Refinishing Half Doors - Winter Project
- Thread starter MikekiM
- Start date
Truth told the Jeep paint is in excellent shape. I just failed to wash the jeep before hanging the clean half doors. I either have to wash the Jeep or get the doors dirty!Looks awesome. Too awesome! Now you have to repaint the Jeep too
They did come out great. Can't lie...I've lost track of what I spent on them. The uppers are an absolute nightmare though.. trying to straighten the pins so the uppers slide in is like walking in circles. Going to buy another set of frames. There is a guy who sells on eBay who, in general, is stupid expensive. But he is local to me and I've gotten to be friends so he cuts me decent deals. He has literally dozens of half and full doors. Regular uppers and soft and rigid sliders. My hope is to get these to fit well enough to use them year-round.
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Put a fork in this project... it's Done.
A replacement set of upper frames did the trick. The slide in and out easy enough. I swapped over the Smittybilt skins I had which was very likely the hardest thing I have done on the TJ.. good lord, my hands hurt today. Everything came together well enough.
My impression after a day and a half of driving....
The new challenge.. Where to store the uppers when I pop them out away from home? I still have my back seat in, and use a Bestop InstaTrunk. I've had my eye on a Tuffy Rear Security Enclosure" to replace the InstaTrunk which would solve this problem, but I haven't resolve my reluctance to remove the back seat and I am not ready to drop $700 on that.
For anyone who stumbles across this thread in the future...
A replacement set of upper frames did the trick. The slide in and out easy enough. I swapped over the Smittybilt skins I had which was very likely the hardest thing I have done on the TJ.. good lord, my hands hurt today. Everything came together well enough.
My impression after a day and a half of driving....
- I love the half door look as much as I thought I would
- The door repaint and interior panels came out great. Thanks to @sab for the push pins for the door panels.
- The interior feels more spacious with the uppers out and oddly, even with them in
- I use the soft-top year round and I find the noise lever no different with the half doors & soft uppers than I do with the full doors
- The seal is great with the exception of a pea sized opening on both sides where the front lower corner of the upper meets the junction of the a-pillar and top of the door. I can't feel any air blowing through, but a direct hit with water is going to find its way in for sure.
- I scratched the refinished drivers side interior door panel messing with the ill-fitting frames. Done is done. It was bound to happen and I am convincing myself better now than later.
- The little metal zipper pulls were jingling while driving and it was maddening. I cut off those pulls and replaced them with some cordage. Problem solved.
- The windows... a "two hand job" to zip or unzip them once they are folded in (normally anything called a "two hand job" would be a bundle of fun..
. This.. not so much) - All the weather stripping is stiff and though the doors are as well aligned as they can be, they still need to be slammed to close them. I mean SLAMMED. So much so the mirrors move and now THAT is maddening. Checked a buddies halfies with OE Mopar slider uppers and those open and close nicer than my full doors. Gotta give these some time. And, I'll probably change to the newer style TJ mirrors and put these back on the full doors
- For as nice as the paint and panels came out, it doesn't take an eagles eye to see the quarter-decade old TJ paint is, well, not as nice as the doors are
- The passenger side door, though centered properly, didn't press the dome light pin enough to turn off the light. I put a small adhesive backed rubber disc on the door jamb which added just enough thickness to activate the pin. Problem solved.
- The decision to leave off the interior lock levers' actuator rod.. not sure if that was smart. I do have the antitheft nuts on the door pins and likely won't lock the doors, but... just not sure about that decision
- There is one section at the back of the upper that doesn't follow the contour of the Bestop door surrounds perfectly. Likely an issue with the Smittybilt skins more than anything else and it seems to add to the "hard-to-close" issue. Nothing I can do about it other than change the skins. My buddies Mopar sliders don't have this issue
The new challenge.. Where to store the uppers when I pop them out away from home? I still have my back seat in, and use a Bestop InstaTrunk. I've had my eye on a Tuffy Rear Security Enclosure" to replace the InstaTrunk which would solve this problem, but I haven't resolve my reluctance to remove the back seat and I am not ready to drop $700 on that.
For anyone who stumbles across this thread in the future...
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Worth adding... Earlier this year I chose to replace the Smittybilt soft uppers with a new set from Bestop.
Better match to the Black Diamond fabric TrekTop Nx but more for a better fit at the bottom rear of the soft uppers.
The profile of the soft upper didn't match the profile of the door surround and/or side windows. There was an unmanageable draft from that corner and the top edge of the upper didn't sit smoothly across the surround.
The Bestop soft upper, installed on what I believe were OE window frames is now a far better fit.
This is the old Smittybilt skin..
Better match to the Black Diamond fabric TrekTop Nx but more for a better fit at the bottom rear of the soft uppers.
The profile of the soft upper didn't match the profile of the door surround and/or side windows. There was an unmanageable draft from that corner and the top edge of the upper didn't sit smoothly across the surround.
The Bestop soft upper, installed on what I believe were OE window frames is now a far better fit.
This is the old Smittybilt skin..
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