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73'-75' soft top build UPDATED PICS 6/16/09 post 62

Well, I get what you’re saying, but (honestly) I’m not "set" on the window design.

If I understand you correctly, you intend to plate the portion of your soft top where it meets the windows.

I cant see it going with the soft top idea - Its a hard panel. I chopped one of your photos and sketched a different line.

First (light blue) is easy enough to see. The darker blue uses a different idea. You can use a rubberized-plastic-material-channel to actually meet the windows from the canvas. I wish I knew what it was called so I could pic it here. Its a flexible plastic (or hard rubber) that is sewn to the canvas and, very basically, has a rain drip rail formed in the plastic/rubber and maybe an inch or two of rubber below the drip rail for the window to seal to.

Ill see if I cant find what Im talking about lol.

It still looks great, btw - You should have went with next day shipping :D



Troy B
Ft Hood, TX

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Here is what the plate idea will more look like. The card board is ofcourse only a mockup. I think I like this so far. The door glass has to have a seal to seal against, And once the door is closed the soft top material has to over lap the window so rain can cascade off over the window. I don't have but about 5/8th's over lap of the window to the plate now, enough for the rubber seal piece. I used new 67-72 door seal trip cut to length to fit the seal plate.

The top is still in the brain storming/design on the fly stage. NOTHING is set in stone to this point. I could change anything still. I took the Aluminum panel to work, rolled on our rolled then cut out the patern. I detailed it, took alot off the window overlap compared to the cardboard mockup piece. You wont see any of the seal plate once the top is on. The top will attach to it and seal to the plate but cover it up aswell.

With the soft top sides and rear window rolled up this seal plate will get unbolted, the the Double arced frame will swing to the rear and get re-pinned. The seal plate will get stored in the truck, Or I could leave it in place even with the sides rolled up. Remember the soft top material will overlap the glass a bit so you won't even see any of the seal plate.

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Couple more pics. My handsome son wrenchin with his pops :D.

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Okay - As I assumed with my last reply, I dont have the whole picture. Well, I basically do now though.

Now, knowing how you will cover the panel, I can see it being a good design, obviously thought out, and fabricated nicely.

I dig it :waytogo:

No parts today then ? :D




Troy B
Ft Hood, TX
 
rdn2blazer, You've said in another thread you have a factory soft top plate that bolts to the windshield frame. Can you take pictures of it?
 
Lunatic said:
Okay - As I assumed with my last reply, I dont have the whole picture. Well, I basically do now though.

Now, knowing how you will cover the panel, I can see it being a good design, obviously thought out, and fabricated nicely.

I dig it :waytogo:

No parts today then ? :D


Troy B
Ft Hood, TX
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NO!....damnit, I was REALLY hoping they would come in. This wekk sometime for sure. I have to work this weekend coming up too :mad:. I was hoping to have it off so I could work on my truck. OT is good though.
 
JDNobodi said:
rdn2blazer, You've said in another thread you have a factory soft top plate that bolts to the windshield frame. Can you take pictures of it?
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Here ya go.


I believe it to be factory, I'm not 100% sure. But based on the fact that it is a machined piece I doubt some guy decided to machine this up in his garage. It is a piece of 1/8 thick X 1 1/4 wide X 54" length Aluminum flat bar with a milled step in it .062 deep X .750 wide. The thickest part of the rail goes rearward and the overhang if you want to call it that is where the soft top material folds & tucks under the rail. It's painted Black. I took it off to Radius the corners as you can see. I ripped my tarp I keep on my truck yesterday so I had my boy pull it off so I could radius it.

I think this piece would be easy to replicate using a strip of 1/2 inch Aluminum & a piece of 1 1/4 Aluminum. Drill all the holed required on center of the 1/2 strip and 1/4 inch from one edge of the 1 1/4 strip so that when you put them together the holes line up ofcourse, then just screw it down. It does have an arc on the thickness plane but it's only Aluminum, you can manipulate it to follow the curve of the windshield frame.

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JDNobodi said:
How is that different than the one that came with your old top?
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I can not find the one that came with the STC Top I bought from Noah. If I remember correctly the STC rail was a Extrusion. Like this " __] " . The bottom leg was longer then the top leg so you could screw it to the windshield frame. The soft top material would fold and tuck under the rail lip. When I sold it to Dean I had everything (so I thought) together. Everything but the Front rail. I have looked everywhere for the damn thing. I 99% sure I DID get it from Noah, but it is just gone. It's a almost 5ft piece, I don't know how I it can be missing.

I'm PISSED about it still damnit. I felt bad to have that piece missing for Dean. I have kept my eye out for one but have not come across one. I told him about how to make one. Hope he has found one or made something by now. he was very cool about it.
 
Picked up two 3 X 3 X 1/4 Aluminum Angle for the bed rail mounts. These will be for the side window panels of the soft top to mount to when the sides are down and taught. Also the mounting cleats will be bolted to these. The cleat bolts go thru the angle & bed top rail. Also there will be holes in the angle so I can run bolts in the hard top mounting nut plates. I will also drill some cool lighting holes in a staggared pattern for a cool look. kinda like this *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. Staggared. Should be getting started on this part this coming weekend.
 
The rest of the fittings I needed came in, will get them machined up this week. More pics to come asap.
 
