Soft top Whitco on hardware bestop (CJ-7)

[Master7]

Good morning to everybody.

I wanted to ask if someone knows if a soft top WHITCO on Hardware Bestop can be installed modifying it removing the snap buttons.
I would want to put a soft top supertop Nutmeg Bestop it is almost impossible to find because not more in production, while whitco is more easy.

If there pits someone that would to sell a soft top Nutmeg bestop also contacts also me to my mail. (master22@alice.it)

Antonio Bianchini Lucca Italy








Thank for your time and thanks for the suggestions.

 

[wm69]

Antonio, anything in nutmeg is going to be hard to find, since everyone quit producing nutmeg years ago.

So you have a Whitco soft top and want to switch to a Bestop? You want a replace a top (snaps) or the Supertop that uses channels?

Whitco is the original maker of Jeep tops. For originality, they are they only way to go. The Supertop is a lot easier to put up/down, and doesn't have snaps.

 

[Petescj]

In a nutshell I believe hes asking what modification it takes to get a Whitco soft top to fit a Bestop brand frame. I wouldnt know since I never had a Whitco

 

[Master7]

Hi!

They are to knowledge that the supertop Bestop Nutmeg not been produced for years anymore, and it is a lot difficult to find, the discourse always changes for the Whitco of color Nutmeg, that is paradoxically easier to be found, and in fact here in Italy I would have found of it well 2.

On my CJ now 7 have a Supertop Bestop Black colour with complete door, and since my insides are OEM Nutmeg (Laredo.) with bikini Nutmeg and covering roll bar Nutmeg I wanted to put also the soft top of the same color.

The problem is that the model Bestop is difficult to be found and therefore I wanted to know if with some change the Whitco could be adapted removing the buttons.

Speaking of this if there pits someone of you that it has a Bestop Nutmeg and he wanted to sell it I am available to the purchase, and to sell mine.

Anyway 1000 thanks for your attenction.

Antonio.

 

[wm69]

I've had the Whitco top, and currently have a Supertop. The mounting system is completely different, both bows and rails (vs snaps).

In short, you would basically have to cut up the whitco top and resew it into a new top to use it with Supertop hardware.

Your best bet would probably be to look for Whitco top hardware to use with the OEM Jeep/ Whitco top, or try to find a Nutmeg skin for your Supertop hardware.

 

[cdubz]

Not to hi-jack,I'm facing a softop issue.I have a '66 CJ5 with a bestop that came with it when I bought it.However it came with none of the bows or framing for the doors,all the snaps are on the tub.As of yet I haven't been able to locate any one selling these.Any help please,I figure if I start asking now I'll get it together by Winter in NY.Thanks,Chris

 

[Torxhead]

Contact the manufacturer, or try a Jeep junkyard.

 

[Master7]

I know very well that a whitco doesn't go on a hardware Bestop, I was only asking if there had been someone who a kind of change had done for adapting the Whitco on a hardware Bestop.
The Skin Nutmeg of Bestop Supertop is very hard to find it, because is out produce from many years, more easy find it OEM Whitco also here in Italy.

Master7

 

[wm69]

I know very well that a whitco doesn't go on a hardware Bestop, I was only asking if there had been someone who a kind of change had done for adapting the Whitco on a hardware Bestop.
The Skin Nutmeg of Bestop Supertop is very hard to find it, because is out produce from many years, more easy find it OEM Whitco also here in Italy.

Master7

Being in Europe, I can see where your request is coming from.

There isn't any practical way to change a Whitco top to a Supertop frame. It CAN be done, but would require cutting up a Whitco top and resewing it all together, and then you might not have enough fabric for it to work.

The area where the bows go in a Supertop are a lot different that where the OEM whitco bows meet the top (the Supertop has a pocket where the bow seats in the back, the Whitco does not).

The snaps could possibly be removed and a strip sewn in the bottom of the Whitco top to use with the rail mounting system of the Supertop, but I would be surprised if there was enough fabric left to double it around something that would slide up under the Bestop's rail.

Doubtful anyone has done it. Let us know what you end up doing.

 

[Master7]

Thanks for your answer.

I understand that it is very difficult, in fact what you have described is what I would have thought about doing.
Having a complete black supertop I had thought about making to serve a copy as the upholsterer having the two to comparison, but perhaps the fabric is not sufficente.
Perhaps it is more difficulty to do it, that to find one uses Bestop of it nutmeg.

Are you in Europe of where?

Master7

 

[wm69]

I'm in the US, Arkansas to be exact, but I've seen some beautifullly restored AMC era Jeeps on other forums that were in Belgium and France.

Nutmeg brings a premium here in the states now that no one makes it anymore. Perhaps if you could find a Whitco top and have the upholsterer measure the fabric vs the Supertop they could tell you whether or not they could do it? The trick would be borrowing a Whitco soft top. Those aren't easy to find anymore even here in the states where they were once common.

 

[Master7]

At the end then it is what I thought about doing, to take a Whitco and to bring it to the upholsterer together with my black Bestop, and to make to do to him the job or better making me say if it is possible to do
it..
Thanks however for the suggestions.

Anthony.

Master7