Roll bar year ID

Yesterday I used the pressure washer to strip the old crusty hard padding off the CJ-5 roll bar that came with one of the CJs I bought. Unfortunately I found a totally rotted out spot under the padding so its going to be scrap. I like the factory style roll bar as it mounts on top of the fenderwells only (I am using it for holding up a bikini top not for rollover protection). I am looking for some help in identifying what years had these style roll bars. I know this is an OEM CJ5 roll bar (it has factory body color paint that matched the CJ5 it was removed from). I know factory bars started in 74/75. What year did CJ5 bars start running to the floor instead of just mounting on the fenderwells? I searched through 20 pages of results and was not able to find anything but the start year.

Thanks

Bob

 

I had a 79 cj5 . The factory bar was on top . If I remember , it was more laid back than the 74,75's

 

my 74 mfr date has a rollbar top mount.

 

my 76 -cj 7 has a floor mounted one whether its stock or from a later year is a good guess

 

Pretty sure the CJ-7 bars only originated from the floor - same as the CJ-6 bars.

The most common roll bar in the days I was around was the Whitco bar:



The Whitco bar is nearly the same as the painted factory roll bar from 74-75, and the Renegade roll bar.

There's also the Smittybilt roll bar:



This was the only brand available for the CJ-6. In that case, the hoop went all the way to the floor, and the brace rested on the front corner of the wheel house.

 

I know this is an old thread just wanted to clarify.

CJ7 1976 to early 1979 came from the factory with wheelwell mounted rollbars. ‘79-‘86 came floor mounted.