Body 92-95 YJ rollbar in 79 CJ7

[UncleMike]

Happy New Year!
Considering an upgrade for my 79 CJ7 . I believe, based on nothing more than comments from my local jeep junkyard guy, that mine has had a CJ5 rollbar installed by previous owner. It does not line up with the existing holes, and seems some welding was done. In any event, i am interested in putting in a the family style from a YJ for no other reason than to get shoulder belts front and rear. This is a casual, run around beach town car, so don't feel like i need a full cage nor need to attach to windshield. It won't really ever go over about 30mph, but do tote my kids around so would rather have the shoulder belts. I may, down the road, attach to the windshield, but for now just want to drop and bolt in.

My question is this...any special considerations i should keep in mind, and is it correct that the 92-95 roll bar is what i am after?

 

[TSB8C]

I did this same mod for the exact same reason. I have an '84 CJ7 and wanted the shoulder belts in the back seat. So I got a '92 YJ sport bar from a salvage yard. The 87-91 YJ bars aren't the "family style". Starting in '92 they changed to the one you want. It is almost a direct bolt-in for a CJ7 (not a CJ5 though). You have to slightly enlarge two mounting holes in the base of the sport bar where it bolts to the floor of the CJ7 . Not by much and easy to do. Then just bolt it right in.

I then took my original CJ7 bar which was rusted at the bases on both sides and cut off the angled rear parts as well as the main legs where the rusted areas were at the bottom. I used the main hoop (minus the lower leg portions) to make a windshield hoop and used the two rear angled parts I removed to make spreader bars (with a pipe bender and some welding). I then attached this windshield hoop to some homemade brackets on either side of the dash and added some grab handles made from some scrap 1" diameter pipe I also bent and welded on. So now I have the YJ bar with shoulder belts in the back, a windshield hoop in the front with grab handles on either side, and two spreader bars in the center attaching it all together. I even used my wife's sewing machine to make some padded covers with zippers (just like a regular roll bar pad) on the grab handles. This also gave a great place to mount my wakeboard tower marine speakers. The rear parts of the YJ bar are angled a bit inward allowing the speakers to be focused at the front seats in a bit of a cross-over type pattern.

You'll also want to consider a safari type type rather than a bikini top. The bikini goes from the windshield to the roll bar, covering just the front seats. The safari style top (which I have in these pics) extends past the roll bar and provides shade to the rear seat passengers as well. With the "family style" YJ bar, you can now accommodate the safari style top.

And speaking of tops, if you have a soft top, the frame arms may hit the rear portions of the bar. My soft top is actually a YJ top for a '92. No interference folding it up/down over that YJ bar.

 

[UncleMike]

I like that. I think, for my purposes, i am going to leave the cross members to windshield off for now and decide whether i want to do the nutsert route i've seen written up down the road. Right now, just trying to wrap up the roll bar question so i know which Tuffy speaker box to order (with or without the cutout for rollbar). My next project is going to be doing the Durabak coating inside, so want to get all my holes figured out (and old holes patched) and coated before doing any final install. Thanks!