J,
Call me. I have some ideas for you. IIRC, the gap is approx. 1". We can bend up some square tube to fill the gap and weld it in. It will be one piece and strong as hell. Then you can mount a rail for the soft top to mount to. I'm talking about the rail similar to what Canback and others use along the top of the windsheild frame. Much cleaner and definitely more waterproof than snaps.
If you want to keep it from flexing, you'll have to do a couple things. Tie in the windsheild frame to the cage, and do a rocker upgrade. The rocker upgrade will do the most good. It will keep the floor from "oil canning" and help keep the windsheild frame from flexing too much. If you don't do a rocker upgrade, even running tube doors will make everything start to sag quicker.
The windsheild and cage can be tied together pretty easily without messing with the outside of the windsheild frame. It can all be done from the inside. Heck, we can even make it bolt together so if you ever need to pull the cage, you don't have a bunch of cutting/grinding to do to take it out.
I'll even help you with the write up and snapping of pics. We should be able to do it in a day. Better do it soon before the doc's put a lower lumbar locker in. Other wise I'm down with an open carrier for a few months!
I have all the tools you don't. I can even snag a nice little wire feed w/ gas to make it a little easier.
big problem is I can't steer... haha!
