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96- to 97+ Door Swap

Kejtar

Kejtar

PostMaster General
NAXJA Member
Location
Westminster, SoCal
OK, I just helped Johnny swap the passenger side door and it was rather easy. The biggest fear I had with this swap was the issue of what to do with the striker as the primary big difference between the two doors (96- and 97+) is the position of the striker but that has turned out to be rather trivial at the end.

Anyways, here's the gaping hole.
First test fit. It looks pretty close with no shims on it, but it did end up needing one shim on the bottom hinge.
After drilling out the 97+ striker it can hang like this(damn, looks crooked now) using up top the orignal striker nut which is in the frame (side view)
Final result.

What's left to do? Find an inner door panel and mate the wires (I only spliced the door lock wires for now) and do the drivers door.
 
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Have fun with the wiring. I've completed both back doors and the passenger front. i haven't tackled the drivers side front yet. If you have any Q's let me know and i can see if i can help you out with which wires go where.

Dingo
 
And please keep us informed as far as the wireing goes because I for one have been wanting to transplant 97+ doors on to my 90 two door adn have been a little scared of trying to match things up.
 
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Dingo509 said:
Have fun with the wiring. I've completed both back doors and the passenger front. i haven't tackled the drivers side front yet. If you have any Q's let me know and i can see if i can help you out with which wires go where.

Dingo
Click to expand...
Cool, can you send me the wire matchup for the passenger front? At this point because there is no panel yet all I have wired was the power door lock. The only item that I think will give me trouble is the wiring to the switch panel in the door, but it shouldn't be too hard as with an ohm meter and a volt meter I should be able to match it up.
Anyways what I'm doing is I retained the wiring from the old door and onto it within the door I am splicing the wires for all the goodies. Only downside is that should a new mirror will arrive, I will have to squeeze 4 wires through the existing wiring loom.
 
Just to follow up a bit. I just removed the original fender emblems and painted the lower door to match.

The new door slams shut just like a new car. Can't wait to get the driver's door on. But for now, my Jeep is like one of those circus freaks who look like a man on one side and a woman on the other side. :laugh3:
lv003.jpg
 
Kejtar said:
Cool, can you send me the wire matchup for the passenger front? At this point because there is no panel yet all I have wired was the power door lock. The only item that I think will give me trouble is the wiring to the switch panel in the door, but it shouldn't be too hard as with an ohm meter and a volt meter I should be able to match it up.
Anyways what I'm doing is I retained the wiring from the old door and onto it within the door I am splicing the wires for all the goodies. Only downside is that should a new mirror will arrive, I will have to squeeze 4 wires through the existing wiring loom.
Click to expand...

hmm i may not be able to help with you doin it that way. what i did was just swap the connectors for the door locks and the wimdow motors onto the new harness then swapped the old plug over so that it will match with the unmolested body harness. The main reason i did this was that i had many wires broke at the point where they go from the door to the body. so now with exception of a few inches at the connectors all the wires are new! (at least ALOT less wear than my 91 harness had) If you can use any of my info in your swap just let me know and i'll get the colors for you.

Dingo
 
I would have done this but the doors on my 97 parts vehicle were pretty beat up. I'm going to swap the windows over but that shouldn't be too challenging.
Incidentally I have grey and black door panels that I'll sell if you need them.
 
xjohnnyc said:
Just to follow up a bit. I just removed the original fender emblems and painted the lower door to match.

The new door slams shut just like a new car. Can't wait to get the driver's door on. But for now, my Jeep is like one of those circus freaks who look like a man on one side and a woman on the other side. :laugh3:
lv003.jpg
Click to expand...

Nice, just curious why? Were the old doors FUBAR or just to be different? All you need now is the 97+ fenders, front fiberglass support,etc. The following pic looks like the old 96 and down mirrors.


DSCF3528.JPG


-Mike
 
glub said:
I would have kept the 97+ mirrors.. the old ones are tiny
Click to expand...
doors came from boneyard with no mirrors: someone beat him to 'em.

P.S. You guys are winy sob's.... how's that for size now, better? oh yeah: buy either a bigger monitor or run at a half decent resolution :D I know half of you are old farts but having sizeable fonts so that you can read things doesn't mean you have to have resolution up ;)
 
asatxj said:
I would have done this but the doors on my 97 parts vehicle were pretty beat up. I'm going to swap the windows over but that shouldn't be too challenging.
Incidentally I have grey and black door panels that I'll sell if you need them.
Click to expand...
Acutally it will be harder than you think: The window rails are part of doors.
 
Mike L said:
Nice, just curious why? Were the old doors FUBAR or just to be different? All you need now is the 97+ fenders, front fiberglass support,etc. The following pic looks like the old 96 and down mirrors.
Click to expand...

Did it mostly for the full size windows. It really does make a difference when I look at my right side view mirror. It's nice not having that vertical rail there. And the doors were only $22.50 each - minus panels and mirrors. I'll just use the old mirrors until I can find some cheap in the junkyard...no hurry.

I was telling Remi that I might do the front end. But only if I could find the parts cheap and in white. :)

Do you want my old doors Mike? Free for you.
 
xjohnnyc said:
Did it mostly for the full size windows. It really does make a difference when I look at my right side view mirror. It's nice not having that vertical rail there. And the doors were only $22.50 each - minus panels and mirrors. I'll just use the old mirrors until I can find some cheap in the junkyard...no hurry.

I was telling Remi that I might do the front end. But only if I could find the parts cheap and in white. :)

Do you want my old doors Mike? Free for you.
Click to expand...
I looked today: no new body style jeeps in any of the yards I've visited (3+primo yard).
 
Thanks for checking. Which yards did you go to...Wilmington?
 
Kejtar said:
Acutally it will be harder than you think: The window rails are part of doors.
Click to expand...
I noticed that they are tacked to the door. The rear one seems to be the same so I'll just cut the front one out. The question is how do they attach at the top? (sorry for the partial hijack here)
 
XJEEPER said:
Looks good Remi....when viewed on a 52" monitor....
Click to expand...

well dont run an old man resolution.. what ya got? 800 x 600? :D


awsome write up. post pics of the wiring and of the incertion of the inner door pannel too so we can see a full write up
 
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