84-96 Doorless

[89Laredo]

Tools needed:
BFH
Dremel or Sawzall
Lots of cheap screwdrivers (48c at Home Depot) and other prying utensils
Lots of "heavy duty" cutting wheels if you use a dremel
Time

1:
Disconnect your door check arm, it should be held in with a roll pin.

2:
Get your dremel or sawzall and cut the bottom of the hinge:
http://xjtalk.com/images/special/hinge.jpg

There is also a lip under the hinge bottom. Cut it and bend it out of the way, you can see it here:
http://xjtalk.com/images/special/img_20120320_122034.jpg

3:
After cutting, its time to bang on the hinge and try to pry it off.
Use your "redneck prybar" (screwdriver) and try not to break too many of them (remember I told you to buy cheap ones).

4:
More banging, Prying, Banging, Swearing, sweating, bleeding and almost crying. Eventually you will get the bottom of the hinge off.
http://xjtalk.com/images/special/img_20120319_204928.jpg

5:
Repeat for all the other hinges.
You may run into some bottoms that bring the pin with them. If so, use your dremel/sawzall and cut it off at the very end. Then pound that mofo back where it belongs, in the top hinge. It should be the perfect length, too.

http://xjtalk.com/images/special/img_20120320_161312.jpg

Pounded back in:
http://xjtalk.com/images/special/img_20120320_122017.jpg

6:
Take your kick panels off and unplug everything that goes to the doors:
http://xjtalk.com/images/special/img_20120319_225618.jpg

http://xjtalk.com/images/special/img_20120319_225544.jpg

http://xjtalk.com/images/special/img_20120319_225627.jpg

http://xjtalk.com/images/special/img_20120319_225627.jpg

7:
There is a Grommet on the inside, use your screwdriver and push it out. Pull your wires through, you will end up like this:
http://xjtalk.com/images/special/img_20120319_225549.jpg

8:
Lift the door off. They will be hard. If you have a friend around to help you, tell them to get off their lazy ass and lift.
Repeat for all doors.

9:
Drill/Ream out the hole a little so the pins will slide in easier. I also cleaned up the pins with some 220grit sandpaper till they were shiny, and coated them in grease.

10:
In most states you are required to have two mirrors, one on the drivers side.
I bought this "clamp on blindspot mirror" from Oreillys for 15 bucks and it works good.
http://xjtalk.com/images/special/img_20120321_191611.jpg

11:
You now have a doorless Cherokee, go enjoy it.

[JENSSEN]

Now I do have a friend with a Trail XJ, He did this trick and wheeled the s#it out of it,.. now the doors don't fit as he had no chassis reinforcements,..

[bigjim350]

Pics are HUGE!!

Now I do have a friend with a Trail XJ, He did this trick and wheeled the s#it out of it,.. now the doors don't fit as he had no chassis reinforcements,..

Ive wheeled mine a bit with the doors off and they always go back on fine. Rene has wheeled his for a long tim with no doors and they still fit good too.

[JENSSEN]

Just wanted to give a warning,.. This particular rig was wheeled hard and I don't want someones DD to be twisted up, with any mod there is a chance of damage.

[bigjim350]

Well in theory the doors arent part of the structral integrity. But I guess if wheeled hard enough it could cause permenant damage. But damn it would take some HARD wheeling.

[4.3LXJ]

Just my 2 cents on discussion in these types of articles. I can understand why an original poster would not want any discussion in his article. However as stated, this is not like other forums. We will allow only constructive discussion. No unkind comments will be allowed or left in if they do show up. In theory, if there is only constructive discussion, the article will be ultimately improved. There has been questions and even some short comings in my own tech articles, which was beneficial to the whole thing for those who want to do these types of projects.

[Brasscatz]

Here's a question that may be helpful for a lot of people..... Would tube half-doors aid in keeping the "shape" in order to put doors back on after wheeling without for an extended period of time?

[4.3LXJ]

Here's a question that may be helpful for a lot of people..... Would tube half-doors aid in keeping the "shape" in order to put doors back on after wheeling without for an extended period of time?

That is a good question Jim. I had thought about this same thing yesterday. My opinion is that the doors do aid the unibody with resistance to flexing. I think that if the tube door has an OEM style latch, say off a YJ or something and tied into the hinges, then yes it would give some support to the body.

[Brasscatz]

That is a good question Jim. I had thought about this same thing yesterday. My opinion is that the doors do aid the unibody with resistance to flexing. I think that if the tube door has an OEM style latch, say off a YJ or something and tied into the hinges, then yes it would give some support to the body.

Thanks Steve. That's kinda what I had thought. Purely from a physics standpoint, it had made sense to me. Kinda like (for all of you baseball fans out there) when you aren't using your baseball glove, keep a SOFTBALL in the pocket to keep the shape of the webbing and it won't flatten out. Or even those cedar wood things you put in your dress shoes to keep the shape.

[KH96XJ]

Thanks for the write up.

I can say making my front doors removable was a huge improvement for my jeep when I went wheeling yesterday.

When I did my doors last week I opted to disconnect the wires first and shove them inside the doors so they were out of the way. I also used a long shaft die grinder with a 3" cut off wheel I got from Harbor Freight. Made short work of the hinges and one cut into the lip under the hinge at the same time. I did have to use a dremel on one hinge that wouldn't let me bend it far enough to get over it. The passenger front door will also need to be supported when it gets close to having one of pins out since there wont be anything keeping it on with the pins in from the bottom that was just hammered out.

The front passenger door was the one where the pins were put in from the bottom. Instead of trying to get them out and reusing them I just picked up some 1/4" pins from Home Depot.

I don't remember seeing it in your post, even though I can tell you did it from the photo, you want to cut the pins shorter to make getting the doors off/on easier and so the front doors wont hit the fenders during removal/install.

I like your solution for the mirror and will probably do the same for mine until I get some half doors made.

[Mudderoy]

This thread has been cleaned up.

We don't have very many rules here, but being respectful to one another is the one MAIN rule that we have and enforce.

I don't like editing posts, and thankfully I (we) don't have to do it very often.

If anyone has question, comments, or concerns please PM me directly so we can work out and misunderstandings privately.

Thanks in advance.