Painting My Hardtop Body Color

[snowtx1]

Anyone have any pics or reviews after getting their hardtop painted? I love the ocean blue and wish I had gotten the body colored top. Any suggestions, or is there any chance someone wants to swap for a black one? Just checking. Thx.

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[plex]

You can try to do a swap on the marketplace here, maybe someone is itchy for a black top, or you can pay +cash to swap.

 

[ThirtyOne]

There are some threads on this. The problem is the texture on the black top. You either have to smooth it out or paint it and either way it is a lot of labor. I think estimates on this run well over $1,000.

 

[American Jeeper]

My buddy just had his painted. I haven’t seen it in person yet, but it looks pretty good from the pics. I’ll have to get the details on prep. He works for a body shop.

 

[Firecracker18]

Having painted top would be a really unique look and nice. But, with as little off roading I've done so far I've already gone under a tree branch or two that put light scrape marks on the black top but they later washed out. Not so sure I would want a painted one to go through the same as I'm sure it would have left permanent scrapes at least in the clear coat if not the paint itself. Ouch.

But they are really neat looking otherwise for just general driving around. Haven't seen one in person yet but only pics. The 2 door ones really make a huge difference and make me do double take as they don't quite look like a Jeep.

 

[snowtx1]

You can try to do a swap on the marketplace here, maybe someone is itchy for a black top, or you can pay +cash to swap.

Got an ad in the marketplace as well. Thx.

 

[American Jeeper]

I think they look super slick. Just different, but agree if you go off road have the touch up paint ready!

 

[caged]

i've always liked the look of a painted top on the four door wranglers. they sorta remind me of a lifted xj cherokee, which i am a huge fan of (have two, currently). if they still made the boxy xj cherokee, i would likely have bought one of them instead of my rubicon, but for wranglers, i always swore if i ever bought one, it had to be a two door stick with black top and black fenders. i've owned a couple TJs and loved them. the wife still has hers.

 

[RussJeep1]

It's my understanding that all (JL) hard tops are painted.

It's also my understanding that the paint used to paint a non-body color matched hard top is a different version of the color black than the paint used on a black painted rig with a body color matched hard top .

If someone knows differently please chime in.

But if true, we've got a layer of paint on the surface before we paint it our desired color. Are we simply leaving the factory color as is and proceeding or are we taking this layer of paint off, or sanding it down, even if for different reasons than @ThirtyOne's motivations above?

 

[ThirtyOne]

Some other threads:

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/painting-hard-top.10155/
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/paint-the-hard-top-tan.6615/
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/sport-s-custom-paint-fenders-and-top.9782/
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modified-jk-tech-2/painting-hardtop-colormatch-260725/

 

[HDinkH]

Has anyone painted their black stock hardtop? I want to paint mine but am afraid it would flake off because of the texture. Thanks!

 

[Monarch490]

My buddy just had his painted. I haven’t seen it in person yet, but it looks pretty good from the pics. I’ll have to get the details on prep. He works for a body shop.

How is your friends hard top paint job holding up? Is the paint staying on?

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