For ya'll that wheel doorless?

Do you ever have problems with the doors lineing back up when you put them on? I'm wooried about twisting up the unibody. Are the tube doors really needed? Might take my doors off this weekend (there's some nice writeups on here) but I wanna be able to put them back on without fitting problems. Thanks!
Trevor

i've never had a problem putting my doors back on

hoytinak said:

Do you ever have problems with the doors lineing back up when you put them on? I'm wooried about twisting up the unibody. Are the tube doors really needed?

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Do not worry...the doors will line up, they are NOT part of the structure of the XJ. Tube doors would do nothing even if the XJ doors were part of the structure, all a tube door does is keep your butt in the seat and the branches out.

HTH

Rev

I had mine off yesterday. Couple grade 8 bolts holding em in and I can take them off in about 10 seconds and back on in about triple that.

Nice!

I love the look of tube doors..

I was concerned about this as well.. good to hear some reassurance..

Yeah thanks for the replys guys! Looks like i'll be taking them off for sure this weekend. I just don't really like to looks of most of the tube doors i've seen, i'd rather just go doorless.
Trevor

hoytinak said:

Yeah thanks for the replys guys! Looks like i'll be taking them off for sure this weekend. I just don't really like to looks of most of the tube doors i've seen, i'd rather just go doorless.
Trevor

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Tube doors are for protection, if you fall to the side on a rock it will crush your hip. My passenger side tube door, welded not hinged is bent in afew inches from how much it gets used. Be careful.

i have both front and rear doors off... never any problems with things lining back up.

If for some reason you do have an issue, your hinges are made to be ajustable. when you "pin" your doors, you'll see what i mean. you'll have to adjust them to put your doors back on for the first time. not tough at all.

The doors are structural. You don't need them to keep the unibody strength, but if you twist up your XJ and it is old, then you might have a problem with them after dishing out alot of abuse on your XJ. I'm planning on making up some 1/2 doors.

tiger said:

The doors are structural. You don't need them to keep the unibody strength, but if you twist up your XJ and it is old, then you might have a problem with them after dishing out alot of abuse on your XJ. I'm planning on making up some 1/2 doors.

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I HOPE you are joking.

Rev

tiger said:

The doors are structural. You don't need them to keep the unibody strength, but if you twist up your XJ and it is old, then you might have a problem with them after dishing out alot of abuse on your XJ. I'm planning on making up some 1/2 doors.

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I would suggest making 1/2 doors, you want the protection the door provides, but still want the visibility too.

The following statement is just my professional opinion. So please reguard any info you don't like as SPOBI.

Alright I have been in to Collision Repair field for 9 years. I specialize in unibody structure. And I feel that I have enough experience to voice MY OPINION on the doorless thing.

Your doors are ONLY structural in HIGH impact sitituations. As in moderate speed frontal offset impacts with speeds of 35+mph. You ever watch the NTSB and Insurance board offset frontal impact at 35mph videos. You will see that your doors are structural. Infact there are laws that state the OEM doors, as well as 85% of the windshield MUST remain closed and intact at the 35mph offset frontal impact. (97 to present)

Now offroad unless you are seriously flogging(rolling) your rig you WON'T twist the unibody. And if your flogging it, you probably don't care if your unibody is twisted anyway. The unibody resists twisting hell of alot more then any OEM framed rig. I can take a framed rig and turn it into a pretzel with a pair of 10 ton frame towers. A unibody would tear long before it twisted. Infact I have seen many framed rigs twisted and diamonded, but I can never remember a single unibody that was twisted and diamonded.

So to sum it up. The only time I would worry is when your on the street, you never know which driver going the opposite way could cross the yellow line :skull1: Your doors could be the difference between a trip to the ICU and a trip to the morge. It is your call. Go ahead go doorless, I plan to, just know the consequences.

Hans

I don't know man. Most people will say you will have no problems, and they are probally right. My door hinges have been welded back on, and after wheeling I have all kinds of problem getting them to line up. Most of this is not having a full cage when I need one, but the older you xj gets I think you might have problems getting the doors back on correctly. Like I said most of this is not having what I need for what I do. Just my 2.12 cents

If you unpin your doors you should have no problem. but if you UNBOLT your doors good luck it isn't easy to get a door CORRECTLY adjusted. The first door I adjusted probably took me two hours, and now with LOTS(hundreds) of practice I can do them in 15-30 minutes depending.

The order I do it is
Height-measured at bodylines
Front to back -measured even top to bottom gaps front and rear
Front depth- even with front fender
Back depth- even with 1/4 or rear door
Angle- follows contuer of rear and front
POP- no "pop" sound when you push the door handle button.

And there are more adjustments between all of those.

Hans

The easiest way I found to align the doors after hinge modification is to start all three bolts in each door hinge to where they are almost tight, but still allow some movement. Set the door into place by sliding the pins into the body hinges. Shut the door completely and shim it up at the bottom to get your bodylines right. Go in through the wheelwells with the torx bit on a long extension. Tighten the two bolts that you have access to in each hinge. Open the door and tighten the third bolt. Done.

thanks again for all the tips guys!...gonna give it shot tomorrow!
Trevor

93xjmark said:

The easiest way I found to align the doors after hinge modification is to start all three bolts in each door hinge to where they are almost tight, but still allow some movement. Set the door into place by sliding the pins into the body hinges. Shut the door completely and shim it up at the bottom to get your bodylines right. Go in through the wheelwells with the torx bit on a long extension. Tighten the two bolts that you have access to in each hinge. Open the door and tighten the third bolt. Done.

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gonna have to give this a try tomorrow, tired of all the wind noise

I agree.

93xjmark said:

The easiest way I found to align the doors after hinge modification is to start all three bolts in each door hinge to where they are almost tight, but still allow some movement. Set the door into place by sliding the pins into the body hinges. Shut the door completely and shim it up at the bottom to get your bodylines right. Go in through the wheelwells with the torx bit on a long extension. Tighten the two bolts that you have access to in each hinge. Open the door and tighten the third bolt. Done.

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Also the visiablity with the half doors is great.



The only trouble I've had was after a two hour trip down the interstate my rear window was 40% loose from the hatch.

Now it could have been that I have a box-bench in the back about level with the bottom of the windows and that I had slept in there the night before (not quite long enough for me)

Or it could have been the wind coming thur the half door.

Either way I put a catch at the top corners to hold the glass in place.

Daryl

PM me if you want more info on my half doors.

i doubt it was the doors, i have run down the highway with no doors for an hour or two on more than one occasion without incident

In that case I must have been pushing on the window with my feet trying to get more room in my sleep.

Daryl