by
Bart McNeil
See also Part 1: Willys-Overland Canvas Top and Part 2: Folding and Vinyl Tops.
If you're looking for a bargain on a canvas top, you may want to look at tops sewn in India in various different styles and sold through eBay. They are offered with free shipping, and people who have ordered them seem happy with the results. You will need to correspond with the seller and make sure they have any necessary details on your Jeep and your support framework and door frames.
Classic Jeep Tops in Illinois makes period-correct and custom canvas tops for Willys civilian Jeeps, including a full enclosure as seen below on Bob Christy's 1953 CJ-3B.
See also the
top with side
and rear curtains and doors installed (420K JPEG).
Classic Jeep Tops owner Jeff Petrowich says, "One service I can offer that others can't is that I can design custom tops using 3D CAD. Just send me your dimensions and I can make it fit. This works well for people who want their top to go around a roll bar since everyone's roll bar is different. I can draw the geometry in 3D and I don't need the vehicle."
Note: as of 2024, Jeff has more orders than he can handle.
Beachwood Canvas is well-known as a manufacturer of Willys-style reproduction canvas tops. The following illustration from the Beachwood Canvas catalogue shows the available tops. Only the 4-Piece Halftop, the 6-Piece Fulltop, and the 7-Piece Full or Halftop are complete reproductions:
John Hubbard's 1954 CJ-3B has a
Beachwood Canvas 4-piece halftop enclosure. Each Beachwood Canvas top is
individually made and fitted to a set of original bows in the shop, and
John has nothing but good words for his top. In fact he says that it
(unlike most of us) "improves with age."
Some early tops had small
automotive glass windows instead of vinyl. This was to allow the canvas
to fold into small packages for stowage on top of the rear wheel wells.
By late CJ-3A production, larger vinyl rear side and rear windows were
used. John decided to use the early-style glass rear window on his 3B
halfcab.
New Life Canvas in Minnesota was formerly New Life Resources canvas shop in Vermont.
Bill Norris' 1947 CJ-2A had a reproduction top made by New Life
Resources. Bill commments, "Altogether there are 10 pieces. The 10th
piece is the rear flap for the halfcab. It is correct for a late style
2A top. That is, it has the lower door hinges that mount next to the tub
and not on top of it. It also has the latches on the rod behind the door
and not on the door itself like the early 2A's, and the original black
metal frames that go around the plastic windows. These were only used on
the 2A's and very early 3A's. You can also see the zippered flap on the
driver's side for hand signals. Always get a kick out of seeing people's
expression when my hand comes through the door. They have the pattern
for 3B's now." See also a front view photo (120K
JPEG).
Todd Kerzic had a seven-piece top made for his CJ-3A by New Life Resources. It can be installed as a full top (90K JPEG) or a half top (80K JPEG). In my opinion it looks really good, with the attention to detail one might expect from Beachwood, but at about half the price.
Andy Gil found Canvas Tops Made in Colombia, but we
no longer have contact information for the shop.
The
cost of a reproduction canvas top is enough to get your attention. It
has motivated some CJ owners who like the appearance of the original
canvas top, to look to their own resources for shelter.
Jeff Petrowich has posted some ideas and patterns for sewing your own top on the CJ2A Page Forum.
Krister Olsson's CJ-3B
with minimal full top (120K JPEG) is seen in The Jeep in
Sweden. There is no removable rear panel on this model. Although
not made by Beachwood Canvas, it is constructed like the "1 Piece
Trailrun Full Top," and shows us we can have a nice-looking but fairly
inexpensive canvas top.
A
sophisticated soft top was made for Jon Rogers by a retired military
jeep top maker in Australia. The arched rear opening suggests the
original, and the roll-up rear side windows are just as cool as they can
get.
Gary Keating bought his 3A with the bows and this top
already on it. Gary explains it as a top most likely made by the local
canvas shop. It functions like the Surrey top but without the
decoration.
Mahlon Gridley of upstate New York bought his 2A with
the skeleton included. He bought a large tarpaulin from a farm supply
store and fabricated his own top for his CJ-2A. It looks similar to the
experimental top at the beginning of this article, without rear side
windows but with steel framed doors. Mahlon says he spent as much time
measuring and re-measuring as cutting and sewing. It appears to have
been time well spent.
Weebee Webbing, a manufacturer of
canvas military tops and equipment made this top based on the civilian
bow system. Not a reproduction, but an interesting solution.
While the original bow and rod skeletons for the civilian Jeep are rare, they are worth searching out. I bought a complete set, including door frames, for $50 plus shipping. The same set from Beachwood would have cost about $800 (if I am reading their price list properly). Actually an extra set of bows was thrown in, so I have a complete full top bow and rod set and an extra set of half top bows. Not bad, eh?
This article was based on my own interest in having a reproduction canvas top for my '53 CJ-3B, and my belief that there must be a less expensive alternative to a commercially-made skeleton and canvas top. I am halfway there, but there is still a long way to go. As usual a lot of help came from 3B Page watchers who spent time and effort sending information and photographs of their own CJ's and their canvas top solutions.
-- Bart McNeil
Thanks to Bart for the writing (and the cartoon), and
to Bill Norris, Roger Bensgard, Mahlon Gridley, Todd Kerzic, Gary
Keating, Beachwood Canvas, New Life Resources, and Weebee Webbing for
illustrations. -- Derek Redmond
Return to:
Also on CJ3B.info, see Putting on a Soft Top and a history of Early Civilian Jeep Hardtops.
Go to CJ-3B Specs and Tech Tips.
See more Universal Jeep History on CJ3B.info.
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