This is EXACTLY what I was hoping. A hard top option that is "semi" permanent. If I could remove all 3 windows and a larger section of the roof there really isn't a point to take the entire clamshell off. Thank you for posting the youtube vids, I'm checking those out now.
Will be watching to see how it turns out for you. I am interested in this, I rarely take my soft top down, I mean it's S. FL and I do not need a tan! I have not done so at night, but when I did have my F150, I used to run with the roof open. So I would not mind having the roof open, and the 3 windows out Safari style.
Interested to see how uninsulated aluminum painted black affects interior temps out in the middle of a Texas summer.
The rest of the Bronco isn't directly facing the sun, and there's either insulation or several things between the exterior and interior, such as panels and whatnot, you never actually touch the same surface that's exposed to sunlight. This is going to be a sheet of aluminum with nothing else added but black paint, and I'm very familiar with that situation...it's not pleasant at all. Find a black car that's been sitting outside in the sun and see how long you can hold your hand on it, the temperature on the inside surface of the top is going to be virtually identical to that, thanks to the high thermal conductivity of aluminum. A/C will help a lot in reducing the heat inside, but it's going to be putting in some overtime. Same goes for the winter as well, all your heat will go into the top like it's a giant chiller plate, fortunately with IC engines, heat is a readily accessible waste product.
Ford did a great job designing the roll bars, I'm betting that had a lot to do with how well it held up. Have you seen the thread about the guy that got into a wreck and rolled his Bronco multiple times? His OEM hard top had some big scuff marks but it looked completely intact and serviceable. It was such an ironic contrast to hard tops getting cracks and whatnot just sitting out in the driveway.
Not that I know of, any kind of damage that might compromise structural integrity would be fairly easy to spot. There's quite a bit of boron steel and hardened steel that makes up the "roll cage" of a Bronco...it's not what I'd call a cage, but the body and bars together are intended to approximate one, and when they caged up the 4600 Broncos it was basically just reinforcing the existing bars with additional tubing. Everything between the bars and the frame is made of high strength steel, so while it's not tubed up and tied into the frame directly, it'll likely handle low speed rollovers without damage to the structure itself. Higher speed rollovers will most likely damage the structure but still protect occupants. If I were to make any kind of estimation about it based on what I've read and seen of it, I would place it somewhere between a simple bolt-in body mounted roll cage and one with additional frame tie-ins. I don't want to give anyone a false sense of security by thinking it's just as good as an actual tubed up cage, because it's not, but there aren't many factory vehicles that could handle a rollover like the Bronco can.
