I would hit up the local marinas or boat refurbishers for fiberglass advice. You could build your mold or shell and have them coat it in chipped glass. Chipped is considerably stronger than mat and will fill all the nooks and crevices. They can also gel coat the outside so you'll have a slick outer surface.

 

I understand why you want to build a fiberglass one, but I would think you could build a REAL nice one out of aluminum too.....well I guess if you have access to an aluminum welder like I do......in fact I just may have to do this one of these days.

Good Luck with yours...!!!...

 

i'm saying good luck man! im sure you will do it and i cant wait to see it!

 

Never thought of that but man, that would get really pricey really fast wouldnt it?

 

I'm sure building one the way you want to would be far cheaper. But when you compare the price of buying a new one, I doubt building an aluminum one would be half that much. Plus, I think if a guy could come up with a neat design, it could end up being pretty cool......

A guy I work with just built an aluminum trailer for a 24 foot inflatable. I'll have to ask him about it. He's also a CJ man and really likes my JK.

 

Yeah if you wouldnt mind, ask him about how much that thing cost him total, I dont really know the exact price of aluminum, looks like I'll have to start researching that, I always thought it was a lot

 

Yes.....used to be aluminum was way up there, but with how much steel has gone up it's now getting pretty comparable. That's actually why I finally decided on building an aluminum bumper instead.

I did ask him yesterday and he said he had about $1k into his trailer....with the axle. So I asked how much just in aluminum.....which is mostly 3-4" channel, (and a lot of it) and he said about $700. I told him what we were talking about here and he said that he thought we could build a hardtop for around a grand. Judging from how much material he has in that God awe-full long trailer of his, I would have to say less. And remember also that these are Alaska prices which are usually higher on everything....

 

hmm, thats less than I thought it would be, more than I'd like, but much less than I thought aluminum would be. I just want to keep the cost down as much as possible, once I get around the $1000 mark Id rather save myself the work and risk of messing up and buy one pre-done.

On another note, looking at the actual wild boar hardtop I realized that the back glass was NOT bent with the curve, the merely use the glass on an angle and then the hardtop has a stip of material below it for the remainder few inches which solves my problem there.

Again to everyone brainstorming this with me, THANK YOU, it is helping quite a bit, it's seeming very plausible right now

 

Well.....like I said, I really don't think it would cost a grand to build one out of aluminum. I mean.....there's really not much to them. I guess it would just depend on how fancy a guy would want to build it.

Good Luck....

 

I know I am repeating myself with the boat builder things, but they build alot of boats out of sheet aluminum too. I would think with a cheap metal brake, a roller of some sort and a decent TIG you could turn out a top for alot less than 1000 bucks. You could get a local shop to order you a 5x10 sheet of 1/8 inch sheet and cut it out of one sheet if you lay out your templates carefully. The 1/8 thickness would let you use the old school glass bead rubbers too, which are available in rolls for cut to length applications. Another thought would be diamond tread/plate, how bad a$$ would that be?