Soft top? How to fit front of door to windshield?

I was having a quick look at my soft top doors the other day and was wondering how to install the front of the soft door. I now have a M38 repro body for my CJ2a and I have a near new bestop tiger top that came with the Jeep. I see the M38 window has channels welded across the top and down the sides of the windshield frame. I think I have a set of screw on channels from top and sides of the CJ2A frame. The front of the soft door has quite a long fabric flap on the front edge with snaps all the way up. I kind of assumed there was a strip of fabric that slide into the channel all the way up the sides of the windshield frame. Are my doors for the 2A top supposed to snap on the front of the windshield frame? There is something I am not getting? I read through the PDF directions on Bestop's site. I only have a picture of the windshield frame and not the tiger top door. I can snap a picture in the next day or so. You can see the strip of channel on the back edge of the vertical part of windshield frame in this picture.



It seems that the upper door hinge that is welded to the frame should work OK as well.
Thanks for any info.
Greg

 

Not sure I have ever seen a TigerTop door with snaps all the way up the windshield frame. Most, if not all, have the fabric bead along the front top of the doors that just slides into the groove channel on your windshield frame. The front bottom of the doors does have snaps below the windshield frame. Will try to get you some jpgs.

John

 

Hope these help



Door in windshield channel.


Door bottom below windshield frame.


Bottom of channel.


Door hinge bracket on windshield frame.


Factory bottom door hinge bracket.

 

Thanks for the pictures. I will have to have another look at mine. It seems to have a piece sewn on where the bead should be. Is it just a fabric bead or is there something sewn inside it? I might just be able to trim off the extra fabric then slide the sewn edge up inside the door channel. I will be heading over to my shop today for an afternoon of work on my project. I will try to remember my camera and take pictures while I am there. One more question. On the 3A/M38 windshield there is a channel along the top of the windshield. Does the top fit into there or do you screw a bestop aluminum channel to the top of the windshield. I am quite away from finishing my project so I am not in a big panic to figure my top out but I was trying to get a rough idea of the top fitment for when I start to fab up my roll cage here soon. Thanks for the info.
Greg

 

I have a M-38 body on my 2A also. If the Tiger top is for a 2A I don't think it will fit because the winshield is basically a 3A windshield. I had to get a 3A top for mine. Because of the square topped windshield on the 2A as opposed to the curved top on the 3A/M-38 I think the top and doors are different and fit very well.

 

There is a bead sewn in the door edge to lock it into the channel. The factory windshield top channel will work if present. The channels supplied with the top are for use where the factory windshield frames lacked channels as on the 2A's. The 3A windshield frame was most definately an improvement over the earlier production.

 

According to the PDF instructions from Bestop the flatfender tiger tops are all basically the same. The difference is some of the pieces that are installed per model. The CJ2A has an adapter piece that screws to the top of the windsheild frame that basically makes it the same shape on top as a 3a. The piece adds 2" to the top of the frame and a curved shape. I have the adapter that came with my top but I am using the M38 windshield instead. The directions I have make no mention of the extra material on the front of my doors nor installing any snaps on the windshield frame. It almost seems like the previous owner modded the doors. The top is only about 5 years old and has hardly been used as the jeep has been in pieces for about 4 of those years. I will make it work one way or another.
Greg

 

I got a chance to take a look at my soft top doors again here today and I can see that the previous owner did some mods to the door. WTF. I don't know why anyone would sew a piece on but it is obviously not the same material or stitching. They must have had troubles with the front of the door not staying in the channel. Here are the pictures of the door.





I removed the piece of fabric and stitching. The door looks a little more normal now.




Now that I have that piece removed I can see that there needs to be something sewn inside that bead so it can stay in the channel. I tried slipping a piece of 1/4" rod inside the seam and it looks like it will stay in the channel but I could probably be 5/16" rod. Is there something sewn in the seem from the factory? I am not too sure what to use in there. I might look for a slim stick of plastic rod instead of steel. I think it should work fine.
Greg

 

might just be the way that Bestop tried to make the same door fit both models, as there are differences with the windshield frame.
The Kayline doors have rope or something similar sewn in the edge of the door and slide thru the channel on the windshield frame nicely. Kayline also had another short piece of channel that attached to the body that the lower continuation of the door edge slipped into, thereby in effect making the "hinge" of the door full length. Kayline only used one snap at the bottom of the door fabric that attached to the body as well.
What I'm describing would be mainly for the 3A top which is what I have and use on mine.

 

Bestop shows different part numbers and different instructions for the 2A and the 3A/M38 tops. As you said the tops would very similar because tubs are similar. I would think the differences would be the doors and the front edge of the top due to the differences in the shape of the windshield. I'd get some pictures of mine but it's 3 hours away. The bead where it goes in the channel is plastic on mine. With the thickness of the vinyl over the bead 5/16 might be too big. 1/4 in looks to be a better fit.

 

Come to think of it, I have an old set of doors in my storage area. Let me dig the out and get some pics.

 

I measured the diameter of the bead and vinyl with a caliper and it measures 5/16" Hope this helps.