I borrowed my buddies laser level tonight and used it to layout a line across one of my tops where I'm going to cut it down.

I want to slice through the top at an angle but I want the cut to maintain a single plane. The laser really helped layout the line around the compound curves keeping it in the plane.


It was especially helpful in maintaining the planar line through the grooves in top.


Now I need to brace it up so it doesn't try to fold when I cut through the side window openings, and bust out the sawsall, air shears and nibbler and get to cuttin'....

Why are you cutting it down?

Why are you cutting it down?
After I tacked the cage together inside the top, I took the top off to weld the cage up. I decided I liked the look of the truck more without the top than with it. However, we do get enough inclimate weather here for me to want to keep the cab covered. So, I took the 'good' top to storage and retrieved my other top to chop up. If I don't like my chopped top and/or the winter months proved too cold for it, I still have the option of putting the other top back on. With the trails around here, I don't expect the 'good' top to be all that good after a couple runs.

Oh yeah, that and just running the original top would be too easy.....(and my sawzall is lonely and needs some lovin') :flipoff2:

Here's a pic of Makkat's chopped top on Eyore (RIP).

http://www.rmihr.org/2000/54.jpg

Mark said he cut it where he did because there was a stiffening rib he wanted to keep.

The top came just past the back of the rear seat.

Michelle and I took a ride into Breckenridge when it was raining, and we were quite comfortable. We did get the occasional splash from the rain hitting the wood "tonneau cover" and bouncing inside, but it wasn't bad at all.

Cool.... thanks for the pic. Actually, I was considering cutting it off square like that but just didn't like the way I thought it was going to look. That pic give me a better idea than my mind's eye pic and confirms that I'm not too found of those lines. Personally, I like the sloped line better. I do not have a back seat anymore and that area would either carry "stuff" or my dog if he happens to be with me. I will loose that stiffening rib, but I plan on putting a lip about 1 to 2 inches wide around the perimeter of the cut... that should work just as well if not better than the stock stiffening rib.

Cool.... thanks for the pic. Actually, I was considering cutting it off square like that but just didn't like the way I thought it was going to look. That pic give me a better idea than my mind's eye pic and confirms that I'm not too found of those lines. Personally, I like the sloped line better. I do not have a back seat anymore and that area would either carry "stuff" or my dog if he happens to be with me. I will loose that stiffening rib, but I plan on putting a lip about 1 to 2 inches wide around the perimeter of the cut... that should work just as well if not better than the stock stiffening rib.

Mark's actually has a "reverse slope".. the top extends farther to the rear than the bottom of the hardtop.

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Hmm.. I thought I had some pics, but I guess not.. there was a guy that came to RMIHR in '98 that had made a "slope-back/fast-back" top from a steel top. I think it had a little more rake than a Terra top. Imagine a Scout cab-top with "Razor backs" like all the poser Chevy/Ford pickups sport.

He had a custom tonneau made that snapped to the rear "wings" of the top, and covered the cargo area. Pretty slick looking Scout. He won the winch that year, and had it installed by Nationals (I have a pic of the winch at Nats.. :rolleyes: )

I've been thinking of a couple of things like that for my Traveler.

1)Cutting the middle out of the stock Traveler top and sticking it back together so the rear ends just behind the back seat. This would enclose the passenger area but leave a small "bed" for stuff or batteries and a fuel cell if I ever go that way.

2)Doing the same thing but with a steel top from a 100" wb Scout, kind of like Mechanos is doing. I'm thinking of doing it this way because I already have a spare steel top and don't know anything about how to put the fibreglass top back together.

I've got to take some pics and photochop it both ways.

I've been thinking of a couple of things like that for my Traveler.

1)Cutting the middle out of the stock Traveler top and sticking it back together so the rear ends just behind the back seat. This would enclose the passenger area but leave a small "bed" for stuff or batteries and a fuel cell if I ever go that way.

2)Doing the same thing but with a steel top from a 100" wb Scout, kind of like Mechanos is doing. I'm thinking of doing it this way because I already have a spare steel top and don't know anything about how to put the fibreglass top back together.

I've got to take some pics and photochop it both ways.
That was originally what I was planning on doing.... sectioning the top and just shortening it up. There is a problem with this though.... after a certain point, the width of the steel top at the drip rail narrows. If you simply cut out the middle of the top and try to reattach them, the cross section of the front part will be wider than the cross section of the rear part.

What I'm planning now is to cut the back part off and trash it..... then custom finish the cut edge of the front portion.

Good to see your back on the rig :beer: now to muck things up, how about slicing it to look like a Shawnee, maybe not to carry it all the way back, but shorten up the rear leg?

Good to see your back on the rig :beer: now to muck things up, how about slicing it to look like a Shawnee, maybe not to carry it all the way back, but shorten up the rear leg?
Don't really know what the Shawnee looks like, exactly. Anyway.......chop!


I made a rough cut a little behind the final cut line just get the thing cut in half. Then I turned it around and moved it to the arse end of my trailer so I can work on the edge without having to lean over the side of the trailer and climb around on the damn trailer. It's now poised for the final cut.....

I have thought about adding a piece in the middle of a steel top to make it longer so it would fit my traveler. That way I could get rid of the big lift gate with the gas struts and have a tailgate. I hate not haveing a tailgate. Has anybody seen anything like this? making it shorter and having a little pickup box in the back is kind of an interesting idea aswell.

I have thought about adding a piece in the middle of a steel top to make it longer so it would fit my traveler. That way I could get rid of the big lift gate with the gas struts and have a tailgate. I hate not haveing a tailgate. Has anybody seen anything like this? making it shorter and having a little pickup box in the back is kind of an interesting idea aswell.

A lot of people have "split" the travler lift-gate. Cut it at the part line and put on a SII tail-gate. Looks good, works good. Only down side is that you have to make up some sort of latching mechanism, but that can be over come.



Search on the BB to see examples.... If I ever do a Travler top on a SII, I plan on doing the same thing.

What are you going to do where the glass was? Sheetmetal it in?

I think you will like that a lot more than a full top 80% of the time here. Let's go wheelin!!!!!

What are you going to do where the glass was? Sheetmetal it in?

I think you will like that a lot more than a full top 80% of the time here. Let's go wheelin!!!!!
Not sure yet..... either sheetmetal (but I think that will make too much of a blind spot) or silicone in some Lexan. When it gets too scratched up, I can just stick in a new one.

Here is a cool one.
http://www.binderbulletin.org/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2746&password=&sort=1&cat=fav&page=1

That is sweet!

Here is a cool one.
http://www.binderbulletin.org/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2746&password=&sort=1&cat=fav&page=1
I have a feeling mine isn't going to look quite that "finished". I have to lose the lift gate anyway because my cage comes through to the tailgate. I don't think the stock opening for the liftgate would fit around my cage bars, but it might have. Kind of too late now..... I chopped the piss out of what was left of the back half of the top to harvest some 'bone graft' donor pieces off of it to use on the front half. I set the top on the Scout tonight to get an idea of how much space there is between the top and cage tubes.



The blue square tubes are just temporary bracing to keep the window opening from sagging until I cap the rear of the opening. Actually, there is more room between the cage and the top than I thought there was going to be.