Defender 90 Station Wagon to Soft Top Conversion
By Erik Jernberg

Don't forget to look at the pictures as you go along!
(Lots of pictures, so it may take a bit to load)

The easy answer to the question of how did you turn your Defender 90 station wagon into a Soft Top - would be that I just unbolted everything, removed everything SW related and bolted in everything ST related (plus some drilling) into place. And more or less, that's what I did. Unfortunately, this wouldn't accurately paint the entire picture and would be a wildly over-simplified response. As far as I know, I'm the only person to take a SW model apart and convert it into a full-spec soft top D90. Here is the unabridged version of the project and some things I learned along the way:

First, round up a crew!: This is not a one person project - period. It is okay to have a foreman (probably the owner of the vehicle) but this is at least a 2 person project. If it weren't for my buddy Dan, I could not have done it. And I'm not talking about just another pair of arms to move something or help with the bolting/unbolting - I'm talking overall, you'll need some smart help on this project! It's tough. In my case - I was lucky to have a helper that is as mechanical or slightly more mechanical than me. Thanks to my girlfriend Jennifer too who helped me pick up my roll cage parts deep near Logan airport 3 separate mornings! Thanks.

Get rid of that safari cage: Removing the safari cage was not the first step I took but should have been. The black powder coated safari cage needs to be removed completely. There are several torx 45 or 50's holding it in place - 8 up front on the wings and a few up where the safari cage arm attaches to the aluminum top. Be mindful for any washers and backing plates present while removing the hardware. I encountered a few washers outside of the truck and a few inside that were left loose after the safari cage was unbolted. Overall Difficulty: Easy

The jump seats: The jump seat backs needed to be removed, but the bases do not need to necessarily come out if you plan on reusing them in the soft-top. The only thing to consider here is the weather vulnerability you'll encounter with having the cloth seats so close to the edge of the vehicle. You may not want the jump seats in there at all. With a surrey top on they'll still get wet in the rain. Anyway this step is simple. Just unbolt the backs from the wheel well as well as the side panels, which helps to have a buddy holding a wrench under the wheel well. In a bit of foreshadowing, be aware that the front jump seats will interfere with the the roll cage diagonal support arm, or vice versa. So this will have to be worked around but we'll get back to that later. Overall Difficulty: Easy

The trim panels: The seatbelts and seat backs needed to be removed to allow this, as the hole for the upper seat belt attach point is kind of set inside the panels. So these just pop off with little clips. You pop off the panels on the back of the truck around the long, tall windows on the rear of the aluminum top. Once you get these and the long ones across the sides, you'll start to see all of the bolts and so forth that you need to work on for the duration of the project. By the way, leave the seatbelts off for now. Overall Difficulty: Easy

Next the headliner needs to be dealt with: In many ways, this was one of the most difficult parts of the project. The headliner is attached with similar snap points as the rest of the trim panels but would be quite difficult to successfully remove it completely and to get it back inside in some usable fashion later. In addition, there are a series of bolts fastening the top to the windshield that you must reach around the headliner to unfasten without bending the trim piece in the process. I wasn't so lucky, unfortunately, and bent much of the headliner above the driver's door trying to access those bolts. I would recommend a small ratchet wrench to reach around the corners with and a healthy dose of patience for this portion. Someone with fairly dexterous fingers and a reasonably small arm wouldn't hurt, either. Luckily, the headliner was the only casualty of this project and for that I'm thankful. Overall Difficulty:%$##@!#@

The rear door: I'm not an engineer but I have spent enough time with this vehicle to feel justified in saying that the full rear door is the most poorly conceived and executed part on the Defender 90 SW (running gear excluded). One of my major motivations to undertake this project, aside from the obvious warm-weather appeal, was the constant clacking, rattling, and banging of the rear door that damn near sent me to a mental institution on many occasions. I had originally suspected it might have been defective or loose but came to determine that it was just simply not designed to support its own weight never mind the added strain of a 265 75 r16 BFG hanging off the back of it. A word of warning, this door must weigh in the vicinity of 100 lbs. without the tire! Once removed, my tranquility level instantly climbed several notches and this project truly got interesting. The soft top rear door does not bolt on quite like you'd think it would, in place of the SW's door. The lower hinge is about a half-inch too low to bolt the door straight on, and I used a kind of ball-joint doubled up against one of the hinge pins and that seems to have worked for now, though it is sub-optimal. The pin/striker combo also needed to be moved on the body of the vehicle to a lower location. It's too high for the SW door to connect against the door clasp mechanism. This took me about 6 hours to get everything lined up and working properly for this sequence of the project. Overall Difficulty: Very Difficult.

