Going topless...

Would anyone like to share their experiences with removing their roof?

I'm considering cutting the roof off of my beater trail rig and fabbing up a ver basic cage. I'm not anticipating any rollovers, so I just want a minimal cage to allow easy access and structural rgidity.

I've seen several pictures of XJ's that have this done, but I'd like to hear from someone who's done it or atleast get a link to someones writeup of the process. Can anyone help me out here?

Ill give ya a quick tip. When you cut the front of the roof use the inner windsheild structure as a guide. Cut from the inside out so you can see all the joints and supports. It will save you a bunch of body work later.

Any more tips? If I decide to do this I want to do it right. I want to build the simplest but most effective cage that I can. I don't want a ton of bars going all over the place if I don't need them.

If you are reading this and have chopped off your roof, please take a moment to maybe answer the following:

- How has the cage you designed held up in preventing body flex? (feel free to add a picture to show us the cage)

- Did you choose to integrate the door frames or did you completely remove them and build a more elaborate cage? If you did remove them, so you regret it?

- How have the instruments and interior electronics held up to the elements?

- How do you store your XJ? In a garage, a carport, or with just a tarp over it?

- What mistakes did you make in the process and what did you do to correct them?

not saying it just to say it..

but if you REALLY have to ask you shouldnt be doing it. There is SO MUCH info on naxja about that. If you cant figure it out with what has been done, dont do it.

I spent two hours reading all the posts on this forum about this topic before I made this post. Just because I haven't posted alot on THIS forum doesn't mean I'm an idiot. I'm looking to learn from other peoples experiences instead of just blindly hacking away at it and having to do it through trial and error.

I can do it, I just want to do it BETTER.

TheRumbleFish said:

I spent two hours reading all the posts on this forum about this topic before I made this post. Just because I haven't posted alot on THIS forum doesn't mean I'm an idiot. I'm looking to learn from other peoples experiences instead of just blindly hacking away at it and having to do it through trial and error.

I can do it, I just want to do it BETTER.

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not saying your an idiot. I am just saying that with the thousands of photo databases and how-to-FAQs just on , if you are unable to either PM a specific person who did it and ask a specific question. You maybe should not do it. Now if your just considering taking on a project like this, then maybe post up a question that generalizes peoples opinions. like... "are you happy with the end product for the huge amount of time it takes?"

If you are set are chopping and caging, I would say get the sawzall screaming. Specific questions are the BEST way to get the BEST answers. Otherwise, you get people like me clogging up good bandwidth.

You cannot do it, all pictures of Chopped XJ's are Photochops.

HTH

Rev

you can chop your xj all you want the guy sayin all this photoshop bull shit is the only idiot here just relize that what ever you chop off will definatly weeken the whole thing because it is a unibody frame so i wouldnt to it until you know exactly what you are doing like you said

jason4130 said:

you can chop your xj all you want the guy sayin all this photoshop bull shit is the only idiot here just relize that what ever you chop off will definatly weeken the whole thing because it is a unibody frame so i wouldnt to it until you know exactly what you are doing like you said

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Capt. Obvious to the rescue.

Rev

Rev Den said:

Capt. Obvious to the rescue.

Rev

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HAHA... yeah Rev didn't you know you CAN chop the top on an XJ, what were you thinking...

back to the original... before you go and chop the top completely off, you may want to build your cage so the whole thing doesn't collapse in on itself...