Aftermarket fiberglass rooftop options (1 Viewer)

[Curtice]

Been looking around to see what is available. Wondering what experience and/or pictures folks have with either of the following:

Gozzard: Land Cruiser 40 Series - Gozzard Composites. I know they have been around a while. I've searched a bit and haven't seen anything that is more recent on folks who used these roofs. $1250 and the rain gutter is integrated in (I think). Website has no pictures, which always makes me wonder...

Classic Cruisers: FJ40 Fiberglass Roof Cap (New). These look real nice, but more pricey ($1600). Also doesn't include the raingutter (so add ~$350) and they also recommend they be painted.

Are there other options for new roofs?

 

[southern son]

Bumping this thread up from the dead, @Curtice did you ever find an answer to this question? Or would anyone else have some input?

I’m currently looking at both caps and would like some input if anyone has any on experience or preference before I pull the trigger on one for my 40.

 

[Curtice]

Nothing beyond what I saw before. I ended up buying a decent shape used one. It'll be a while before I get to work on it though. Just couldn't justify those prices.

 

[EWheeler]

In the market for a new fiberglass cap. Work in NY has me close enough to Gozzards that I inquired for a quote. $1500 USD. Seems like a reasonable price considering the drip rail is integrated and I would never have to worry about the drip rail leaking, and seems it would be easier for install. I did a search and can't find anyone providing feed back. Figured I would bump this as opposed to starting my own thread.

Any feedback on the Gozzard 1 piece replacement top?

 

[SitkaCruiser]

Bumping this thread up from the dead, @Curtice did you ever find an answer to this question? Or would anyone else have some input?

I’m currently looking at both caps and would like some input if anyone has any on experience or preference before I pull the trigger on one for my 40.

I had the roof of my 75 FJ40 blow off the top of a car carrier. Tried finding a good used one - no luck. Priced out new roof, new drip edge vice Gozzard all in one. Went with Gozzard - being shipped and will update once it arrives. I live in Sitka, Alaska.

 

[EWheeler]

I had the roof of my 75 FJ40 blow off the top of a car carrier. Tried finding a good used one - no luck. Priced out new roof, new drip edge vice Gozzard all in one. Went with Gozzard - being shipped and will update once it arrives. I live in Sitka, Alaska.

View attachment 2872278

Right on, looking forward to feedback. What a bummer about the loss of roof on the transport truck. That must have been a site for vehicles behind that driver!

 

[Slapshot]

You’d think Gozzard would have better pics/product info.

 

[EWheeler]

You’d think Gozzard would have better pics/product info.

They were very responsive to me via email a couple months ago. Im sure if you need specifics they can get them to you.

 

[Green Bean]

I had the roof of my 75 FJ40 blow off the top of a car carrier. Tried finding a good used one - no luck. Priced out new roof, new drip edge vice Gozzard all in one. Went with Gozzard - being shipped and will update once it arrives. I live in Sitka, Alaska.

View attachment 2872278

Hopefully, the car carrier (or its insurance company) is footing the bill for your new roof.

 

[southern son]

@SitkaCruiser I’ve been on the “Covid waitlist” for a while and they emailed me about a month ago saying that they were making another run of them if I was interested so I gave the go ahead. It just arrived yesterday and I will update with pictures and info while I’m working on it next week. Classic YouTube “unboxing” video anyone??…Bueller?….

The contact person I worked with was totally by email (which is scary in today’s time) and at first it was ~24 hours between responses but once she realized that I was serious enough to place the order the email response time was much quicker. Once we got through that point of no return she was very helpful and quick to respond, even taking time to ask the guys in the shop questions I had then get back to me.

As a side note - according to them you don’t have to paint their roof unless you want a color change. This is totally opposite of Classic Cruisers’ roof that recommends you paint theirs.

I went ahead and had them install the riv-certs in the rail for me because, at that point, it wasn’t that much difference in price and I didn’t want to take the risk of messing up that thing after I’d just bought it. I’m confident with my metal working skills but fiberglass is something that I’m not as familiar with outside of speaker boxes so I wasn’t taking any chances for Murphy’s Law to get me.

 

[secretsquirrel]

@SitkaCruiser I’ve been on the “Covid waitlist” for a while and they emailed me about a month ago saying that they were making another run of them if I was interested so I gave the go ahead. It just arrived yesterday and I will update with pictures and info while I’m working on it next week. Classic YouTube “unboxing” video anyone??…Bueller?….

