84-96 rear hatch to my 99 XJ

I desperately want to mount round 4" LED tail lights on my 99 XJ. All the tail housings are for 84-96 models. I know the hinges are different (interior vs exterior) between 84-96 and 97-01, but I think the square style wouldn't look bad at all on the 97-01 body. (the other way around might look silly though).

Anyway, I was wondering if i grab a 96 hatch from the JY, and deal with the hinges, can the switch be made?

Any write ups or advice would be appreciated

johnw00d said:

I...... if i grab a 96 hatch from the JY, and deal with the hinges, can the switch be made?

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Not unless you also grab the entire steel hatch opening and then graft it onto your XJ.

what do you mean?

The rear hatch i have now is steel, but the 84-96 hatches are fiberglass.

Or are you referring to something I am unaware of? Would you mind explaining what that is?

by JY i meant junk yard.. in case you read it as YJ

id be taking a 84-96 XJ rear hatch

he's talking about the way the hinges mount to the body, its alot of work for nothing. your brtter off building patch panels, then mounting the 4" lights into the steel hatch

I would have no idea how to patch steel over the existing tail light housing area. Also wouldn't it be hard to create a clean look?
I am painting my Xj like in this picture as well so the square lines of the 84-96 hatch look best.

Is there a procedure to switching the hinges?

regardless you will need this thing called a welder, you can do the easy way or the hard way

The front and rear of the XJ was redesigned in 97, and while the newer front end can be easily made to fit on pre-97 XJ's, the rear door frame and steel hatch were a complete redesign that would require you to cut the entire door housing off of a pre-97 rig and graft it onto you 99 rig......

A much simpler solution (and one that wont make you want to take your own life or burn your rig to the ground) to install the round LED taillights that you desperately desire, is to purchase steel taillight housings from one of the armor vendors and then modify them to accept the 4" round housings, if they cannot be ordered that way. You can still paint your rig to match the ORF rig, the only difference is the body line on the hatch will be painted only, not part of the sheetmetal stamping (for fiberglass moulding, as with the pre-97 hatch)

Yeah, the chassis is different, the gasket sealing surface contour is different, basically you're in for a world of pain if you try and do this just to make tail lights fit. Either buy premade tail light housings that will fit a late model, or fabricate some yourself, it will take less time than doing the unibody modifications that will be needed to fit the older hatch and will come out better.

I've searched all over for premade housings that fit 97-01 XJs. No luck

I have the housings that fit 84-96. If there is anyone in Minnesota that could modify those I would be in your debt.

Also is cutting my existing liftgate somehow a possibility?

The two liftgate styles appear the same on top as far as curvature, is there really a problematic difference?

Look, if you're so focused on this dumb idea, go the hell ahead and try it. I'm not wasting more time on this.

For the love of God, yes there is a difference as everyone above has pointed out? You are unable to fab up or mod existing taillight housings but you want to backhalf you xj to fit a new (old) hatch to fit taillights?

Oh yeah, try checking out JCR rear quarter panels and/or their taillight housings. They make them for 97+ and you can have someone convert those to round. Seriously about a billion times easier than what you are contemplating

I doubt that the '97+ housings could be converted to round, at least not within the envelope of their current dimensions. I think the reason JCR uses the oval lights is on account of the fact that those housings are not wide enough to take the 4" round lights. I haven't measured the difference in width, but my eyes tell me the '97+ taillights are too narrow for the 4" diameter.

I don't think there is a simple way for the OP to achieve his goal. To modify the rear of a '97+ to take those taillights would be a substantial body modification. I could certainly be done, just like putting Cadillac taillights on pickup trucks was popular a decade or so ago, but it would be a job for a competent body man.

Easiest solution is to sell the 99 and buy a pre-97.

my last reply i didn't see a few responses before it, i apologize if I seemed a tad redundant.

First of all, I understand all the body changes made 97-01, I didn't know that switching a lift gate would require welding a new housing. I have never been able to look at a pre 97 XJ to compare, so thank you for clarifying that.

Second, The 97-01 housings I have seen available online house an oval LED over a small round LED. It appears there wouldn't be enough room for 4" round LEDs unless the housing was angled somehow. The reason why I am looking for any available solution to mounting these lights in a clean fashion is because I purchased the lights before I realized there wasn't a housing to hold them for sale.

I don't have welding equipment so any fabrication, lift gate or tail light housing is beyond my scope. I could borrow the equipment but I have no idea what I am doing ha.

Thank you all for taking time to respond, I realize some of these questions may be no brainers for y'all, but I just started putting work into my jeep a couple months ago and have been teaching myself everything as I go along.

I wonder if there are 97-01 Size housings with no holes in them, in which I could cut 4" holes out...... or i guess I'm just selling the ORO LED lights I bought lol

thanks again

The 97-up housings are not as wide as older models.
I would guess that if you ordered 97-up light boxes from JCR that you could ask for no light cutouts. I would consider selling the lights you got, unless you want to cut holes in your hatch and use them for that.
I guess, as some have stated, if you get aftermarket housings and want to use your lights, you would need to trim your hatch so that the lights would would "fit" in the housings and area they need.
I would take a tape measure or caliper and measure the distance from your hatch to the outer edge of your stock lights and see what this distance is. And see if using your existing LED lights is feasable and something you want to do.

As far as the hatch goes, not only are the body lines different. But the mounts are different as well. 96-down use external mounts with shims with a fiberglass hatch. And the 97-up has a steel hatch with internal mounts.

Yeah I know there are a few differences in rear hatch design. Prior to these responses I just was curious if those details could be modified or worked around. I have my answer, so thanks.

In response to cutting my steel hatch it could be done to fit the pre 97 housings I have. It would require cutting the roll weld though, thus needing further welding to seal the hatch. The challenge, and my question would be, how would I fill in the leftover gap on top? The difference between the taller 97-01 style and the shorter pre 97, and also make it clean enough to paint and match my jeeps gunmetal color.

johnw00d said:

Yeah I know there are a few differences in rear hatch design. Prior to these responses I just was curious if those details could be modified or worked around. I have my answer, so thanks.

In response to cutting my steel hatch it could be done to fit the pre 97 housings I have. It would require cutting the roll weld though, thus needing further welding to seal the hatch. The challenge, and my question would be, how would I fill in the leftover gap on top? The difference between the taller 97-01 style and the shorter pre 97, and also make it clean enough to paint and match my jeeps gunmetal color.

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What I was saying, is to use 97-up housings, uncut. So, that the lines are correct-ish. Because the housings are not wide enough, you would need to partially modify the housings, and cut enough out of the hatch to be able to open/close it properly, without interfering. Basically you would have a couple of semi circle cuts in each side of the hatch. Which should not affect the integrity of the hatch.

Ok I see what you're saying.

Thanks for all the responses everyone. I know it seems a bit silly probably, but when I get an idea in my head of what I want, it's not easy to settle for second best haha

I could make it happen, but it would probably cost more than the truck is worth to do so...

I like my trucks custom, but its also very $$$$ to do so...