Video Review & Installation

The Bestop Replace-A-Top in matte black twill is for those of you that have a 2010 to 2018 two-door JK that are looking for an incredibly high-quality soft top to replace your existing soft top, whether it's worn out, ripped, broken, faded, whatever reason you may need to replace it. This is going to be a very easy one out of three wrench installation and I'm gonna show you exactly how to get it done in just a second. So when you're talking about soft tops, you're really going to find a couple of different categories. One is going to be a replacement soft top that's going to be the soft material and the windows designed to go on a factory or factory-style frame that's in good working order. So if you already have a soft top, everything's good except for the top and the windows, this is gonna be a great choice or anything in this category. If you're coming from a hard top or you have a soft top that's missing pieces, maybe you have a broken frame, you're gonna wanna be looking for a complete replacement soft top that's gonna have the frame and the hardware as well as the soft material and it's gonna be a little bit more expensive.And then finally, there are tops that are not going to be a factory style. So they're gonna look different. They're gonna add or subtract features, whatever it might be. That is a whole other category by itself. But today, we're talking about replacement tops, specifically this one by Bestop. And I opened by saying this is incredibly high quality. Bestop is known for building a very high-quality soft top. And this one being made out of their twill material is one of the highest quality materials that you can get from any manufacturer as well. So you put those two together and you end up with something that is very, very well-built.This twill material is akin to the premium material that came out of the factory on Jeeps that had the premium soft top option. So this is going to be a very high-grade material. It's going to be a little bit thicker than some of the other vinyl that we've seen in the past, which means it's going to wear better. It's also going to be a little bit more insulated from both temperature and also from sound so it's gonna be a little bit quieter. Because it is thicker, it's not going flap as much when you are driving down the highway, so a lot of benefits to this nice, high-quality twill material. And then the windows that you're going to get, as with any Bestop, are going to be a nice thick plastic material. These ones are going to be tinted right out of the factory, which is a really nice feature that adds some functionality, also makes the vehicle look a little bit better. That's just in my opinion.So overall, you're going to end up with something that is incredibly high-quality and is going to be, for all intents and purposes, a factory working top. So this is still going to fold back down into the trunk space. All three of the windows are gonna be removable. You're still going to have your Sunrider feature up front here. So that means you end up with a top that is really better than a factory top but is still going to look and function like a factory top. Now, for all of that that we just talked about, for those features, for that quality of both build and material, you are gonna spend a little bit more for this top than you would for a lot of the other choices out there. This soft top is gonna come in right around the $1,000 mark.If you are somebody who's looking for a soft top that you're gonna run year-round, it's gonna be out in the elements, and you want something that's going to last, I don't think $1,000 is too much for this top. However, if you're somebody who's just going to run a soft top during the warm months, you're not looking for something that's gonna last quite as long, maybe you have a hard top for the harsh winters, then, yeah, you could probably get away with one of the less expensive types. But again, I think you do get a lot for your money even with this top at this higher price point. So I mentioned before, I'm gonna show you how to get this thing installed. Let's jump into the installation. So the first step in installing one of these replacement soft tops is removing the factory top from the factory frame. And we're gonna start by removing the windows.The next step is going to be to loosen up the top. So first we're gonna pop the clips across the top of the windshield frame and then disconnect it from the rear of the tub just to loosen everything up before we loosen up the screws that hold the top onto the frame. So we'll start up here with the windshield frame clips. Now that the top is all loosened up, we can go ahead and start disconnecting the soft materials from the frame itself. And we're gonna start at the back here. So there are a couple of screws along this back bar that hold the top onto the frame. We're going to remove those and then work our way to the front, removing the rest of the screws holding the top onto the frame.So, for these ones back here, we're gonna open up the tailgate, flip the seat back so we can get on the inside here and more easily access those screws. Once we have the four screws removed across the back of the frame here, we can flip the soft top material forward, that will give us access to the screws on this center bar. That bar is a little bit difficult to get to because it sits directly above the sound bar and the center hoop of the sport cage but by flipping the material forward, it gives you access to all the screw heads so we'll do that now.Now that we have access to these screws, we can remove them. So as we work our way from the back to the front, the next step is going to be taking the tension off of this cable and then removing the cable from the frame in order to allow us to unbolt the top from the header section here. So to get the tension off that cable, all we have to do is flip the Sunrider feature back just a little bit, not even fully back, just enough to release that tension and then we can unclip the spring from the soft top frame.Now that the tension is off the cable, unclip the cable from the frame. The next thing we're going to do is remove a couple of screws that are holding the top onto the bottom of the header and we can do that while the header is flipped upside down here with the frame in the Sunrider position. So, this is going to have a little bit of weatherstripping over top of it. You can strip the weatherstripping completely off. It's probably the best way to do it. What we're gonna do is just expose the screw head a little bit just enough to get our Phillips tip into those screws and remove them.The last screws that are holding the top onto the frame