I want to take the hard top off my Jeep and put on the convertible top, because spring is coming and thus a desire for open air. I want to save money on beer and pizzas by doing it myself. So here's the plan...
Two 2x6's -- lift hard top up (I can do that myself), slide 2x6's sideways across Jeep to under the hold-down holes, drive some wood screws thru those holes to keep the hard top from sliding off the 2x6's. Two 2x6's, one at front of the top, one at back of the top.
Four eye bolts -- one on each end of the 2x6's (which stick out from the sides of the Jeep).
Four eye bolts -- thru 2x4's on top of rafters in garage. (My ceiling is unfinished in my garage).
Four ratchet straps -- one on each corner. Ratchet the hard top up, drive the Jeep out of the garage, ratchet the hard top down and set it on the garage floor, at which point it can be tilted up and put on a cart and the 2x6's removed.
This seems workable, albeit a bit tedious (can only ratchet one corner up or down an inch or so before moving on to the next one, so I'd be going in a circle for a while.
Is there something I'm missing here?
-- Badtux the Convertible Penguin
Seems workable. Could you just pull it off by hand if you had a helper?
ReplyDeleteJzB
Yes, I've had it off before and it weighs less than 150 pounds. It just costs money to provide pizza and beer to a helper, while the ratchet straps are already in my junk box and the lumber is sitting across my rafters (where I'm storing it out of the way). Meaning all I actually need to buy are the eye bolts.
ReplyDeleteSad that you don't want to share beer with a friend...
ReplyDeleteOr that you haven't a friend which requires no payment...
Should work fine. Probably don't actually need the eyebolts, as a loop of rope around the 2x 6's and 2 x 4's should be sufficient.
ReplyDeletePygalgia, the main issue is that the top is made of, not exactly fiberglass, but it's basically fiberglass made with a flexible resin rather than a rigid resin. So it's not particularly stiff, it does flex a little, and try using a loop of rope to handle a flexible noodle...
ReplyDeleteSpud, I have friends who would be happy to help me with my top, but it seems to take us about three hours to do a five minute job because of the whole beer and (whatever) thing. I'd prefer to do that in a backdrop *other* than my garage, which is not exactly the world's most comely or climate-controlled location.
Only need one crank and a triangle setup to make it simple, think about it. Let me know if you don't get my drift.
ReplyDeleteClarification: I meant loops of rope at the ends of the 2 x 6's and around the 2 x 4 beams in place of eyebolts. The ratchet straps and boards would still be used in the same manner, just with less hardware involved.
ReplyDelete