Looking for a damaged or unusable canvas cab top

[Kaiserjeeps]

Something is wrong Bill. It looks very loose. I had to pull like heck to make the snaps on mine. The middle bow was a bear to pull snaps down around. The side panels required a serious pull down and around the bow side to make the lowest snap. That made it cover the top cab edge.
It looks like a loose fold above the drivers side between bows. When on my truck it was tight as could be.
The side panels came all the way down on my cab side. It looks to high and not laying right in the picture. When the metal buckles were tight as heck, I still had 1/2 inch of strap I could still pull above the footman loop.

You could bounce a quarter off the top when on my truck. I absolutely hope my truck top parts are not modified by a previous owner or just plain wrong.
It would not surprise me. Dang me.

The one thing you should do is run your fingers across the top of the windshield frame to get the flap to lay back towards the middle bow. I can see it is not all laying back evenly. Same with the back flap. Flip it forward over the bow towards the middle bow.

Is it loose at all? It really looks like it.. Can the side panels be pulled down to cover the cab side? Would you please tell me what is not right. Every single thing!
It looks WAY different from being on my truck. I am not happy with that fit at all. No more tops are getting made till I know this top is perfect. Bill, if we need to make it over I will. Please send me a PM and I want to know why it is laying different.

EDIT:

This is how low the side panels were on my truck. Note the door frame bottom edge with the snap around the corner.




EDIT #2: I am recalling the used canvas top you sent appeared shrunk and it would not fit. My first pictures of that were wrong and later I found it appeared to be shrunk only by 2 plus inches and not 5 in the pictures. This is a clue that maybe my truck is wrong. There has to be an explanation for the difference.

[teking]

If anyone has a set of bows pls let me know! Thx

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[eightydeuce]

Well you are certainly correct. After getting a bunch of measurements from KaiserJeeps. I quickly realized that my bows have been chopped. I used some hose clamps around the posts (this is temporary of course) lifted the bows and VOILA!!!much much better.






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kaiserjeeps]

Well no wonder. Thanks for the calls today. This is a huge relief. I believe you have prototyped the very first adjustable top. Simply adjust for winter shrinkage and summer expansion. Never a flap in the wind.

Now the side panels should cover the top of the cab tub. As you mentioned, they were high. Get everything to the right height, then give the sides a tug down and snap it. If it rides up and just is not right, I will make the next side panels even lower. I know a guy with a sewing machine.

[eightydeuce]

So after taking some actual measurements of my bows, the back bow was chopped about .875" and the front one was shortened by about 1.25. My bows are now en route west to a master metal worker who is pretty good with a sewing machine too.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Heh heh heh... I know that guy.... So for the last several days I have gone out to the small second shop where I sew. It is a carport bay closed in and insulated. Small but very functional. So I have had a medium sized wood pecker in there for several days in a row. I open the man door and there are parts all over the floor. Bird poop too. Little bugger. He freaks out, knocks more parts of shelves as he flies back and forth, and I have to open the big garage door till he flies out. This also lets in the coldest air ever. I finally figured out that hip hop music blaring super loud 24 hours a day keeps him out. The problem is it keeps me out also.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Well 5 days into Eightydueces modified bow softtop I made a flaw in the upper door frame corner. An hour or two from being done, I just can't overlook it. It can easily be hidden with a OEM style gutter sewn on. So using Beasts truck as a model I will do so. At least to save all that work. Beasts truck gutter is a decent rise to the front. Some climb to the moon and look funny. Today after messing with cleaning the shop, fitting a couple fuel tanks and not being able to stay away from the problem, I made a pretty decent gutter sample. I am not sure if I am cutting my bows down too, or if Bill is going to get two tops being that they only fit his truck. One for a rainy day and one for date night.

So there are many improvements in this third top. I again redid my patterns. Using the old ones and measuring a hundred times on the truck, I now have a seam that follows the bow the same way from door to door. There are no buckles inside for the footman loops. Eightyduece is using marine style turn buckle fasteners screwed to the back of the cab tub. When he installs the grommets after pulling the top in place, the wrinkles will go away and it will be way tighter. But you can still bounce a Zone quarter off it.
I am still looking for it.

Short bows. It looks almost hard topish. Sleek. Ready for speed or even a low bridge. Something like that...



Learning all the time. Kindly note the proper use of the zone quarter for size reference.




Tight as a trampoline. Notice my quarter is missing. I hope I find it before I get after Toms top. Sheesh...



After a couple attempts at a gutter... This looks pretty good.




All I can say is my hands are sore. I would never want to thumb wrestle an upholsterer who actually knows what he is doing. I would end up with two pinkies... I have a whole new respect for dudes that can run a sewing machine.

Even with the mistakes, this project has been and is awesome! Grateful for it all.

[jhartings]

Dude... that looks fantastic! Good work Sir.

[teking]

Got it. And no problem. THX!

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

[eightydeuce]

Just to put a period on the end of this thread. I received to two tops that were made using the chopped bows. First and foremost I want to thank KaiserJeeps for all the hard work and effort he put into this project and in the end I couldn't be more pleased with the end result. Thank you again. AL, I was able to get the top on that you said might be too tight, but may have slightly mis-located a turnbutton or two but thats the best I could do flying solo. Like you told me, it was very difficult to yank down and mark the locations. Oh, and thanks for letting me use your tools, I'll get those to Fed-Ex this week for sure. Both tops look awesome and I have already gotten several comments on how good it looks and what a nice job you did.