Can you take the hard top off a Defender?

So, can you take the hard top off is a question that I’m asked a lot of times and the answer is yes, you can definitely take the hard top off and have a completely open top, whether it’s a D110, D90, D130, it doesn’t matter.

The top does come off. There’s just bolts in this top. You take all the bolts loose, which generally I believe is 16 bolts. And then this top comes off. On this truck, of course, being that it’s a D130, it’s going to be a little lighter of a top.

On the D110, that top is going to be slightly heavy. It is going to be a three-man job. I would recommend that you have a pulley system in your garage, so you can just unbolt it, have the ropes under it, pull it up, pull it out of the way. And then when you want to put it back on, you drive back in, drop it down and bolt it up.

This truck though. However, there’s always the however, it does have the headliner in it, the Alcantara, you know, the suede headliner. So if you wanted to take this top off, you would have to take the headliner down to be able to get to all the bolts. So that creates a little more work.

There’s also another, however, if it’s a D90 or a D110, keep in mind, if you’re taking the top off, you have the rear door on the back, which the rear door is a tall door. So you are going to have this tall door sticking up in the back that’s going to look a little odd.

So if you’re thinking that you want to be able to take the top on and off, I would say you should probably just get a roll bar system and get what’s called a Bimini top, which is a canvas top. So during bad weather, you can kind of keep yourself shielded from the rain a little bit. Keep in mind, it’s a Defender.

And if you’re not doing all the carpet inside, if you do the rubber floor mats, it’s fine. If it gets wet inside, they were designed to be able to run through the mud and hose out, no problem, but creating the beach cruiser and if you want to take top off, yes, you can definitely do it, but you’re going to need the pulley system, or you’re going to need three guys to help you ’cause the top does weigh a couple hundred pounds.

So really simple process. It just takes a little while. It will take you to take the top off of a D110 or a D90 probably about an hour. Keeping in mind though, on the D110, the D90, further back, you have the side cargo windows. So you’re picking that entire section up with the windows and with the windows, that’s going to add more pounds. You’re going to be closer to the 300-pound mark. So yep, take the top off, get a Bimini top, get a different rear door so you have the half door back there. It’ll look a lot better than this weird door sticking up in the center. It will just be ugly, but yeah, you can do it.