World Cab/Postal top removal steps w/pics

[bigwalton]

(6/13/19 - Updated the thread to clean it up and add larger pictures. Sorry for the pic quality, these were from 2003 and downsized for the web, I appear to have lost the originals, they still sucked)

I had this on my website from long ago but lost the space it was housed on. Been needing to put it up here for a long time. This is removal because that's what I photographed, installation is just the reverse, I'm sure you smart folks can figure it out with little trouble. Obviously this is my Postal, so it has the headliner over the front seats only, no rear headliner like in the Overlanders.

Headliner removal
Remove all screws holding on the rear headliner bracket above the rollbar.


Remove the two screws holding the dome light on. Do not try to pull it out.


Push up on the sides of the headliner above the doors on both sides. The headliner should move up enough for you to pull the flaps out from behind the black side headliner brackets. (From here on out, I show just one side of the top, all these steps have to be done on each side)



Pull the headliner down in the back enough to be able to reach in to the dome light connectors to remove the light. Now you can remove the headliner carefully.


Doorframe upper trim
The next three pictures are of the screws that hold the piece that forms the top of the doorframe. These are the silver screws in the pictures. The smaller black head screws hold the side headliner brackets, they're the pieces covered in black vinyl.



(In this photo you can see the wiring for the dome lights that comes out of the side panel behind the headliner. It's threaded through the side panel coming out here and going in at the bottom. I cut the wires at the tub/top junction and added spade connectors because I didn't want to remove the wires from the tub (there's no connectors at the tub from the factory and I just wanted to be able to plug-n-play the wires when reinstalling the top)



Here's a complete shot of the left side headliner bracket and door frame upper trim. Remove all three of the silver screws and remove this piece on both sides. IIRC I didn't actually need to remove the front two screws for the side headliner brackets to remove the doorframe upper but the rear one ended up being screwed into the top and had to be removed.


Windshield frame attachment
The upper doorframe hides one the screw in the upper corner of the windshield frame that secures the outer corner of the top and must be removed. (You can see in this photo that there's a mounting "plate" for the side door upper trim panel that I left attached to the bottom side of the roof. The screw at the top of the photo is for that channel. The outside edge of the upper door trim slides into the channel you can see to the left edge of the mounting plate, to the left of the screw in the windshield frame. I've added an end-on photo of the two connected later in the thread.)



This is the center of the three larger Torx screws that go up through the bottom side of the top edge of the windshield frame (I'm laying down in the front seat taking the picture pointing straight up). There are through-holes in the bottom edge of the frame here to allow these screws to get up into the frame and then they go through smaller holes into the top itself to cinch it down. These were VERY tough to get out the first time. DO NOT STRIP THEM!!! They will be VERY hard to remove. I used the proper Torx bit, extension and a 3/8" ratchet and was very gentle in removing these. There are three in total, one on each side and this one in the middle. (This is a replacement windshield frame I had to install, hence the square hole I had to make.)

 

[bigwalton]

Windshield Gasket
This is the rubber windshield gasket that goes between the windshield frame and the top. It is molded to fit over the “lip” on the top of the frame where the two parts of the frame are welded together. I used to use some silicone on this initially when reassembling mine to keep it tight, but I have now switched over to the non-hardening rope caulk because it's easier to deal with when removing the top.

Note the "notch" cut in the flange of the windshield frame in the lower right of this photo. In order for the roof panel to sit flush on the windshield, you have to take off the flange in the corners. I replaced the windshield frame and had to cut this notch. I took my time and cut a little at a time and test fitted to ensure that I didn’t end up cutting too much. If you cut too much, you could end up opening the inside of your frame up to the elements. I put some rope caulk on the seam edge just in case.


Tub bolts
These are the bolts you have to dig through the sprayed-in insulation to get to if the top hasn't been removed (talk about one seriously useless and boring photo but I put it here when I posted this and I'll leave it for the amusement factor.) They use rectangular nuts that get caught nicely in the underside of the lip of the tub to secure them, except for the first and last on either side, which used captured nuts inside the tub. (2019 update - all of the captured nuts have come out of mine at this point and I added hole near the front of each side of the tub to use another normal bolt/T-nut)


This is the gasket that runs along the tub, again I siliconed this when reinstalling (2019 update - I don't bother with any sealant on this anymore and it's never leaked)


Here's a (yet another horrible) photo showing two washers that were used on the last two holes on each side of the tub when I took off my top the first time. I'm guessing this was tweaking the alignment of the rear door opening. I have gone with and without these on mine, ultimately, the top has never gone back together 100% perfectly due to rust and such and the play in the fitment basically negates anything these would have done. If I reworked the top or you were dealing with one in great condition, these may be useful.

 

[bobbysjeep]

Good archive stuff.

