RedRock TruShield Series OE-Style Replacement Soft Top (97-06 Jeep Wrangler TJ, Excluding Unlimited)

Video Review & Installation

Hey, guys. So, today we're checking out the OE-Style Replacement Soft Top, fitting all 1997 to 2006 TJ Wranglers excluding me Unlimited Models. So, if you're in search of a refresh for your soft top for your TJ Wrangler, this is going to be a great choice to take a look into. So, whether you have taken your Jeep out on the trail and you've damaged your factory top, or it's starting to show its age, obviously, the TJ is a little bit older and the soft top fabric can tend to do that. It can start to rip and it can even start to fade, this is going to be a great replacement option for that factory fabric. Now, this is going to utilize all of the factory hardware. So, this is going to be for the TJ owners that already have a factory soft top and already have that hardware and it's in good shape and reusable. Now, if you do not have the hardware, you will need to outsource for hardware in order to get this installed on your Wrangler because this is just going to replace the fabric.Nonetheless, this is going to be a great refresh, this is gonna be made of a black diamond vinyl material which will be very similar to the OEM soft top. And it's even gonna come up with DOT approved tinted windows, which is good for insulation and temperature control inside your TJ but it's also gonna give you some extra sleek styling to your TJ as well. Now, this is going to be a very affordable option at roughly $200 and one of your more affordable choices on the site for a replacement top. Now, there are a couple of different options, some may be a little bit more expensive and it's really gonna come down to the material and the items included in the kit. Now again, this is going to be a standard black-diamond vinyl material. So, this is going to be on the more affordable side and it's not gonna come with any hardware, again, you are reusing your factory hardware. Some more expensive choices may come with a premium twill material, they have a denim material or they may include some or all of the hardware in order to get it installed on your TJ.Nonetheless, again, if you are looking for a factory style replacement and you just need to replace that fabric and are looking for a refresh and some restoration for your TJ, this is going to be the option to take a look at. So, install is going to be very easy. I'm gonna give it a one out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter, we're only gonna need a few basic hand tools to get the job done. So, speaking of that install, let's jump into that right now. The tools that I used for this install were an impact wrench and a Phillips head socket. So, our first step to removing our factory soft top is remove our windows, I'm gonna start in the back with our rear window. So, all we have to do is open up our tailgate and pop our retainers out. Now, making sure that the tailgate bar is undone from the tailgate retainer, we can zipper this off. Next, we can remove our side windows. So, we're gonna pull this Velcro off and we can start to unzip it and untuck it from the tab.What we can do next is unhook the back corner from the top, on either side. We can actually flip this up top because there's gonna be some buttons on the back part of our frame that we need to unclip. Next, we can separate the Velcro in the middle frame. So, what I like to do at this point is then flip the soft top over the front of the Jeep, then we can disconnect the header by pulling up on the two front latches. So, after the header is disconnected, I did flip it back so we can expose all of these screws on the top of our header here. We're gonna take a Phillips head socket or a Phillips head screwdriver and go ahead and remove all those. So, after all the screws are removed, what we can do is just slide the soft top back and off our header. And at this point, the soft top fabric is completely removed from our frame. So, what we can do at this point is grab our new soft top and we're basically gonna repeat that process backwards. So, first, we're going to lay it over the roll bar, and then we're gonna attach it to our header.So, once you have it over the roll bar, what we're gonna do is fit the front part around our header. So, there's gonna be a little pocket on either side where we can slip our header into. Now, there's going to be a plastic piece that's gonna line up with the holes in the header. What I'm gonna do is grab our factory hardware and line this center one up with our center mounting point. We're gonna reuse the factory hardware and secure it down with that Phillips head socket or, again, you can use Phillips head screwdriver. I'm gonna stud it through the fabric then we can line it up, and secure it down. So, that's gonna allow you to line up the rest of the holes. And then we can just start to work our way on either side of the header. There are gonna be small slits that you'll be able to see, now I'm in line up with the bottom. Now, once the soft top is secured down to the header, what we can do is flip it forward. So, at the front of our Sunrider feature propped open because if it is completely closed the Velcro is not gonna line up and that's just because the fabric is new and it's not stretched out yet.So, while I have it propped, what we can do is secure this Velcro in the middle. At this point what I'm gonna do is just close up the front. And now we can stretch the back part of the soft top over the back of our frame. So, what we're gonna do is wrap this bottom part around the roll bar or around our frame system here and secure it down with those snaps. Now, this is looking like it's still a little bit too tight as far as the fabric is concerned, so I might actually head up front and unsecure the header if need be. Now, if it's too tight to secure anything down, my recommendation is that you let the fabric sit outside in about 70 degree plus weather and it should loosen up. So, at this point, as you can tell, our frame system is a little bit upwards. That's because the fabric is very tight. What I'm gonna do is try to pull down on here and see if we can get it underneath our tub area. If not, I'm going to release the header up at the front but sometimes it's a little bit easier to pull down from here.So, we can install our windows I like to kind of attach it to the Velcro a little bit just so we can get the zipper in and studded. Now, I'm just gonna pull it a couple of inches forward so that to tuck everything in. And once again, we can pop that Velcro back into place. That's just gonna hold it up so we can have an even spot to Velcro or even spot the zipper. Then what we can do at this point is pull down and tuck it into our tab. And then [inaudible]. And then last but not least over up at the front for the side windows, we can tuck this into our doors around, making sure that both are out before we do. Then we can repeat that for the other side. Now, on this side the zipper is gonna be on the window portion. So, you're gonna need your factory tailgate bar for this, this will just slide off the back window and it's going to go on the same exact way on to this new window. So, we're just gonna slide this into the channel making sure that the seal is facing the outside. Once it's even, what we can do is line this up with the back.Now, as you can see on the back of our soft top I did leave this little tab on host just because it's a little bit easier to finagle with the zipper instead of having it secure because then this part of the fabric is really tight and hard to maneuver and mess with. So, on the back, there's gonna be a double zipper. What I like to do, just so what this can get around to both of the corners is just pull up on the second zipper, kind of give it some breathing room down at the bottom here while we get the rest of it secured. Because the back window can be sort of a pain because the newness of the top. So, once that is most of the way down, what I like to do is just center this and get this tailgate bar and the retainers. Just kind of roll it in, just like that. And we can pull this all the way down to the other side. Make sure that that is all the way secure. We can tuck our back tabs into our tab. Then if you can the top may be a little too tight at first but if you can, you can tuck your back window under your tailgate retainer.And then once everything is secured, then you're all set to go. So, that's gonna wrap it up for my review and install. Make sure you like and subscribe, and for more videos and products just like this, always keep it right here at extremeterrain.com.