Yukon Jack
1/2 ton status
Here are pics of the member destinbeachman's soft top that he sent me to host for him. I believe it is a STC FastTrack
He states:
The first pic shows my cage and why it accomodates the top - the main hoop isn't nearly as wide as the body of the truck. The rest of the pics show the steps needed to raise the top. From just fastening the front and back, which gives you the safari, moving on to zipping the sides on(it's important to undo the tensioner brackets until everything is on or you'll have a hell of a time with the zippers). I don't even hook the bottom of the side windows into the channel until I have the front window frames in. I put the front of the frames into the brackets bolted to the windshield header and leave the back loose to make it easier to stretch the top over and into the top channel of the frames. Then I put the frame posts into the holes in the bedside and the first top bow. I pull about 3 inches of the top material back out of the channel and tuck the leading (unsewn) edge of the side window underneath it and into the channel followed by the few inches I pulled out before. You can see that this wraps over the small tucked piece tightly and keeps it from flapping. I then pull the side windows down and hook the bottom edge into it's channel on both sides of the truck, push the leading window edge into it's channel, snap it around to the inside of the frame and then reach into the back of the truck and pull the tensioning brackets into place and that's it, except for zipping the back window into place. Looks pretty good. One of the pics shows the clearance of the cage on the inside and another shows how the windows don't quite cover the entire window frame-the frame outline is square and the windows are curved and I just can't get it to fill it in. I had to bend the window frames' top rod down and outboard about 3/8ths of an inch to get the material to seal against the glass on both sides and I ended up moving the rearmost bow attaching bracket 2 inches further aft than the factory hardtops holes that it was supposed to mount into. That puts adequate tension on the rear of the top to tighten it up just fine. Your results may vary. I like the top more now than I did when I first got it, probably cause it goes up much quicker now and it does look really nice. Gives a sorta modern, cleaned-up look to the old rigs. If anyone has any questions or needs some other pics just let me know.
He states:
The first pic shows my cage and why it accomodates the top - the main hoop isn't nearly as wide as the body of the truck. The rest of the pics show the steps needed to raise the top. From just fastening the front and back, which gives you the safari, moving on to zipping the sides on(it's important to undo the tensioner brackets until everything is on or you'll have a hell of a time with the zippers). I don't even hook the bottom of the side windows into the channel until I have the front window frames in. I put the front of the frames into the brackets bolted to the windshield header and leave the back loose to make it easier to stretch the top over and into the top channel of the frames. Then I put the frame posts into the holes in the bedside and the first top bow. I pull about 3 inches of the top material back out of the channel and tuck the leading (unsewn) edge of the side window underneath it and into the channel followed by the few inches I pulled out before. You can see that this wraps over the small tucked piece tightly and keeps it from flapping. I then pull the side windows down and hook the bottom edge into it's channel on both sides of the truck, push the leading window edge into it's channel, snap it around to the inside of the frame and then reach into the back of the truck and pull the tensioning brackets into place and that's it, except for zipping the back window into place. Looks pretty good. One of the pics shows the clearance of the cage on the inside and another shows how the windows don't quite cover the entire window frame-the frame outline is square and the windows are curved and I just can't get it to fill it in. I had to bend the window frames' top rod down and outboard about 3/8ths of an inch to get the material to seal against the glass on both sides and I ended up moving the rearmost bow attaching bracket 2 inches further aft than the factory hardtops holes that it was supposed to mount into. That puts adequate tension on the rear of the top to tighten it up just fine. Your results may vary. I like the top more now than I did when I first got it, probably cause it goes up much quicker now and it does look really nice. Gives a sorta modern, cleaned-up look to the old rigs. If anyone has any questions or needs some other pics just let me know.