Aluminum top bolts, bolts, and more bolts: At this point its time to go get a beer, maybe take a break, and get mentally prepared for the aesthetically rewarding leg of the project, taking the top off. There are 4 main bolts that hold the top in place, plus a few others in assorted places for structural support. Pretty much anything that looks like the bottom might be connected to the top needed to be removed. There is also a bolt or two up near where the hoop behind the seats attaches to the aluminum top and the (already removed) safari cage arm. It kind of penetrates the top, and secures against a plate. Ok, the top should be free to be removed…or is it? Details to consider before lifting the top off: There are a bunch of wires, tubes and details to be careful of right before you decide to take the aluminum top off. I had wires running up the drivers' side of the windshield frame, up and into the headliner - then to the dome light. I cut almost all of these (in retrospect I probably should have just found their starting points and pulled them from the source, but I was antsy at this point). For the hose that runs back for windshield wiper, fluid I cut the hose and stuffed a 1/8th barb in place to block the line. I also removed the panel that houses the controls for rear defrost, wiper and wiper fluid and completely disconnected the controls for SW-top related switches to head off the urge to press these in an instinctive moment of weakness. Be very careful about the wires at the rear of the vehicle. The wiper tube runs along the top, but there are several wires for things like the wiper motor, the rear defrost, and the brake light that may or may not be part of the wire clump you'll find stuffed inside the door or behind your speakers. Do yourself a favor and tag every single wire. When I rebuilt mine into a SW, I had a major headache after relocating, and rewiring everything. Not a fun step - but can be prevented. Hey, hindsight is 20/20 right?? Overall Difficulty: Moderate

Of course, its sealed: The top is sealed to the top of the body tub with some kind of silicone or something, and REALLY holds. We couldn't break the seal by pushing and lifting, so I took a common kitchen knife and walked it back, around the corner, and then repeated on the other side, thus destroying the seal and creating the point of no return. I also used this method up above the windscreen to break the seal there, too. NOW you can take the top off. Two people were able to walk the top off the back of the vehicle but it wouldn't hurt to have a third for stability if you've got another set of hands kickin' around. After the top is off, make sure to clean up all the sealant that will be left behind. Most came off fairly easily by peeling, though I had a tube of goo-gone ready for trouble areas. Overall Difficulty: Moderate

Install Header Bar: Once the top is off, this piece bolts right into the same holes as those that were used to hold the top itself to the windshield. The header bar is what you slip the stiff plastic front of the soft top into. After the headaches associated with much of the removing process, this was thankfully quite easy. Overall Difficulty: Easy

Remove The SW roll bar, and replace with the ST inner roll cage structure: Remove the seat belt reel assembly from the gray SW roll bar and unbolt it from the floor. This is directly replaced by the v bar and B-pillar uprights that clearly drop right in and replace the gray SW roll bar directly. I had a problem with one seized bolt on the SW bar down by the wheel well, but most people should be able to just unbolt these parts and bolt the new stuff right in. You'll wind up with all the inner structure in place, and here is a good time to attach the seat belt system. Don't let it reel in too far or you'll have a heck of a time getting the belt out again. I safety pinned it to keep it from recoiling in too far. Overall Difficulty: Moderate

Bolt the Safety Devices cage together. I recommend doing it in this order…and bolt these items loosely, about half way in for now.

1. Attach B pillar (behind the seats)

2. Attach diagonal shoulder supports for Bpillar, fasten with backing plate at the top of the tub.

3. Attach C pillar (rear hoop)

4. Join A and B pillar with the cantrails, and bolt together

5. Tighten everything down pretty well, not completely though, but you'll need some sturdiness for step 6.

6. With the safari cage off the vehicle, loosely bolt the longitudinal bars to the front safari cage and with a buddy put it in place with the horns that come off the B Pillar. Line up the holes on the wings and bolt the safari cage in place. Carefully.

7. At this point check to see the structure is in place properly and fully bolt the cage down.

Please note that although they appear similar, the SW front safari cage cannot be used, as the bends are too high (by about an inch) above the windscreen. This was a horrible revelation I had one morning while planning the conversion. I couldn't believe these weren't interchangeable. Unfortunately, this piece was quite expensive and annoyingly different among different model types, years and even VIN numbers. Be careful and try to buy your parts used or if necessary get them new from Mohammed at Europarts. He's good and makes sure you get what you need.

Seatbelts, Soft top items and associated detail: These will differ depending on your top I guess, but I just had to re-attach the seat belt hangers to the B-Pillar, had to drill then rivet the belt rail kit to the outside of the body, and attach the snap/attach bar between the windscreen and B-pillar. Different people will handle this step differently. There are a lot of combinations for the minor details here. After I finished with these details, I took my first breath of fresh spring air (of course, it was raining that day) and then went out to enjoy a spin in my newly configured convertible.

Final Remarks: The reverse direction of this project, as in SW to ST is just as difficult. Thus I recommend taking TONS of pictures like I did, and bag and mark each and every bolt. This made my ST to SW conversion pretty easy. When I went back the other direction I had very few problems. Each direction, SW to ST and ST to SW took about 2.5 full 8am to 8pm days, allowing for meals and sleep. It is a long project. Remember to save all the backing plates and hardware and make a note if you use them for any reason in the Soft Top build. There were a few parts, like the headliner/windscreen bolts that you can use in the ST configuration. You can also reuse many of the torx bolts and don't need to buy too many extras. I had 10 extras from RoversNorth and it was enough. Enjoy!

Check out the pictures here!
(Lots of pictures, so it may take a bit to load)

Parts List
(LR part numbers still being gathered)