are going to be on the other side of the header. So what we're going to do is essentially close the Sunrider feature, we're going to invert the top material, flip it completely over the header laying it onto the hood, and that's going to expose all those screws on the top of the header. Now that we have the top flipped completely forward, you can see those screws I was talking about. These hold the two halves of the header together and the top is sandwiched between those two halves so we have to pull all of these screws out to release the top from the frame completely. With all those screws removed, we can pop off the upper half of the header and then peel the soft top itself out of the frame the rest of the way. Now that the factory top is completely removed from the frame, we can go ahead and install the Bestop top in the reverse order. So the first step is going to be throwing the top over the hood of the Jeep and getting the leading edge of the top clamped into the header. So in the leading edge of this top, there is a round piece of flexible plastic that's sewn into the top and that's going to sit right in this channel. Again, this is really the exact reverse process of removing the soft top from the frame. So there's gonna be a small notch here that Bestop has left you so that you can line that up with the small notch in the header so that you make sure you're centered left to right, because once you have everything clamped in place, you're not gonna be able to slide this around. You set this, you screw it in, and then until you really flip everything over, you don't know if you did it right. So make sure you have everything lined up properly.And there's probably going to be some tape on your header from the factory. If there is and it's very sticky, you can use that. If not, go ahead and replace it. But you are going to wanna use some pretty good adhesive tape to hold the top into place here. If you have an extra set of hands around, you may not need to do this. But certainly, if you're doing this on your own, this is the easiest way to accomplish this.So go ahead and tape the top into place here in a couple of different locations. You can't really use too much tape here. It's not tape that you're gonna have to remove. You're never gonna see any of this. So go ahead and use as much as you need to to hold the top into place. You don't want it coming out of the channel as you're attaching the header. Go ahead and make sure everything is sticking where you want it. Take as much weight off of the top as you can by positioning it on the hood in a good spot.So it looks like everything's sitting where we want it. We can take the upper half of the header and set it on the lower half here. And what we're gonna do is get a couple of screws started across the front here, enough to hold everything in place. And then we're going to half flip the top back and just make sure that it looks like everything is still where it should be. Then we'll flip it back again into this position so we can attach all the rest of the screws.So when we flip the top half up without all the screws in there, all we're really looking for is alignment. We wanna make sure that the piece of plastic, that round piece of plastic, is fully seated in the channel all the way across. And like I said, I like to do this step. It takes a minute to flip the top back to take a look at everything but it is faster than putting all those screws in on the other side then flipping the top over and realizing that everything isn't seated properly. So I always take a minute and do this step. So what we're gonna do over here in the corner is pretty much make sure that the top is sitting on the header like it should be, pull it into place there, and then make sure that that round piece of plastic is fully seated in the channel, which it is. So now that that's done, we can go ahead and flip the frame back down, invert the top over the hood again, and install the rest of the screws across the top of the header.Now that the top is flipped back over the hood, we can put the rest of the screws into the header. Now as you can see, I'm using a pretty aggressive 3/8-inch impact to put these screws in to speed things along. Of course, the safest way to do this would be with a regular screwdriver. It takes longer but you know you're not gonna strip out any of the holes. All of these screws are going into either plastic or threaded metal rods, which are pretty thin wall so it is very easy to strip those.Just a little bit of a note, if you are gonna use some sort of power tool, do be very careful. If it has a clutch on it, set it very light or like I'm doing, just be very careful not to over-drive these screws because you will strip things out. And that'll do it for this side of the header. Now we can flip the top back over the frame. Again, open the Sunrider feature and attach the couple of screws that hold the corners of the top. Those are, again, gonna go on the underside of the header and they are going to be for the tensioning mechanism, the cable tensioning mechanism as well. So we'll flip the top over and show you how to get those in.So now we're back on the underside of the header here attaching the cable for the tensioning mechanism and the rest of the top onto the header. So you're gonna have this flat metal piece with a couple of holes in it, that's gonna line up with the two holes in the bottom of the header. Again, this is the exact inverse of what we did to remove the factory top from the frame. And then you're going to have this other tab. It does have some plastic reinforcement on it. This Bestop is really nice because they include a couple of slots in the material here to pass the screw through. Some of the less expensive, less premium brands, they don't have that slot so you really have to thread the screw directly through the material and that makes things a little bit more difficult. So what you can do is go ahead and pass the screw through the plastic reinforcement, through the material, through the metal tab, and then get everything lined up with the hole in the header before you go ahead and thread it in.Now, once you're done with that, the only other step that you have to do on this side before we jump over to the other side is remove any of the factory weatherstripping that might be left here. So there's a little bit of that foam weatherstripping. We're gonna get rid of that completely, make sure that that area is nice and clean. And then Bestop does include some new weatherstripping for us that we're going to install.So once you have the factory weatherstripping cleared away there, you can see that you have two pieces of new weatherstripping that cover