The contact person I worked with was totally by email (which is scary in today’s time) and at first it was ~24 hours between responses but once she realized that I was serious enough to place the order the email response time was much quicker. Once we got through that point of no return she was very helpful and quick to respond, even taking time to ask the guys in the shop questions I had then get back to me.

As a side note - according to them you don’t have to paint their roof unless you want a color change. This is totally opposite of Classic Cruisers’ roof that recommends you paint theirs.

I went ahead and had them install the riv-cents in the rail for me because, at that point, it wasn’t that much difference in price and I didn’t want to take the risk of messing up that thing after I’d just bought it. I’m confident with my metal working skills but fiberglass is something that I’m not as familiar with outside of speaker boxes so I wasn’t taking any chances for Murphy’s Law to get me.

yeah a youtube video would be great!

 

[southern son]

@secretsquirrel Well…I’ve already opened it so I’m not sure the unboxing video would be quite as good but I did get it out yesterday to check fitment. From what I saw quickly it fits pretty well but there may be some places that need to be adjusted to get all the bolts started - I’ll know for sure today when I install it. Overall the build quality looks very good and I expect that it will last a long time. I’m not sure yet if I’ll paint the cap or not, for now I’m going to install it and live with it as is for a while. I’m planning to put a good layer of Dynamat on it as well until I can figure out what I want to do for a headliner - any suggestions would be appreciated.

One thing I did notice is that there are only two holes drilled for the header bar and, in my case, they’re not drilled in the correct spots. Also there are no cut outs for the wiper arms, not a big deal but I do want to make sure that’s known to others as I was unaware until opening the box and realizing that it didn’t look quite right.

If anyone wants specific pictures or information please let me know

Enough words, onto the pictures. Will update more today after I’ve been able to spend more time on it and hopefully installed.

 

[OhioFJ]

@secretsquirrel Well…I’ve already opened it so I’m not sure the unboxing video would be quite as good but I did get it out yesterday to check fitment. From what I saw quickly it fits pretty well but there may be some places that need to be adjusted to get all the bolts started - I’ll know for sure today when I install it. Overall the build quality looks very good and I expect that it will last a long time. I’m not sure yet if I’ll paint the cap or not, for now I’m going to install it and live with it as is for a while. I’m planning to put a good layer of Dynamat on it as well until I can figure out what I want to do for a headliner - any suggestions would be appreciated.

One thing I did notice is that there are only two holes drilled for the header bar and, in my case, they’re not drilled in the correct spots. Also there are no cut outs for the wiper arms, not a big deal but I do want to make sure that’s known to others as I was unaware until opening the box and realizing that it didn’t look quite right.

If anyone wants specific pictures or information please let me know

Enough words, onto the pictures. Will update more today after I’ve been able to spend more time on it and hopefully installed.View attachment 2876812

View attachment 2876806View attachment 2876811

Looks like it’s well made.

How much was shipping from Canada?

 

[EWheeler]

@secretsquirrel Well…I’ve already opened it so I’m not sure the unboxing video would be quite as good but I did get it out yesterday to check fitment. From what I saw quickly it fits pretty well but there may be some places that need to be adjusted to get all the bolts started - I’ll know for sure today when I install it. Overall the build quality looks very good and I expect that it will last a long time. I’m not sure yet if I’ll paint the cap or not, for now I’m going to install it and live with it as is for a while. I’m planning to put a good layer of Dynamat on it as well until I can figure out what I want to do for a headliner - any suggestions would be appreciated.

One thing I did notice is that there are only two holes drilled for the header bar and, in my case, they’re not drilled in the correct spots. Also there are no cut outs for the wiper arms, not a big deal but I do want to make sure that’s known to others as I was unaware until opening the box and realizing that it didn’t look quite right.

If anyone wants specific pictures or information please let me know

Enough words, onto the pictures. Will update more today after I’ve been able to spend more time on it and hopefully installed.View attachment 2876812

View attachment 2876806View attachment 2876811

Following along to see results. Thank you for sharing. I really like this option...

 

[southern son]

@OhioFJ Here is a breakdown of costs from email that I pulled, keep in mind shipping was from Canada to Central GA. I have to admit it was cheaper than I thought it would be but the “crating” charge I thought was a little expensive for well taped cardboard. I was expecting it to come in a wooden crate for that, Covid wood prices man… The shipping company they used did a good job and it all arrived undamaged as best I can tell so far.

