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Which upper doors do I need?

big daddy

big daddy

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Ooltewah
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IMG_8559.jpeg
I recently finished a rebuild. The lower half metal doors are from a YJ. If I remember correctly, my top is a bestop super top (I bought it 15 years ago).

Last week I bought bestop uppers with the glass sliders for a YJ. The posts fit the holes in the top edge of the lowers, but the top of the uppers are an inch+ away from the top of the windshield. I’ve seen many 8s and 7s with YJ lowers and uppers that fit. What works?
 
Looks beautiful! Sounds like the windshield needs to lean back farther to match the uppers. New cowl rubbers can be dense and hard to compress to allow the windshield to come back. YJ uppers will probably have the square back corners and the CJ tops should have the rounded back corners. Have you tried installing the rest of the top?
 
I'm assuming since you don't know the brand of top you may not have the measurements to adjust the windshield angle as suggested by Kim.

These are the measurements from the Bestop instructions, (however they should be the same for all brands as the windshield angle effects full hard door alignment)

Post #131

FLCJ8

Post in thread 'Never Ending Scrambler Build'

jammer1 said:
Thanks Jim, you reminded me of something I was going to ask. If anyone has their cj8 without a top on I would really love to get a measurement from the top lip of the windshield frame to the back lip of the tub. I'm going to be mounting the windshield frame and it would give me a start on where the frame should be. I reused the gasket so that should make it easier.
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This is the measurement per the installation instructions for the BestTop Supertop:

Windshield.JPG

HTH
 
Can you post a pic of the uppers installed with the gap?
 
Thanks Kim and FLCJ8. I’m traveling now, so I don’t have access to the Jeep. I’ll be back next week and have some time to play with your suggestions. I’ll take pics and report back.
 
Are you ever going to use a hard top? If so, you will need/want either YJ uppers made for the hard top, or TJ uppers that will need the rearmost pin on each upper to be cut and rewelded into place to meet the hole in the door. I happened to get steel horse uppers for a YJ with slider windows. They work great.

And you will probably need to pull the angle of the windshield back a bit as others have mentioned.

IMG_5080.jpeg
 
The Super Top install instructions say that the distance between the top lip of the windshield and the outer top edge of the tub rear should be 97 3/4". I measured both sides and got 99 1/2", so I'm 1 3/4" off which explains some or all of the misfit of the upper doors.

Is there a best way to pull the windshield back? I removed the two knob bolts and loosened the four torx screws. The windshield frame now has some flex, but it is going to need a lot of encouragement.
 

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mhinchliffe said:
That's a very sharp looking 8! Give us some more details on your build, with pictures please @big daddy
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I've been planning on doing that for a while now. I owe it to this group to share pics; I've got a lot of help from the work documented on this site. I'll do it.
 
gr8dain said:
Are you ever going to use a hard top? If so, you will need/want either YJ uppers made for the hard top, or TJ uppers that will need the rearmost pin on each upper to be cut and rewelded into place to meet the hole in the door. I happened to get steel horse uppers for a YJ with slider windows. They work great.

And you will probably need to pull the angle of the windshield back a bit as others have mentioned.

View attachment 120573
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Gr8dain, I do not have a hardtop in my plans, but that can change. I've got some TJ uppers that are in good shape. I bought them by mistake years ago. I was going to get rid of them, but I think I'll keep them in case I need to modify them for a hardtop. Thanks for the info. Your Steel Horse uppers look like they were made for the top.
 
big daddy said:
Gr8dain, I do not have a hardtop in my plans, but that can change. I've got some TJ uppers that are in good shape. I bought them by mistake years ago. I was going to get rid of them, but I think I'll keep them in case I need to modify them for a hardtop. Thanks for the info. Your Steel Horse uppers look like they were made for the top.
Click to expand...
I believe that the full soft top (Bestop) is designed for the full doors as the Scrambler was only available with full doors with the half top.
Also, it appears that the top frame around your door opening in the first pic shows the full door/hard top shape.
 
big daddy said:
The Super Top install instructions say that the distance between the top lip of the windshield and the outer top edge of the tub rear should be 97 3/4". I measured both sides and got 99 1/2", so I'm 1 3/4" off which explains some or all of the misfit of the upper doors.

Is there a best way to pull the windshield back? I removed the two knob bolts and loosened the four torx screws. The windshield frame now has some flex, but it is going to need a lot of encouragement.
Click to expand...
I think you found the issue on the door gap.
The four torx in the bracket slots are your windshield angle adjustment, the two lower knobs are for folding the windshield down.
As Kim mentioned the cowl rubber may be too dense/thick. This is a common problem with aftermarket seals, I think Raymond just went through this on his.
I'll check to see if my memory is any good. :shrug:
 
IMG_9710.jpeg

Loosen these. Lots of slot to get the proper measurement.
 
big daddy said:
I’ve ordered the seal. Already have the tape if I can find it. Thank you
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Just out of curiosity (and reference for future needs by others), do you know the brand/supplier of the existing one?
 
FLCJ8 said:
Just out of curiosity (and reference for future needs by others), do you know the brand/supplier of the existing one?
Click to expand...
The one installed on my Jeep now, I bought from George Yezman. George had some items that were not easy to get, and the parts that I got from him were good quality. He was on eBay a year or two ago using ID cjlaredo (aka J and G Classics).
 
big daddy said:
The one installed on my Jeep now, I bought from George Yezman. George had some items that were not easy to get, and the parts that I got from him were good quality. He was on eBay a year or two ago using ID cjlaredo (aka J and G Classics).
Click to expand...
Thanks.
Yeah he's been a resource for a lot of good parts. Hopefully the new seal works out better.

Sorry to mix posts... just went over your build post and kept saying to myself "yeah that's what I would want"
(I'd love to hear about the Novak kit as well on the other post)
 
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