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Removing XJ Doors

nolosses4

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Raleigh, NC
Since summer is about to roll through I was tinkering today trying to find an easy way to get the doors off my '94 XJ. Speakers are the only things with wires in there so I thought it'd be no problem. Problem is though that since it's 11 years told everything on there (hinge-bolts and hinge pins) are either rusted in there or aren't meant to come out. If anyone has any way to get these doors off please let me know.
 
Cut the lower hinge on both hinges on both doors, hammer the daylights out of the part cut off, that and a little PB and wallah! The worst part is watch the hinge on the passenger side the pins come from the bottom up, meaning if you remove them you will have to replace them I used grade 8 1/4 bolts and cleared out the holes in the hinges I can take off/put on my doors pwrlock/windows, and speakers both doors in less then 5 min. It is great by the way, :lecture:
 
to remove the door you should'nt be taking the hinge off, theres no reason for it unless your replacing them. it will be harder to line up when you go to put the door back on. just disconnect the hardness, pop out the door catch pin then open the door and thake the bolts out that hold the hinge to the door, you can easily get in there a at least a wrench if not even an air ratchet.

eric
 
I've had removable doors for years. To make your life easier while re-installing your doors, you'll need to remove the hinges from the body to trim the pans they sit in. Otherwise they'll get in the way making re-installation more difficult. I also trimed the upper pin to bit a little shorter than the bottom. That way you can get the bottom one lined up first, then the top. I found this easier than trying to line up both at the same time. My doors have mechanical window regulators and door locks, and are quite heavy. (My Cherokee is a two door.) You'll definitely appriciate anything that makes re-hanging them easier & faster. Re-aligning the doors after removing the hinges to make the modifications is easy and in one instance, we improved the door fit.

I used the stock hinge pins for a long time until one worked it's way out on the trail. I replaced it with one of those pins with a hole cross drilled through it for a clip (it's name escapes me at the moment). My buddy used a set of wiring couplers from a Honda foro teh electric window & door lock harnesses
 
mistwolf is right on the money.. you do need to take the hinges off. on the passenger side, you'll also need to pull the pin out of the bottom piece that you hammer out. you'll transfer it over to the upper piece. also, it's just as easy to pick up a couple 1/4" grade 8 bolts. wallowing out a notch in the hinge pan and shortening the top pin by a 1/4" is the secret to getting your doors back in really easily. it's nice to have an extra set of hands around when you're pulling the 6 torx head bolts out of the hinge (door side), to hold onto the door. the rears are a lot easier to do because they're lighter.

also, i HIGHLY recommend swapping out those 6 bolts with standard 3" M8 metric hex head bolts... be sure to add a little lock-tite to them.

my buddy brian (fatwreck) has a decent writeup on his site: www.projectxj.com look under the "mods" section.

there are a few things that i'd change about his writeup but it'll definitely get you going in the right direction.

if you need/want any specific pics, drop me an email and i'll grab some for you real quick: matthew (at) formattfab.com

good luck!
 
Everyone is right about the doors adding no structural support in normal conditions. The one time they do offer alot of structural support is in a collision. The doors on an XJ are like the doors on any other vehicle, in a front or rear impact they're designed to jam together in the door opening and keep the sides from buckling. A while back someone posted a pic of the XJ with no doors at all after they had just backed into a tree, the rear door opening compressed and the whole rear end was left aiming upwards. It looked more like a 40 mph rear collision from another car. Imagine what a 40 mph collision with another car would have looked like.
Not trying to scare anyone, I know it's becoming more popular to drive on road without doors. I hadn't heard anyone mention it, just thought I'd throw in my 2 nickels(inflation)
 
I've been meaning to take off my doors. I did that alot on my YJ and CJs, why not the XJ too? There are quite a few write ups about it so it can easily be done.
 
this helped alot guys. i finally got em off today by cutting the bottom 1/2 of the hinge(door side) off with a sawzall, which by the way was a HUGE pain. I went through 12 blades because there is little to no room for a recipricating saw to get in there. On the passenger side the pins came out just fine after i sawed the hinge but the pins would budge a bit on the drivers side even after the whole door is off. when and if i ever get those things out, im gonna replace them with some nuts and weld them to the top like projectxj.com recommended. if you guys have any tips on how the f im gonna get those pins out lemme know (today i used propane, then matt gas and neither one would budge the pins). thanks.
 
hackedxj said:
Everyone is right about the doors adding no structural support in normal conditions. The one time they do offer alot of structural support is in a collision. The doors on an XJ are like the doors on any other vehicle, in a front or rear impact they're designed to jam together in the door opening and keep the sides from buckling. A while back someone posted a pic of the XJ with no doors at all after they had just backed into a tree, the rear door opening compressed and the whole rear end was left aiming upwards. It looked more like a 40 mph rear collision from another car. Imagine what a 40 mph collision with another car would have looked like.
Not trying to scare anyone, I know it's becoming more popular to drive on road without doors. I hadn't heard anyone mention it, just thought I'd throw in my 2 nickels(inflation)
you guys think half doors would help at all?
 
hackedxj said:
just thought I'd throw in my 2 nickels(inflation)

and i have a new signature!
 
rich..

pull the center pin, leave both sides of the existing hinge on both the body and door side, replace the OEM pin with a grade 8 bolt. your doors won't come off as nearly as easily as the early model "pinning" technique but you can make them removeable. this is definitely a 2 person job due to needing someone to hold the door while taking the OEM pins out. i would recommend, cutting a section of the pin out from the middle, pounding the bottom portion out and leaving the top portion in the door to help keep it in place. do this on both ends. once you get the bottom portion out of both the top and bottom, lift the door out and work on getting that top portion of the pin out.

i haven't tried it yet but i *think* with a little door side hinge bracing/reinforcing, you could "pin" your 97+ doors. i think i'd opt for not going that route though. look at the 97+ hinge and the -96 hinges.. the -96 hinges are substantially beefier.
 
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