How To Remove the Doors?

I want to remove atleast my driver door but by looking at it i dont know how. I have a 95 4door and the top hinge has broken twice before and been re-welded twice before and now is busted again and i just wanna take the door off. And just a question but is driving with the door off illegal in any way or gonna get me in trouble with the cops??

Any help in how to pailessly do this would be great!!

It is not illegal. It is just like driving a jeep wrangler. As long as you have a little ledge when you step into a vehicle it is not illegal.

all though is stated removing the doors on the wrangler is for off road only i guess its not illegal. i see them with out doors all the time.

it may be illegal, you need to check your state.

some states say if its not removable from the factory its illegal to run doorless.

main reason TJ's , yj's, cj's can run doorless is because they have a roll cage, and their doors provide no stuctual integrity.

if you roll an XJ with no doors, it will fold like a tin can.

so will a convertable.

i read on here that people have been ticketed by police for running doorless with XJ's because they are not like that from the factory. thats all.

i know in Alabama it is very lenient. i here all you need is a frame with motor and head lights and brake lights. drove by a guy with a piece of rug for a door. and it was just duct taped on.

Depends on the state. Some states require atleast a "safarri door." It can vary in different towns as well! I've never had much trouble in Va or NC, but do know that in Va Beach the Wrangler guys must have safarri doors. I also knew a guy at Va Beach in a Wrangler who got an "indecent exposure" ticket for simply driving in his TJ w/the top down and shirtless wearing board-shorts. I hate that place!!

Anyway, about the actual process for taking the doors off......it's not the easiest thing to do right and you should be atleast moderately-mechanically inclined. If you're still interested and think you're up for it, I'm sure myself or someone else can give you a few directions. Just know that with the XJ being a unibody, it does majorly alter the structural integrity and it makes it very difficult to get the doors perfectly realligned ever again. It also increases your chances of contracting Jeep Fever!!! Next you'll rip your carpets and headliner out, cut off more doors, use your drain plugs more frequently, etc, etc, etc.......................

o thats wrong. if you can walk on the beach with no shirt on than you should be able to drive that way. and darn i have jeep fever. i have no head liner and was considering removing the rug.

There is a kit to fix the door hinges that Jeep produced a while ago... it is a rivet/bolt on bracket that secures the hinge in place instead of welds. It cost me $25 to get ordered in from the dealership and got them to install it for another $20 since I didn't have access to tools at the time. Fixed my broken door like new. No creaking at all anymore.

The kit comes in two stages, the one to fix a door who's welds are 75% there still, but cracked, and the second stage to fix the door that's fully broken. I'd give you the link I had for the part numbers so you could order it, but I lost that bookmark a while ago.

Open door, reverse quickly next to a tree....repeat on other side!

Really...Remove the torx bolts and remove the doors (remember to disconnect all wiring), then cut the lower portion of the hinge (part bolted to door) up to the first break, then cut the pin allowing the lower portion of hinge to come off. Then all you have to do is lift the door on and off.

I have had cops hassle me about not having a tailgate on my Ranger so I imagine here in Michigan doors would warrant a ticket.

ive had no problems in nh or fl

fender said:

I have had cops hassle me about not having a tailgate on my Ranger so I imagine here in Michigan doors would warrant a ticket.

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No tailgate is a potential safety issue to others - although it's marginally safer than driving with the tailgate present and down... Driving with the tailgate down is somewhat akin to driving a bobtail with the roll-up door rolled up - and that's illegal pretty much everywhere!

I'd suggest checking your state's website for links to the Vehicle Code, this will point you in the right direction for more research. Granted, some things they come up with are pretty silly (in California, for instance, it is illegal to drive without shoes on. Who decided this, and why don't I see "shoe checkpoints" all over? I drive barefoot about half of the time, and have no trouble - but I've probably got a half-inch of callus on the soles of my feet...)

You may want to search around here for "tube doors" and look into that approach - that will give you some sort of door (complying with state laws, if present,) while significantly reducing hinged weight (a tube door is good for 10-15 pounds, vice 40 or so for a full door.) You should be able to do some sort of "weld plate" on the ends of the tube to accept the screws from the hinge, and you can probably re-use the latch mechanism from your old door shells on the tube doors to hold them shut - you'll just have to phoney up some sort of latch actuator. Locks? Don't be silly...

ert01 - don't suppose you might have some idea where you ordered that kit from? I could use a few...

5-90

93_xj said:

some states say if its not removable from the factory its illegal to run doorless.

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as far as im concerned, everything is removable from the factory :firedevil

-Tim

fender said:

I have had cops hassle me about not having a tailgate on my Ranger so I imagine here in Michigan doors would warrant a ticket.

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They may have hassled you, but they didn't write you a ticket, right? That's probably because it's not against Michigan law not to have a tailgate. Also, there is no mention in Michigan's "Vehicle Code" that says anything about running doorless.

I did some research into the "it's illegal to drive barefoot" thing in California. It's an Urban Myth. What the law says is it's illegal to drive with improper footwear, primarily concerning footwear that impairs the safe operation of the vehicle.

Also, I've not seen evidence that the doors of the XJ are part of the structure integrity. As for the top collapsing without the doors installed during a rollover, please show me a picture of this happening. Of the pictures I've seen, none of the rolled doorless XJs showed evidence of the top folding. According to an expert bodyman I talked to, the body structure around the doors are designed as "roll bars" specifically to protect the passengers from roll over.

It's easy to make the doors removable on XJs built prior to 1997.

Remove the Torx bolts, then cut the bottom part of the door hinge. Shorten the door hinge pins, with one a bit shorter than the other to make re-alignment easier. Remove the "buckets" from the body door frame and trim the upper rear lip to gain clearance when removing & reinstalling the doors. Reinstall door and adjust.

On my last XJ I drove around doorless on & off road for years. I also pulled out the side & rear windows for improved ventilation. They're easy to re-install when the rainy season comes around

BEEJSTR said:

Depends on the state. Some states require atleast a "safarri door." It can vary in different towns as well! I've never had much trouble in Va or NC, but do know that in Va Beach the Wrangler guys must have safarri doors. I also knew a guy at Va Beach in a Wrangler who got an "indecent exposure" ticket for simply driving in his TJ w/the top down and shirtless wearing board-shorts. I hate that place!!

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They might get you for other stuff because they feel like it, but there is nothing in VA's vehicle code stating it is illegal to remove the doors.

jeepnuts311 said:

as far as im concerned, everything is removable from the factory :firedevil

-Tim

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yeap, if a cop ever said that, "they need to be removable from the factory", id say well how to you think i got them off? i took out the 6 bolts that were holding them on, just like the wrangler owners have to take off the 2 (on each side)"

thats not a valid point, and you could easily argue against that,
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i do agree, if you rolled it it would probably do more damage without doors than with, but if its going to crush, the sheetmetal doors arent going to prevent that.

I went to the local police station and asked them about it, i guess my cops are a bit nicer than some, they said after looking it up for a couple minutes, "Well, it's not illegal, but be careful. Hey, its a jeep right"
i also asked the state troopers though too, because they tend to be a bit more strict, but they agreed that it was not illegal, but that i should be careful.

Also youll need mirrors