I searched.... and another doorless thread begins

Got the doors off my 99' xj no problem, just unbolted them from the door. So both the door and unibody hinges are still hanging and attached. I want to make my doors removeable. I found a link to a 97' and later doorless writeup searching to www.xjfanatic.com .......but you click the link and get a "this accout has been suspended" message. I also found searching that some people think the new style hinges are weaker than pre- 97'. so can I do something like the writeup on www.projectxj.com.



here is my hinges and pin. I'm thinking about grinding off the bottom of the pin on both sides (driver's and pass.) and driving the pin up and out on the driver's side and down on the pass. side out. Then replacing it with a bolt. Drop in style. I'm thinking it'll be a pain to remove and replace doors this way though.

Any ideas, writeup links, suggestions, pictures would be greatly appreciated. sorry I am a noob but I searched like mad for hours and still found nothing extremely usefull for 97' and later xj's

Guess i'lll have to reply to my own thread.....sad...

This is how I did it. We start by unbolting the doors from the hinges. there is 3 torx bolts to each hinge. Mine came out fairly easy but be careful these strip easy. When you're all done remeber to replace these with hex bolts for easier removal later. The first picture is of an untouched hinge in the closed position so you can see what we're working with. This is the passenger's side and the pin has been pushed up through the hinge from the factory.

Click on all images for larger view



Driver's side



Ok so now we have to grind the top of that pin out. Doesn't matter if you grind off the top or the bottom of the pin. I ground off the pin at the top of each hinge cause it's easier to hammer the pins down through the hinge than up. At first I used a 4 1/2" angle grinder but it proved to large for the job. Dremels work the best here, a little slower but more pecise.



so grind off the top of the pin then use a hammer and punch and hamer it out. Air hammer works a lot faster but either way works. It takes some time to punch the pin through.



then finish hammering it out. It will get caught again going through the bottom of the hinge. I used a broke phillips screwdriver shaft and a smaller hammer to drive the pin off the bottom of the hinge



this is the pin you're pushing out



This is after I dropped in the 5/16-18x4 hex cap grade 5 screws I picked up at Lowe's.



To finish up the hinges need put back on the door (using hex bolts) and the 5/16 bolts need the thread part cut off and the bottom ends rounded off. I havn't got that far but I don't think there will be a lot of slop in the doors. With just the bolts in the hinges the hinges move a little more than before but still a great fit. I'll post up when the doors are back on.

How much different are the hinges between pre-97 and post-97

non similar

http://www.freewebs.com/mrmontez2000/DoorlessMod.htm

theres a writeup for "pre 97" although those are on his 97 and my 97 as well.

Ran into something this weekend that might be of concern for some people...

I had a customer give me a call on his 97 XJ. He tells me that he's having a hard time modifying his hinges for his new set of tube doors. I explain what he needs to do and he goes on his way. Get a call about 30 minutes later asking if we're on the same page. yada yada yada... I tell him to send me a pic of his hinges. Turns out his was correct: 84-96 hinges on his 97 XJ. Weird thing was, 97+ latches are in a different location than -96 latches BUT his latches are in the 97+ location. Also, the doors have been completely unmolested. I was thinking maybe a previous owner got creative? They're the same doors that came on the vehicle.

Fortunately the guy welds for a living so I sent him out a new set of hinges real quick that he'll place in the -96 location.

If anyone has doubts, I have photos for reference...

__________________
matthew - 96 xj
formatt fabrications
www.formattfab.com

Re: no, not a new thread - keep your pants on

XJ_Vikings said:

http://www.freewebs.com/mrmontez2000/DoorlessMod.htm
theres a writeup for "pre 97" although those are on his 97 and my 97 as well.

Click to expand...

THis was a good source, and I'm glad I did a search before I started a new thread (so I didn't get flamed) to ask the same question for a pre-97.
I was thinking of doing the exact same thing as the link posted above so I can quickly switch between hard doors, and then my tube doors w/ custom soft top uppers irate1: (picked up another set of hinges to keep on my tube doors, too :clap: )
Also found this good info on another thread:

chubbyhick said:

cut off bottom of hinges, tack weld the pin on top, make the top pin slightly shorter,(will help getting them on and off) and bevel the bottom of both pins it works great. had mine that way for 2yrs

Click to expand...

My only concern was the strengh of the hinge at this point and whether or not it would hold up the weight of a long 2-door style door with power windows and such.
Anyone done this same mod with a 2-door? Does it affect the hinges that much?

I was thinking of going to the farm store and getting some 5/16" galvanized pins, drilling out the two remaining holes on each hinge (after the cutting mod) to 5/16" and using those as my door pins.

cruizer8525 said:

there is 3 torx bolts to each hinge. When you're all done remeber to replace these with hex bolts for easier removal later

Click to expand...

What size hex bolts do you use? And what length?