easier. I'm chopping the rear on mine soon and doing a canvas soft top. I had one on an old two door a boatshop made for fairly cheap. One piece of canvas slide in some channel attached to what was left of the roof then it had buttons down the sides and rear. We cut the hatch in half as a tailgate. We riveted the other side of the buttons to the quarter panels and gate. It wasn't 100% watertight but for the most part it was fine since everything overlapped.

Camper shell off a first gen Dakota might work as a hard top since they're the same width. I've seen a few people take them cut the back of the cab open and weld the beds to the cab and put in extra bench seats and run the camper shells as a removable hard top.

OEJ

I didn't tink they changed, but I wasn't sure. the pic on the site threw me off too.
thanks.

Slim357

I didnt think so either but that was the only thing I could think of that may have been different. Any one have any suggestions on how to un flatten my roof bows they no longer touch the roof since I rolled it and dont wanna go back into position now lol

MoparNJeep

id be intrested in seeing how close a jk 4Dr top is. Use top and doors off jk, lots of fab, and cage it. Or a soft or hard top off an lj Wrangler on a 2Dr xj.

Jeepxj1234

I bet the deminsions are significantly different between a xj and jk. But I could be wrong.

MoparNJeep

Grab a tape measure jk & xj owners.

Morat

You probably want to cage it THEN chop it... or you'll find the ends are a bit closer to the middle by the time you come to drive it