Stock Roll Bars Interchangeable?

Theres a 65 CJ5 roll bar for sale locally. Is there any reason I couldn't use this on my 71? Currently have nothing and am looking for a rear bar that I can later on add bars on the sides and down the windshield. Just want to make sure the 65 bar will fit.

 

Generally speaking, any bar should be interchangeable from 1955 to 1975. The windshield angle changed in 76.

 

If you really want a roll bar and not a roll cage, the windshield angle does not matter. It has to be a bar for a CJ-5. The floors and wheel housings changed in 1976 too, so a bar from '76 or newer may not fit.

 

I want a stock bar that I can add the front section to later on.

 

Stock bars didn't appear until about 1970 or '71 with the Rennegade, so there is no "stock" bar for a '65. They are all aftermarket pieces. Your '71 could have had a dealer accessory bar, assuming it isn't the Rennegade model. These bars have a straight rear bar angled up to the main hoop, as opposed to other bars that had a 90 degree bend where the rear bar meets the main hoop horizonally
Generally, the same bar should fit from from '55 to '75. The tubs are essentially the same.
-Donny

 

the floor at the riser is different enough that a later bar fits crappy, stick to 75 and down which mounts to the wheel houses in back vs the floor by the seats like 76 and up.

 

Be careful when you get one. I got a basically free one, but it was probably rolled on. Fits a bit funny.

 

Heres a link. Its about an hour each way so I want to be sure. My only concern is that I cannot tell if the slant back matches the slant of the windshield (I want the slants to match).

Jeep CJ5 Roll Bar

 

That looks like a Whitco rollbar that came in the Renegade Is and IIs and could have been a dealer option and definitley aftermarket. The first AMC factory bars have the supports meet the hoop on the vertical, not horizontal. I have an early upright AMC rollbar in my garage that matches the more vertical windshield but I think I'm too far away.

 

Interesting because my thought was the roll bar is too vertical and would not match the slight slant back of the windshield frame.

 

Not sure when it started, but by the '70s the Whitco roll bar was offered through the Jeep parts network as "Jeep Approved Special Equipment." Smittybilt offered a similar bar, plus the one with the L-shaped braces, the "competition" model. This thread has a lot of discussion about those types Whitco Roll Bar?.

I know that Jeep first put the roll bar on the option list for all CJ-5s in 1974, painted body color. I thought the bars supplied with the Renegades were the same Whitco bar that was offered through the parts network, again painted body color. It would be interesting to see a picture of the early Renegade roll bar where the braces join on the uprights rather than the horizontal, and see if that is a yet different variant or the Smittybilt deluxe model.

 

Looks right, but if you get the correct roll bar, the hoop is 100% vertical. The '76-on bars slant back, but that may not fit your Jeep. And the later windshields slant back more than yours does, so it will probably be too much slant back.

 

I am not aware of any slanted bars prior to the 1976 cj5. The 76-79 cj5s had a slanted bar that mounted to the top of the wheelwells - this is the bar I had on my 55 cj5. I do not think the slant matched the windshield angle exactly (I think it would have matched the 76-83 windshield angle which is laid back more than the 55-75 windshield). Around 1980 the cj5 roll bar changed and the front hoop went down to the floor behind the front seats - this is the roll bar that will not fit the early Jeeps. I now have the bar like the one you posted the ad for as I prefer its vintage look.

 

This is a factory bar from a '74 or '75

 

That to me looks like the factory bar from a 76-79 cj7.

 

Thanks all! I'm gonna have to have a hoop bent up the way I want it I think. Thanks anyway for the information

 

The hoop is almost totally vertical, and I got it from what I was told was an intermediate 5

 

That looks just like mine that come on my 71 RII. Also I never had any problems with a couple of different brand tops over the years fitting over it.