GC114 Roof -$1480.00 USD

Crating 250.00

Brokerage 80.00 (customs paperwork and fees)

Freight 354.12

What’s not included here is the riv-cert install ($131) and wire transfer fees ($75). I chose to wire transfer the funds rather than send a check because our mail locally is spotty at best and I didn’t want to take a chance on it not getting there further delaying my window of time to work on it this week. They also offer an option to pay with PayPal which charges a 3% transaction fee. All totaled to get it from them to me, including purchase price, it cost me $2,300.

I worked through the math and cost of time (effectively I only have Saturdays most weeks to work on anything if I get that) when comparing the Classic Cruisers roof with this one and I felt like I was coming out ahead to get it from Gozzard. My deciding factors were in what’s needed for the CC roof: metal drip rail separate, rivets and install time, sealing the drip rail after install, and sanding/painting the top vs buying this one that’s mostly ready to go out of the box outside of making cuts for wipers and drilling holes for bolts plus a good coat of wax.

I’d planned on installing it yesterday but I’m also working on installing a Vintage Air system this week so that took priority because I have to disable the vehicle completely for that. I only have this week in the shop to work and will be losing a work day Thursday... It helps having more light in the cab when working so I’ve left it off while I work on the A/C and should have the roof on by Saturday.

I hope this information helps if anyone has any questions I’m happy to answer anything you may have, sorry for the novel.

 

[OhioFJ]

Awesome, thank you for all the detailed information. Much appreciated.

 

[EWheeler]

One thing I did notice is that there are only two holes drilled for the header bar and, in my case, they’re not drilled in the correct spots. Also there are no cut outs for the wiper arms, not a big deal but I do want to make sure that’s known to others as I was unaware until opening the box and realizing that it didn’t look quite right.

Ok, so I went back and read my emails with Mike Gozzard. I was quoted $1480 USD, same as @southern son paid.

Here is a question I asked Mike based on MUD research, and his response:

ME: Mike, my FJ40 that I need a top for is a 1971 with the top mounted widhshield wipers. I read on the ih8mud forum that your tops will not work with the top mounted wipers. Is there any truth to that? Do your tops only work with the late model trucks with wipers mounted below the windshield?

MIKE: No, that is not entirely true. The windshield valance we use on our roof is technically for a lower wiper setup. However, FRP is relatively easily machined and we cut two half moon shaped reliefs in the face of the valance for the clearance over the wiper shafts. So technically it is a modification to fit upper wipers. All you need to do is specify what you need.

The Nutserts that they installed are not an "option" i was aware of.

So it seems that there are some options that could be added or eliminated to make things fit better when ordering?

1. specify top or bottom wipers and they can modify for top wipers if necessary
2. specify if you want nutserts installed?
3. specify header layout for rear hatch header? I'm not sure how these differ throughout the years.

 

[Slapshot]

Having just rehabbed my hard top, I might have chosen to go this route instead.

But here’s a thought. Would it be better to get the top in position and drill your own holes and use bolts instead of rivnuts? It took me 2 days with a friend fighting the top to align all the holes. I swear these pieces were once together but they acted like they came from 3 different trucks/years!

Also if you can wait, do the headliner before installing.

 

[EWheeler]

@southern son

Question for you on the nutserts: Did the top come pre-drilled, and you elected nut certs versus through bolts and nuts? Or, would the top have come with NO HOLES at all if you didn't ask for the nutserts? @Slapshot comment made me think of this. I would prefer the top to come pre-drilled with all holes in the top, but I think I would elect to use through bolts and nuts like factory.

 

[southern son]

@EWheeler and @Slapshot

After looking back through my email exchanges the top would not have come with holes drilled. I elected for the nutserts primarily because of time premium, less time spent getting it ready and more availability to make it what I want - somewhere in the back of my head is Jerry Maguire yelling “time is money!”

My other thought with doing this is that if the nutserts ever cross thread or strip out then I can always drill through and use a bolt (working under the assumption they’re in the right place to begin with) to connect the top that way. Then the leftover metal would serve as a spacer of sorts to protect the fiberglass from breaking out vs fiberglass only with a bolt, age, etc. Not saying the nutserts can’t pull out too but that’s how I worked it out between the ears.

On first fit the other day the holes seemed to line up for the most part but I will only know for sure once I’ve been able to drill holes in the header panel then fit around the wiper arms. That answer is coming this weekend one way or the other, even if I have to work late into the night to get it done.

In reference to your email with Mike it seems like we both learned something. I didn’t know they could accommodate for the wipers, I didn’t know to ask and my contact person never let me know that was an option… I only knew about the nutserts because it was offered to me. We’re all learning together for the benefit of the greater Mud.