Over the years I’ve gotten a lot of calls from CJ5 owners. They all ask the same question, do we make a hardtop for their CJ5? Like all Jeep owners, CJ5 guys take a lot of pride in their Jeeps.
It was a shame that they didn’t have a hardtop available to buy. So I decided that 100% of a small market isn’t such a bad idea. So we started a side project at Rally Tops.
First we needed a CJ5 to use as a model. So I bought one. It was a 1981 with a Chevy 350 in it. Man did it haul the mail.
Next I needed to start making the plugs. That is the first step in making a mold. We need to make 5 plugs in all, to make the top and both doors. I did not want to start from scratch, it would take too much time.
So I found a old Acme top and doors in a field and brought it to the shop. We squared it up and changed it around. We made it compatible with the soft lower half doors. We took out the bottom glass in the doors and added a map pocket. We adapted the front lip to use our latching system.
This took about 3 months of work. So now we used the plugs to make the molds, 5 in all.
» Learn more about our CJ5 hard tops
