Monday, 27 May 2019

Pavement Ends Sprint Top

I picked up a Pavements Ends Sprint Top (PN: 56840) for an absolute steal from Amazon just before Christmas. The down side, is that it's been sitting in my garage teasing me, making me wait for soft top season. Soft top season finally arrived.

As with any fresh top, it's best to get it out and warmed up before trying to get it installed. I had some time to let it sit, since the Sprint Top requires some parts from the stock top. The key parts required are the front bow, door surrounds, and tailgate bar. 






Removing the front bow wasn't difficult. It required laying out the stock top, removing a few screws, and the rear two bows, before flipping the front bow over to access the retaining screws. The screws didn't put up too much of a fight. 



Once the bow has been removed, it's time to drill out the rivets to install the new arms. The Sprint Top includes new arms that will need to be screwed into place. 






It should be noted, that if you don't have a stock sunrider from Jeep, you're going to have to drill a couple holes in your door surrounds for some brackets. For some reason, unknown to me, the measurements are all in metric. Now, I know you're thinking, "Kev, you're from Canada, that should be normal". Well, it's not. I learned to read a tape measure the right way, and millimetre is not it. To save you some time converting, and to assure you that you really don't need to measure out 23/32", here's the conversion that works:  18.5mm -> 3/4"
9.5mm -> 3/8"
19mm -> 3/4"


Now that all the drilling and re-purposing is over, it's time to mount this top. Start by snapping the pivot arms into the door surround brackets you just installed. Flip the header down, and latch it to your windshield.
There are two straps over the centre rollbar loop, get them started, but not cinched down
Flip the rear of the top over the rear of the rollbar, noting that there is an aluminum bar acting as a rear header that will rest against the rollbar. Pull the rear straps down, and loosely attach them to the inside of the tub.
Now attach the windows, and use them as a guide to centre the top. Mine was sitting too far to the drivers side, and the passenger side window simply didn't zip up properly.
Once the fit is right, tighten down all those straps.
Follow the remaining instructions for installing the windows (similar to stock) and you're set.
The top seals really well, doesn't flap too much in the wind, and the large windows are really awesome. I'm really looking forward to getting some use out of the flip back top, mostly because my Redneck Sunrider was a pain to work with, despite being a near zero cost mod. 

Saturday, 4 May 2019

2019 To Do List


Wow, guess I'm a few months late. But let's be serious here, I live in Canada and the nice weather is only just starting. So here we go with the plans for 2019. Let's see just how far I get into this list.



  • New Pavement Ends Frameless Sprint top that has been sitting in my garage since December. 
  • Fix broken bracket on my tail pipe
    • Bracket rusted off over the winter. I "fixed it" with some bailing wire. Now it's time to fix it properly
  • Mud Flaps.
    • Going to fab something up for the rear to keep Johnny Law from getting too interested in my "Excessive Road Spray"
  • Electric Radiator Fan.
    • Been sitting in my garage for years now. Maybe I should install it. At least I wired the switch into the cab already.
  • New Fan Belt.
    • To do when I change the fan 
  • Finishing off Nate's Jeep
  • Rear Diff Service.
    • Bought some Royal Purple max gear oil to change up the rear to see if it makes a difference on the Detroit unloading. Just gotta do it.
  • Transmission Service
    • Picking up some Redline MT-90, 'cause I hear it makes the AX-5 smooth as butter.
  • Delrin Bushing for my Tire Carrier
    • I run a pipe on a bolt tire carrier (homemade) and it could use a bushing in there. Going to try and source some Delrin to use.
  • Emergency Rear Axle Retainer.
    • Got a thought on something that'll hold my axle together should I snap a shaft in the Dana 35c.
  • New Winch Cable
    • Again, pretty self explanatory.
  • Missing bolt in Winch
    • Snapped a bolt that holds the gear housing on. Has been fine for years. One of these days I'll head to Bolts+ and get a replacement.
  • Jerrycan and Mount
    • One day I'll get around to building a mount for a Jerrycan - Got a Jerry can for Christmas!
  • Hi-Lift Mount.
    • See above. One day
  • Lockable storage
    • Now that I have a kid, and need all the seats in, I need to build a new locking storage box for behind the back seat. Has to work with the CJ tailgate on the Jeep.