 

[MarknessMonster]

...There are through-holes in the bottom edge of the (windshield) frame here to allow these screws to get up into the frame and then they go through smaller holes into the top itself to cinch it down. ...There are three in total, one on each side and this one in the middle.
View attachment 28795

If I am viewing the photo correctly, it's difficult to understand why the factory didn't cut the square "access" holes in the windshield more professionally. A round hole-saw would have made a cleaner cut at the photographed location. I wonder if these tops were installed by the Alaskan postal service, and not AMC, and if they all have square-type access holes as pictured.

 

[bigwalton]

If I am viewing the photo correctly, it's difficult to understand why the factory didn't cut the square "access" holes in the windshield more professionally. A round hole-saw would have made a cleaner cut at the photographed location. I wonder if these tops were installed by the Alaskan postal service, and not AMC, and if they all have square-type access holes as pictured.

No. As I mentioned, it's a replacement windshield frame and I cut that hole with a Dremel. IIRC, I cut a round hole but didn't clear enough and I had to widen it out. Very difficult hole to try to locate blind when working by myself. At the time I didn't have a die grinder and it was easier to use a cut off wheel to make it square. I was disappointed at the quality of the frame I ended up with and I was just spray bombing it anyway, so I wasn't worried about the holes. You don't see them in use unless you're down in the footwell looking up or have the windshield folded down anyway.

 

[AK-RWC]

(bigwalton note: I didn't even realize that this was't my post when I went through to edit this, my apologies to @AK-RWC! It looked just like my top obviously, so I rolled on with the edits)

Separating the sides/roof
To get the side panels apart from the roof panel, you have to dig the foam out along the seams to access the sheet metal screws going through the upper flange of the side panels up into the roof panel. This is the upper rear corner. You can see the rust that had started around these screws. I broke more than a couple of them trying to get them out and the entire flange had rust going between the panels.

This shot is down the right side of the Jeep, again you can see the rust on the screw heads.

Finally, there's a screw between the rear door upper trim and the roof panel on either end. You can remove the top by just pulling these screws or you can remove the rear door upper trim piece completely by finding the third screw in the middle and removing it. I would recommend removing it as this trim panel becomes the lowest thing on the underside of the roof and it could easily be damaged when moving/storing the roof panel.

When the roof panel is separated from the sides, you find the rubber gasket that goes between them. I don't have a photo of it separated from the roof panel because I leave this gasket connected to the roof by the mounting plate for the rear door upper trim (you can see it still attached in the bottom center of this photo. It's similar to the mounting plates for the side door upper trim panels where the trim piece slides into a slot along the outer edge of the mounting plate.

Getting this gasket realigned properly when reinstalling the top is the biggest PITA of the whole process. unlike the tub gasket, which sits flat on the top of the tub, this sits slightly angled on the top of the side panel and wants to slide off easily. It also goes down over the "drop" in the roof/sides, further complicating the install.

The top of the side panels on mine are rusted pretty well, so I haven't tried any kind of adhesive/sealant to hold this on and just fight it each time. I once tried some small strips of duct tape to hold it but that didn't really help much. I generally end up having to go around and very lightly lift on the roof while pushing this gasket back up into the gap. The trick is not to push up so much that it slips out elsewhere.

In this photo, you can see that the bulb on the outside edge of the gasket is just outboard of the mounting plate, that's the way it is situated everywhere.


Another shot of this gasket, it has a small bulb on one side and I think it's the same as the tub/side gasket.

This is the rear door upper trim panel profile when removed.

 

[bigwalton]

Gasket detail shots

Adding some more photos, these show the tub gasket and the windshield gasket.

 

[bigwalton]

Side door upper trim details

These are the pieces that make up the upper door jambs. There's a "mounting plate" that screws to the underside of the roof, the "upper door trim" panels that go into a slot in the outer edge of the mounting plate and then screw to the inside of the roof panel, and then the headliner retention bracket that screws to the inside of the trim plate. For the headliner bracket, the rearmost screw went through the trim panel and into the actual roof panel, so I had to remove those rear screws to get the trim panel off, but you don't have to remove the other two screws.

This is the right side set, the mounting plate on the left, upper door trim in the middle and the headliner bracket on the right.



This is the front end of the upper door trim mounting plate showing the hole that's used to attach this to the windshield frame and that has to be removed before you can remove the top from the Jeep. You can see the slot on the left which is where the upper door trim piece slides in.


Profile of the upper door trim panel. My thumb is where the door seal would sit when closed.


This is the headliner retention bracket profile.


Here's all three put together the way that they fit on the Jeep with a marked up photo to explain.


This is basically looking from the front of the Jeep to the rear, looking down the left side of the Jeep as you're looking at it (in the US, this would be the passenger side, for my Postal, it's the driver side)

 

[bigwalton]

Rear door hinges/bolts

I neglected to include anything on the rear door removal. It's pretty straightforward outside of the fact that the bolts are Torx and can be a massive PITA. I stripped one of the six out and had to drill it. Fortunately, once the hinge was off, enough PB Blaster and heat was able to get it out with channel locks.

