The Roll Cage...
Safety First! The roll cage is made up from combining the factory rear hoop with a Smitty Built front hoop (2" 120.thick) including four spreaders. We modified the front hoop by shortening it an inch or so, I didn't really care for the way the bar went over the top of the windshield frame. We also cut back the four spreaders so the front hoop would sit closer in towards the rear factory roll bar. This also allowed me to keep the grab bar on the dash, but I did lose access to the glove box as with most Jeep cages that I've seen. The front crossbar (dashboard), lower entry bars and rear cage were bent out in my garage using 2" DOM tubing 120. thick and a Model 3 tube bender supplied from JD Squared. On the rear crossbar I made sure to leave enough room to allow my Tuffy box to still open and close and for the upper grab bars I went with 1" tube 95. thick. For the CB bracket I found some 1/16" sheet metal and we welded it in between the two center spreaders, surprisingly it worked out pretty nice.
If you plan on adding a full cage to your Jeep and you want to keep your convertible top, you are going to have to make some very simple changes to your convertible top frame. These modifications are super easy to do but make your top a little more difficult to put up and down. If you notice with a rear cage in place you will not be able to put the top frame up and down because the rear hoop is in the way. The first thing I did was drill out the pins (one on each side) that anchor the convertible top center support bar to the body. Then take those pins up to your local speed shop or hardware store and match up some quick disconnect pins like you would find in sway bar disconnects or hood hold downs. I found mine at Lowes Hardware, they've got a great selection of these pins not to mention drawers of grade 8 hardware! Anyway, now that you've got your pins just stick'em into those little holes you drilled out earlier. Now when you put the top up and down, all you have to do is pull the pins and lift the center support bar up over the rear cage. See, that wasn't so bad was it?
