come on yall I know you have opinions

 

Well, being as your XJ is your daily driver, I would hold out on doing this just yet. Doors are heavy, once you take them off there is no gurantee that you will be able to get them back on perfectly and have no leaks.

Then again, you don't have power options so it might not be as big of a deal. I'm still curious if the doors actually provide the unibody with some rigidity, and if taking them off completely is a good idea. Carolina Rock Shop makes tube doors for the XJ, that might be a better option than removing the doors and wheeling without.

However, I am not completely sure that the doors do provide rigidity. I have thought about going the tube door route, but man is it cold and I like wheeling in the winter just as much as in the summer.

 

As soon as it starts getting warm I am going to remove mine. Not gonna make any brackets or anything like that, just gonna leave them off till it gets cold again. I am only going to remove the front doors. Im also building a rollcage that will be done before I take my doors off. I am getting a TJ windjammer to put behind the front seats that will strap to the rollcage. This will keep rain and mud front getting in the back.

 

I brought up the rigidity arguement awhile back and everyone seened confident that the doors were not a part of the Unibody strength. As for the leaking--they already do that. And the cold--well I would like to be able to throw the doors on and off, but we'll see. All I know is that I love wheelin in my dads TJ with the doors off, so I thought I'd give it a shot

 

Fletch are you just going to unbolt the hinges from the door and leave them on the body? Got any sketches of the proposed roll cage?

 

Yeah Chris, I used to wheel my YJ hard with the doors off and the top down and come home covered in mud, I matched the YJ. I'll be interested to see how this goes, if you do it.. Hell, if they really don't provide rigidity I may remove all four of mine and install a 12V heater like RVs have :rofl:

The lady friend may not appreciate that though, as she does ride with me occasionally :thumbsup:

 

as soon as my xj isnt a daily driver I will be doing the same thing. I will also be taking the hatch off as well. I like the way they did it on the rustys offroad rig.

 

Yeah I like that rig (rusty's) I was under the impression that the hatch was a structural part though? Jon--how are you going to take them off?

 

I am just going to unbolt everything. As for the cage. I am either going to take a stock cage from a TJ and Fab it to fit my XJ or I will just get some steal, Ive got a pipe bender and a welder at my buddy's house.

 

yeah that sounds like the simplest solution--just to unbolt everything. How hard can it be to realign the doors, right??

 

Im learning to do body work at school. It's really not that hard to align doors. XJ doors can't be as heavy as the crown vic doors I have practiced with.

 

CW--whats the trick to getting them lined up properly?

 

CW--whats the trick to getting them lined up properly?

Bolt it all up and close it to see how off it is. The loosen the proper bolts and move it up or down or front or back. You can probably just line it up with the paint lines from the factory, that is the way we cheat at school. It's really not that hard. Although I have never tried it on a lifted truck. You may need some help lifting it and holding it there. The first bolt normally takes sometime. But once it is in it is easy.

 

Sounds even easier than my original idea of making a quick release. How to you get the pins out of the hinges? Bang the crap out of the or something?

 

i have my front doors set up to be removeable- I removed the rollpins in the hinges and use hitch-pins to keep the doors on (the kind with the little spring-loaded ball near the end) and have Molex connectors for the power accessory wires (locks & windows) i relocated the door-mounted speakers to some of those q-forms kickpanel speaker pods, so I can enjoy some tunes even with the doors off.

I can have my doors off nearly as quick as my buddies with TJs can get their doors off. getting them back on is a little trickier, but can be done by yourself- much easier with another set of hands though

 

does anyone know the legality of driving with a doorless XJ, or an XJ with tube doors? i'd like to be able to drive mine on and off road w/o doors if at all possible.
-Heath

 

does anyone know the legality of driving with a doorless XJ, or an XJ with tube doors? i'd like to be able to drive mine on and off road w/o doors if at all possible.
-Heath

this varies by state

 

Well I've done a bunch of researching on this topic and read tons of threads on it on many forums. Basically it boiled down to: no it doesn't affect structural rigidity and it's illegal to remove them if you have side support beams. I believe they added those in 94+ cherokee's but not sure. I know my 91 has the exterior metal and the interior metal and definately nothing that would really help in a side impact. Basically it's illegal to remove any doors if you have those side impacts beams. I assume this follows the same law as airbags. You don't need them unless the car comes stock with them.

I also emailed the guy who wrote that article about how his removable doors turned out and if he liked them. He said they sagged a little at first but he just loosened all the bolts on the hinges and adjusted them accordingly to compensate for the sag so it's like normal now. In case others didn't know he also said that the mass of wires has a connector at the base of the door so you can just unclip and feed it through the door. Says he loves them now and couldn't imagine going back to stock.

 

Yeah I like that rig (rusty's) I was under the impression that the hatch was a structural part though? Jon--how are you going to take them off?

I dont believe so but I could be wrong. I plan to put in a cage that would compensate for that anyway. Does anyone know if it is a structural part?

 

i seriously doubt it, since the older ones were fiberglass

 

cbremmer-- can you snap some pics of your modified hinges? thanks

 

Well I've heard most people say that removing the hatch would compromise structural integrity. However, from an engineering stand point, I can't possibly see how a moving door with rubber seals could possibly be load bearing.

Also since XJ's are unibody's then I would think the frame would have to bend before the body and if I can see the body is moving a considerable amount during normal driving then I'll never wheel the XJ again. The only way I could see the hatch helping is during a roll over in which case it will be load bearing.

If you take the hatch off then you'll definately hear more rattling because you're more exposed to the sounds the Jeep makes anyway. You raise it up and leave it there and drive and you'll definately feel some shimmy and bouncing but I'm pretty sure that's only because you've got a huge moment arm attached to 2 little hinges that's just banging around.

 

Yeah ^^^^^ I was under the same impression that the hatch was load bearing, but I never wanted to take that off, just the doors. Good to know though

 

cbremmer-- can you snap some pics of your modified hinges? thanks

by all means these are the pass side front.

lower hinge close-up

Molex (electrical) connector

the whole arrangement:

"Cotterless Hitch Pins" (i got these at home depot, about $1.50 a piece IIRC):

 

Hey thanks a lot. How did you get the original pins out of the hinges? Thanks again

One more thing--can you make a quick release thing for speaker wire like you can electrical wires? I'm no audio whiz but why wouldn't it work :drool: ?

 

first off, I removed (unbolted) the doors for more room to work. for one of the pins I was lucky enough to be able to tap it out with a hammer & punch. for the other 3, I had to cut the pins with a cutoff wheel between each side of the hinge, then was able to use a punch to remove the pieces of the pins from the hinges. i drilled the holes where the pins were to 17/64" so the new pins aren't impossible to remove . the doors do have a little up & down movement when open, but are solid (and waterproof) when closed. you'll have to adjust the hinges to compensate for the slightly larger hole in the hinges. i removed the upper shims (between the door and the hinge) and that did the trick in my case.

the Molex connectors are available in many different pin configurations. I used 12-pin connectors (3 rows x 4 pins per row). i have power accessories, so the driver's door had the most wires. I relocated the speakers to the kick-panel pods, so I didn't bother to include the speaker wires in the connectors, but there's no reason you couldn't. each wire has to be cut, then a male and a female terminal is crimped on, then the terminals are snapped into the plastic connector. must make sure the wires match up, or you'll let the smoke out! the plastic connector itself is keyed so it can only be connected one way.