On my Postal, both bolting plates (one in the top and one in the body) are captured. I anti-seize the crap out of the new bolts I use (allen head countersunk) and I replace a couple bolts in the tub plate when I remove the top because I cut my PSC armor to allow the hinge to sit flat on the tub and I use the cut out piece of the armor as a filler plate when the top is off.

This is another crap photo, but you can see the top rear door hinge still attached to the top (the door side of the hinge is pointed directly at me, it kind of looks like it is missing with the way it's sitting) with the one stripped bolt and the bottom hinge was removed with the door.

There's another World Cab specific trim piece that you can barely see here (I'll get a better pic) of a small sheet metal channel that's screwed to the floor of the tailgate opening to create a short jamb for the bottom seal of the rear door to seal against.


NOTE: These hinges are basically unobtanium (AFAIK no source has ever been found) and if the top hasn't been used in a long time, they're likely to be VERY stiff if not completely locked up. The hinge pin in them is MASSIVE. When I bought this, the rear door only opened a small amount, just enough to squeeze my body through. I started soaking both hinges in PB Blaster the first day I bought the Jeep and slowly started working the hinges back and forth when I was back there doing something. It got to where I could open it enough to be usable pretty quickly but it took a long time before it got to opening fully and smoothly.

Reasonable photo of the rear door with the hinges and my new bolts I use. You can see the cut out in the armor and the holes I had to drill and cut access to for mounting the tailgate


A hinge photo I recently took. I always unbolt the door with the hinges attached to it. I've searched on the cast-in numbers you see on the right and never found anything.

 

[bigwalton]

Just found this, to show how long it's been since I got the Jeep and took the top off, this was the first time I took the top off for storage for the summer in NC. My wife with our nephew "helping", he just graduated high school a couple weeks ago

Yeehaa, then this one... looked so clean with spray bomb on the rust and no armor

 

[bigwalton]

Cargo light switch and rear door limiting strap/footman.

Photo with a couple other postal parts, this shows the cargo lamp switch installed in the tailgate support and it also shows the footman loop installed on the inside of the tailgate opening on the tub with the strap to limit the rear door.

The switch controls the rear dome light in the top (the only switch for it) and the wiring runs up to just behind the left side (my passenger) door, where it goes up into the top (as seen in the photos above). I have added LED strip lights for interior lighting to my full cage and reused this switch to control them. I don't hook up the World Cab dome lights anymore. The switch is a Grand Waggy part and it's grounded right at the mounting plate for the switch with the other side running forward.

The footman loop has a reinforcing plate behind it you can see and I quit using it almost immediately because the footman loop on the rear door was bending the sheet metal on the door pretty severely. Originally, the rust in the hinge limited the door swing sufficiently, now it's nice and free but the door is so heavy that I haven't seen any need for a limit strap.

You can also see the very end of the lower door jamb trim plate here. I've never tried to remove it because it's so short, it's really not in the way at all.

 

[walkerhoundvm]

I stripped one of the six out

Every. Single. Time. This must be a law of Jeep ownership or something.

 

[bigwalton]

Every. Single. Time. This must be a law of Jeep ownership or something.

You know it! I'm just glad I didn't strip any of the three up through the top of the windshield frame the first time I separated the top. That was to install a new windshield frame and windshield and I didn't fully remove the top from the Jeep, I just pulled it up enough to get the frame out/in. It would have been a massive PITA to deal with those if I had.

 

[bigwalton]

For completeness, some diagrams from the Jeep Parts book on the World Cab thanks to @CJ7Pilot

Here's another good thread with some detailed pictures of World Cabs: https://www.cj-8.com/threads/world-cab-parts.49868/

 

[ag4ever]

Cargo light switch and rear door limiting strap/footman.

The footman loop has a reinforcing plate behind it you can see and I quit using it almost immediately because the footman loop on the rear door was bending the sheet metal on the door pretty severely. Originally, the rust in the hinge limited the door swing sufficiently, now it's nice and free but the door is so heavy that I haven't seen any need for a limit strap.

On the Overlanders the factory used both the footman loop inside and a "Beer Holder" plate behind one tail light on the outside.

You can see it in DeLuke's photo above. (You can also see why I call it the beer holder plate. Perfect place to rest your beer while fiddling with something.) The portion that extends out over the taillight prevents the tire from crushing the taillight. Also note the opposite swing of the door from the postal above. (Postals were intended to be driven on the right side of the street hence the door opening from right to left, the Overlander was intended to have the curb on the left side, hence the opposite door swing.)

 

[bigwalton]

You should do an Overlander equipment thread and I’ll do a Postal equipment thread to get these small details recorded.