adding snaps to a soft top...

Jan 09, 2006 14 Replies

Should this be anything to do myself or take to a upholstery shop? just wanna put a couple over each door on my cj5 to keep material from pulling off of velcro.


very easy to do. the snap kit part for the fabric top can be purchased at sewing supply places. dont know about the part to go on the door tho.

WalMart sells them in their craft section. Pretty straight forward.

I highly recommend you spend the overinflated prices at the $tealership for them. I have not been able to find aftermarket snaps that are any good at all. The rot/rust out really fast. Nothing worse than putting a nice fiberglass body on only to have rust streaks from every freakin' snap.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail >

I ran into an auto upholstery shop in Tacoma, WA that had a source for stainless/brass ones. The owner gave me a handful, but I forgot to ask where he got them. They worked great, even in rainy Redmond, Washington. They looked like these.

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Be careful, because even though the propaganda says "High rust and corrosion resistant button", the spring is the part that will rust on cheap snaps. See the ring inside the curved rim of the socket? That has to be spring steel. Cheap snaps will use a stainless that has inadequate spring quality, or a spring that is not really stainless.

Earle

Stealership has snaps for a CJ5 Supertop from Bestop? Where do you mean exactly?

Stock, the later CJ's used a Witco top that snapped down all around the edges and at the windshield corner. I still have one. Last time I looked which was 5 years ago, my local $tealer had snaps or could order them easily. The snaps are a 'standard' size which is why aftermarket generic ones work, but the quality of the components varies radically.

Mike

Steve G wrote:

Or he could call Bestop. I probably would trust snaps from Bestop.

Earle

As already mentioned - get them from West Marine or Boaters World, that's where I got mine. Still like new after 5 years in the salt.

Rich M

98TJ

How do you feel about these:

Snap replacement kit, CJ, #93002, $19.95 "Kit includes: 30 buttons, 30 sockets, 5 fabric studs, 5 eyelets, 30 body studs and 30 screws and the installation tool to install snaps into top fabric (1 punch and 1 die)."

Mike Roma> Stock, the later CJ's used a Witco top that snapped down all around the

I think there are too many pieces for the price, therefore the quality is suspect in my mind.

The kits I found were cheap like that. The $tealer wanted something like $2.00 each and the upholstery places about a buck each.

Mike

Lee Ayrt>

Another problem with the 4wd.com kit is that it doesn't at least *say* "stainless" or "brass" anywhere. I think that if you were getting stainless and brass, the vendor would at least take the trouble to brag about it.

Earle

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