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Hard Roof Top Hollow or Foam Construction?

IanNubbit

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Parts are double layered with no air gap, parts are double layer with an air gap, but majity is single layer meaning no ability to have foam. If you look around the inside of the top it's easy to see where the different layers meet. The whole rear is basically all single layer. the freedom panels are majority double layer with an air gap at the indentions.
 
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Snuggly Ranger

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Thank you. Sorry for any confusion in my question. I was just wondering if the hard tops/freedom panels are hollow or not? If thy are, I was thinking about filling them with an expanding foam…
 

IanNubbit

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Thank you. Sorry for any confusion in my question. I was just wondering if the hard tops/freedom panels are hollow or not? If thy are, I was thinking about filling them with an expanding foam…
You'll have to drill into them, in about 5 or 6 different spots, and the amount of foam you'll be able to put in will be very tiny. I've also seen people split the multiple layers putting in too much expanding foam.
 

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Labswine

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I believe the back part is hollow. When I had my rear window leak, I could hear the water sloshing back and forth in the rear part, under the window.

This is why I was able to convince my dealership to replace the entire roof because they couldn't get all the water out and if it froze in the winter, the ice inside could expand and crack the top making things worse.
 

HooliganActual

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Ok thank you. I will just stick with the sound dampening mats
A+ for thinking outside the box, so to speak.

It's been covered already but I'll further confirm that parts of the roof are air gapped; when I installed my RhinoRack BackBone it was obvious that there was an outer skin and an inner skin and then gap wasn't the same at each drilling. I'll also echo that expanding foam might not expand int he directions you would hope...

If you are trying to minimize road noise, there are a couple things you could do:
1) Sound dampening mats as you've stated
2) CoverKing Topliner (I did mats and the Topliner and it signifacantly helped)

If you are just trying to get your hard top to conduct less heat, both of the above will help as well as you could:
1) Paint your roof white or silver
2) Install a roof rack. My 2016 JKUR has the AEV Brute Platform (which is just a rebranded Rhino Rack Pioneer Platform) and the 2020 JTR has the RhinoRack Pioneer Platform. All of the Arizona sun beating down on them means it's not beating down on the hard tops and the cabs are a bit cooler as a result.
 

Rahkmalla

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If you are trying to minimize road noise, there are a couple things you could do:
1) Sound dampening mats as you've stated
2) CoverKing Topliner (I did mats and the Topliner and it signifacantly helped)
don't forget armorlite. makes quite the difference.
 

HooliganActual

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don't forget armorlite. makes quite the difference.
True. There are a myriad of things that can be done with regard to the floor, doors, windshield, cowl with relation to noise. I just wasn’t sure what he was after since he only called out the roof.
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