ASAP...... Is there an actual length of time defining ..... ASAP ?

Yet ? :D

Looking forward to the progress. Would you say youre about halfway there ?




Troy B
Ft Hood, TX
 
Lunatic said:
ASAP...... Is there an actual length of time defining ..... ASAP ?

Yet ? :D

Looking forward to the progress. Would you say youre about halfway there ?




Troy B
Ft Hood, TX
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I'm probably 75% done with the frame. I'm working this weekend AGAIN :mad: but I plan on doing what I can this weekend. Alot of it will go fast. I need to drill & mount the bed rails, Then cut, bend & mount the rear struts & cleats. I need to cut a little off the legs of the middle & rear bows since the SS cleat setup is taller then the plastic cleats, basically get all bows the same heigth. The continue on the seal plate and make an exact mirror image of it for the pass side. Re-install the windshield rail.

Then when all that is done, I can drill the set screw threads out of the ss fittings for 1/4 bolts and push button quick realease pins. I will talk to ED the upholstry guy maybe in a week or two about the soft top. My bud who is good friends with him says he asks how my truck project is coming along when he sees him from time to time. He has seen my K5 build in person and cage work and really liked the work I have put into it so far. I think he will be stoked to do this for me.
 
Thats good news - Perhaps he'll make the cover at a discount if you run his shop's logo somwhere on it ?

Something you havent returned to yet (that I noticed anyways) is the bow sleeves. Obviously you can do this at anytime after the project is done. Have you gone any further than knowing you'll be doing it eventually or tried your intial rough idea to check it out ?

Keep it up - That OT is mo-money for more action figures for your son. :D Gotta pay the lil man too ya know !





Troy B
Ft Hood, TX
 
Lunatic said:
Thats good news - Perhaps he'll make the cover at a discount if you run his shop's logo somwhere on it ?

Something you havent returned to yet (that I noticed anyways) is the bow sleeves. Obviously you can do this at anytime after the project is done. Have you gone any further than knowing you'll be doing it eventually or tried your intial rough idea to check it out ?

Keep it up - That OT is mo-money for more action figures for your son. :D Gotta pay the lil man too ya know !


Troy B
Ft Hood, TX
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I got the rest of the fittings bored, will get them on tomorrow more then likely. Yeah, I love when my boy helps me. Actually I just dig him hanging with me weather he helps or not. He asks to help all the time, bummer though, sometimes there's nothing for him to really help with. Tomorrow I pick up my front forks for my dirt bike. I had them pro tuned for my weight, springs changed, new seals & seal savers, New bushings, re-valved & new fluid. Thats part of the reason for the OT. Rear shock will have to be done next month. About $700/800 for front & rear suspension when all is said and done :doah:KTM parts are PRICY :crazy:.
 
mnstrburbon said:
who did the front fork's
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Guy by the name of John Hall. He works at American Honda but works on the side as a suspension tuner and works on all makes. He does all suspension work for Nick Blais. Nick is the brother of Chris Blais who was the only American to podium ever in the DAKAR RALLY RACE in 2007. John did Chris's suspension on all his race bikes too for the Baja 1000 and Dakar. Last your Chris suffered a horrible crash and was paralized.

Nick just ran the Baja 500 this past weekend for the fourth year in a row and his team placed 4th overall in the Class 21 250 pro class. They actually came in 2nd in the race but because of the way the race is timed they ended up 4th. Overall, counting all the classes, trucks, buggies, quads, Nick's team placed 16th. Not a bad finish at all. Nick rode 200 miles, another team member rode 200 miles and the other guy rode 100 miles. Nick likes to start the race, loves the crowd and the Adreneline of the start. I asked how fast did he think he got up to? He said one glance at the GPS saw 100mph, on a dirt bike in the dirt :eek1:. The kids got BALLS!

He said he almost hit a car at 80mph. Missed all the booby traps, and never went down. Last month he was racing a race in Mexico, I think it was the TECATE 250. He crashed hard and was knocked out for a LONG period. He came to in the hospital. He was helivaced out! Does not remember ANYTHING of the crash or the ride to the hospital. Had sugery a week later on his knee, and was back riding with a HUGE swollen knee in about three weeks. And like I said just raced the Baja 500!!! The kid is insane. His site is not updated with Baja 500 results yet.

http://www.nickblaisracing.com/
 
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Sweet, and can he even sit down with balls that big.
I just had race tech do my banshee shocks.
but fineline in hb is pretty good too i hear.
Sorry for hijack
 
God damnit, the two 6ft X 3" X 3" Aluminum angle pieces I bought are too short :mad:. I measured wrong like a dumbass, or I just didn't really look at it good enough to figure I needed longer pieces. I need 75" NOT 72". I can always use it somewhere else but I'm NOT happy about wasting the 60 bucks it cost me right now. Now I have to go buy two more 75" pieces.

On a good note, I got the frame square and true and all the Stainless cleats bolted down. Once I have the new 75" rails I will get them bolted up, and continue to work on the window seal plates.
 
:thumb:I have been lurking and am very interested in your final product. From reading this thread it seems you are taking the good from other's products and producing a "super" soft top. Our I am sure that is what you ( and the rest of us) are hoping for.

Keep up the good work and keep us informed as you have been doing.:bow:
 
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