that same area. And these are side-specific. So you can see here where this corner is notched out, that's the one that's gonna go over here on the passenger side that we're working on right now. And it's really just a matter of peeling the backing paper off and sticking this down onto the header. And this is just going to ensure that the header seals nice and tight to the windshield frame and you don't have any air or water leaks. So that goes just like so.Then there is one other small piece of weatherstripping that Bestop does provide that's gonna go along the front side right here. Gonna stick that right there. And again, that's just to make sure that this corner seals up very nice. This is an area where some water and some wind can come in if it's not sealed properly. So that's why all this weatherstripping is included, and you wanna make sure you use it.So now we jumped over to the driver's side. We're gonna pass the screw through the plastic reinforcement piece here, through the slot in the soft top material itself, through the plate that's attached to the tensioning cable, and finally into the hole in the header. Gonna go ahead and get that screwed in. I'll leave it a little bit loose for the time being till we get the bottom one started as well. Gonna get them both tightened down and then install that weatherstripping that we talked about before. This is gonna go right like this. The notch here goes around the tube on this side. Just peel the backer off, goes just like that. Then the other small piece here, peel the backer off of that and that goes along the front side right here.So the next step is going to be attaching the other end of that tensioning cable. So we have a little bit of a rubber boot here on our frame, some of you may, some of you may not. That's just there to protect the top from the spring. So as the spring is open, it doesn't pinch any of the material in there. Again, you may or may not have that. If you don't, you'll just attach the spring hook directly on to the frame. So we're gonna go ahead and take our cable here, give ourselves a little bit of slack, making it easier for us pass it through the rubber boot. Come out the other end here, then we will hook it onto this hole. So there's a small hole on a tab right under here. Again, this is the same process as disassembling your factory top. So the same spot that your cable tensioner came from, you wanna go ahead and attach it onto there. Gonna pull some of our slack back out again to get the spring seated inside the rubber boot. There we go. Then we'll do the same thing on the other side. Now we're gonna close the Sunrider and flip the back half of the top forward. And what that's going to do is expose this center hoop that goes from the driver's side to the passenger's side that we're gonna have to put a couple of screws into. So we'll go ahead and close the Sunrider. I'm gonna hop up here. I'll flip the back half of the top over the front half here. Now, what we're trying to do is expose this center bar here, this center hoop, and also this flap of material that's on the soft top because the idea is that we put the factory screws through the flap right into that bar there, just like that. Now that we have everything in position, we can screw this flap to this crossbar here.Now, one of the things that I really like about Bestop, one of the things that makes them a premium product, is the fact that they take care of these little things for you, these little details. So this tab here has holes pre-punched in it. They can be a little bit difficult to see at first but once you see the first one, you'll see the rest of them. And what that helps with is just aligning everything so you know where the screw goes through the fabric material and, of course, you know where it goes through the frame because there's a hole drilled there. And that's going to center the top left to right. Some of the other brands don't have that. You're sort of just guessing. I've had situations where I've put these in, put the rest of the top together, realized that I put them in the wrong spot. Then you're going back and undoing things you just did and fixing it. So just pointing out that Bestop is a really high quality. They do think of a lot of those details and they do make the installation just that much easier for you. So we're gonna go ahead and screw this flap onto this crossbar. So the next step is going to be flipping the top back and attaching it to the rear bar here with those factory screws, pretty much in the same way that we just attached this flap onto this bar. But what we're going to do before we flip the top back is actually open the Sunrider and that's just going to release a little bit of additional tension to allow us to line everything up just a little bit easier. Gonna go ahead while I'm up here, grab the Sunrider, flip it back, and go ahead and pull the rest of the top over the frame. Like I said before, this is pretty much the same process. You'll locate the pre-punched hole in the tab here, get the screw lined up with the threaded hole in the frame, and drive it in. Repeat that for the other three across the back. So now that we're done with that, all we have to do is attach these rear corners of the top onto the J-channel on top of the tub, pretty simple. We'll go forward again and close the Sunrider and then we'll pop the windows in the soft top. The last step is installing the windows. This is going to install just like your factory window did. We're gonna do the two side windows and then do the rear. Of course, the last window is the rear one here. And there's just one additional step that you didn't have to do with the side windows and that's installing the tailgate bar here. This happens very, very easily. There is a channel in the tailgate bar and a rubber piece of round weatherstripping here on the window and they just slide together. Now, you can do this the wrong way. So these will slide together incorrectly. What you want is for the rubber weatherstripping tabs that are on the tailgate bar to be sticking toward the bottom of the window. Of course, if you did it the other way around, these wouldn't be sealing up against anything so that's a good way to tell. If you do put this on backward and you go to install the window and things don't line up properly, it's very simple to slide this off and flip it around, sliding it back on the correct way. Once you have the tailgate bar installed, it's just a matter of zipping the window into place. So if you are looking for one of the highest quality replacement tops that you can buy, I would recommend taking a look at this option from Bestop and you can find it right here at extremeterrain.com.