Started My ECJ5 Build

That hardtop appears to be the '76-'83 style. Are you running the newer windshield frame?

 

My bling:

 

Kman,
Ya know, now that I think about the angle of the doors up where they meet the windshield could be a bit further back than the earlier style, you may have a strong point there. Crap.

I'll be Great Googleid Moogleid if that is the case, and I'll have some nice talking with the gentleman that sold me that top.

 

Naw, the roof of the hard top will be white, and the rest of the body will be all red. The roll bar & family cage will be white, along with the tranny tunnel floor pieces. Wheels are gonna be an aluminum variety. If I can find some Renegade Slots that'd be nice. I was thinking of running stock steel wheels with some dog dish hubcaps, but they won't clear my front or rear calipers.

 

Yep they made the steel hardtops through 1979. Easy way to identify them is the top panel where it bolts to thee windshield frame, the later ones have a 2"-3" flat section at the outer edges. Thats a 1979 hardtop in my avater photo.

 

Uh, yeah, attached the side panels, mocked up the doors, slid the roof on, and installed the windshield, can yousay "Roof to Windshield Gap".......... I can, and I think my neighbors heard me cussing about it and other such nonsense...... Time for a Sunday beer, or three and a dip in the pool to cool off.

So what later windshield will work, I got a spare YJ one laying here.....

Figures I just got the two 12 volt electric motors from KW to replace the vacuum system. Now I'm gonna have to find a complete assembly, and wiper system. the more newer stuff I put on this the more character it'll lose.... I'm highly dissappointed.



The insane part of this build for me, is I bought all this in pieces, it's like a huge jigsaw puzzle, some pieces are there, some are not, and there is no picture on the front of the box to put it all back together..... With this being my first ECJ5, a lot of the detail is not part of my knowledge base.

 

Long & Low try unclamping/unbolting your windshield frame and tilt it to meet the top. I have both early and late Meyers/Orville doors and they are the same. On the '76 and newer CJ5's they had special windshield plates to tilt the windshield foward. Since both early and late used the same doors maybe you can tilt your windshield back some and get it to work. Other than that I would think the '76-'86 CJ windshield frame or an '87-'95 YJ frame. I believe all the YJ frames have the reinforcement ribs between the wipers. If you use a later windshield frame you'll need to find or fab a set of windshield to door filler plates as the later windshield frames taper in at the top.

 

Kman, I have the filler pieces for the windshield, and they look to fit the later style top, I'll post some pictures later. i'm gonna paing the side panels and rear hatch and assemble the top, and then remount it. There was enough slop that I may get this to work. Any idea if I will need to remove the squate soft top rail on the early windshield.

I need to fab up so upper door hinges, I was gonna use a set of cowl hood hinges for the lower door mounts.

I need to grow some more arms so I can get all this stuff lined up and fitted....

 

I believe my '73 has the soft top rail on the windshield frame but then again it came with a Meyers top in '73. I'll see if I can find some photos of my upper door hinges, early and late used the same lower hinges but different upper hinges. Also use the search for Meyers/Orville hardtop posts theres some good info out there. Sorry for derailling your thread off from the build to the top.

 

It's not a derail, it's part of the build. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Are you replacing the rubber around the windows in your top? If so, have you found a source for them? I scored a Meyer hardtop last fall that the rubber is pretty bad on.

 

This thread has a lot of part info http://www.earlycj5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60021&highlight=meyers+top

 

Great info! Thanks Kman.

 

Welp, I mounted the dash, the new cowl gasket, interior ws latches, and voila, the ECJ5 windshield won't work with my hard top. I pulled that stuff off and slid an old YJ woindshiled in there, and voila, but no deja vu, it all fits like a glove. I'll be looking for a newer 76 and up CJ windshiled assembly, or a YJ one. The Lego Jeep is morphing into a Frankenstein Lego Jeep, bits of this, and bits of that.

I truly am upset about the windshiled, I really dig the near vertical windshields of the ECJ5 era. It's a bulldog kinda short nosed thing, flat in yer face kind of style.

Also cleaned up and painted the tranny tunnel covers. Mounted my homemade corner guards that are ugle as sin, cut the holes for the tail lights, horizonal trailer style and recessed. Sure beats the old GMC wrap arounds that where there when I got the tub.

And the finished roof with its coat of white paint. Thats rain / water on the rood. The paint ain smooth, but it aint THAT bad.

Oh, and I got my fuel filler detent thingee piece from KW, so I can cut the appropriate hole in the side filler location!!!

Anyways. enjoy.













Look at that three pieces all next to each other and all the SAME color, wonders willnever cease with this one!

 

Only picture I could find showing my upper hinge mounts is this one. They are the white plates bolted on top of the upper windshield hinge.

 

Those should work. My only concern is they may not be high enough, oif not, I can cut and weld in some flat stock to get them to the right position.

BTW, Did she say "yes" looks an awful lot like your proposing......

 

That was our wedding invitation photo. Sue thinks she has some pictres on her computer of the hinges. The plates should be pretty easy to make. 1/8" flat stock bolted onto the windshield frame(you could make these as tall as you want) then weld(or bend) a piece 90 degrees and weld on a tube for the hinge pin to slide into.

 

I'll look for some tube. If I can't find what I need, I'll give you a call, I like making stuff.

Thanks