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Camping/Wheeling trip this past weekend went great. Had a blast; drove the whole way up without the doors; it was great. Problem though, rain was being called for after getting to the campground me and the other people on the trip were staying at. Luckily, I had planned ahead.
One aspect I've never really liked about The Jeep lies in the fact that the doors are all power - locks, windows, and mirrors. It makes for a pain when going doorless, so I made quick discos for them, but still, having all those electronics is just a waiting game for something to go wrong, and THAT'S what I didn't like. I'm a simple kind of guy, so the simpler something is the better. Thus, about a year ago, my quest for finding 4 manual window/lock doors that were in good shape started. Thankfully, I found them, in northern Virginia. Add another 2 hours to the camping trip drive and $125 trading hands and I had myself a full set of manual doors! Only issue, they used the older style hinge where as I need the new style.
No worries there though as I had a set of newer styled ones from another XJ at the JY. Took those with me, and after paying for the doors, started removing the door half of the hinges and putting on the new ones. Got the driver front done, then the driver rear, then the passenger rear, and then....the passenger front had a stuck bolt. And I do mean STUCK. Spent 2 hours trying to get the friggin' little @*$%!*$@%^# out of there to no avail. So, went to the campground, got camp set up, put a tarp over the passenger front opening, sprayed the bolt with a crap-ton of PB Blaster, and called it a night.
The next morning we did a little wheeling in jrmilliser84's XJ and after hitting that trail started working on the stuck bolt again.
IT was still being a little #@%$&*!& so one of the other people on the trip, Eddie, came over to lend a hand while I started looking for some other tools that might bring a solution.
And that's when a torch was found!
Heated that little piece of crap until it was glowing red and then with a few turns of the vice grips she came free! VICTORY!!!!
Got the door onto The Jeep and suddenly we had Christmas in August!
Once that was done it was time for some more wheeling
I've got to get a few things (paint, sanding pads, and lots of tape) so hopefully this fall will see a rattle can job happening to the The Jeep with a new color replacing the green/red it currently is.
That's pretty wild because there is a Jeep that I see from time to time right above my house with pink eyelashes on it. There can't possibly be two of the same! I mean no way!!
That's pretty wild because there is a Jeep that I see from time to time right above my house with pink eyelashes on it. There can't possibly be two of the same! I mean no way!!
Dang, ABOVE your house eh? Never knew they made a flying Jeep.
I would say I'd make you set but they're a PITA to make. Gotta pull the kick panel connections on both sides, cut the wires, then splice in the ZJ harnesses which is 40 splices per front door (20 splices for each end of the harness). Back doors are a lot easier being only 10 splices (5 for each harness end) for each door. So yeah, quick discos for all 4 doors require you to do 100 wire splices. Gets old quick.
I would say I'd make you set but they're a PITA to make. Gotta pull the kick panel connections on both sides, cut the wires, then splice in the ZJ harnesses which is 40 splices per front door (20 splices for each end of the harness). Back doors are a lot easier being only 10 splices (5 for each harness end) for each door. So yeah, quick discos for all 4 doors require you to do 100 wire splices. Gets old quick.
Yeah, if you go back a few pages I took pictures of the whole thing. It's nice once they're done, but it takes the good part of a day to do all 4 doors. The rears are easy because you just use a 5-wire harness (I pulled mine from a couple JY Ford WIndstar's. They have a 5 wire harness sitting right next to the top of the engine on the driver side). You can get the ZJ harnesses from teh doors of ones with the infinity sound or the engine bay (right at the firewall) of almost any ZJ. Also, on the front doors, you need to dremel out the connection holes in the body and it's time consuming because there 2 layers of thicker metal.
If you look a few posts back you'll see I recently went on a wheeling and camping trip. It was a blast and part of the trip was picking up a new set of doors for The Jeep. The only issue was that the doors were green and The Jeep is red, hence it's nickname recently has been "Christmas Jeep".
That needed to change. And it needed to change quickly. Eventually The Jeep will be gunmetal gray with black accents, but that will be done by a professional I know (called discount rate). But even at a discounted rate the Jeep Fund isn't anywhere close to allowing that to happen. So that leaves me with a rattle can job, something I'm fine with as I can do it myself, still have it turn out nice, and it'll definitely get me through until I can afford a pro job. But to paint The Jeep in it's entirety would require time I simply don't have at the moment, and having gray doors won't really help my situation. So, that meant doing just the doors in Chili Pepper Red so they match the rest of The Jeep. So, the process began.
Each door was removed and fully cleaned, removing any and all stickers, grease, wax, tar, etc.
Than came the sanding. A lot of sanding. Thankfully my buddy Jonathan showed up to lend a hand and help things go a little faster (one could sand another door while the other painted the previous one).
Tape off the handle, lock, and window trim and then add 2 coats of self-etching primer...
And after a morning and afternoon and modifying the front door hinges with the "drop in mod", cleaning, sanding, cleaning, and painting all 4 doors, The Jeep has matching doors (nearly).
I'm going to let the paint set for 48 hours before taping off the lower sections and doing them black. Even without the black though, it looks a lot better. However, that is not the end of this day's adventures.
Recently I have been getting a loud "pop" any time I turn my steering wheel. Like any other seasoned Jeeper, my first place to look was the track bar. And everything was good. So then I checked control arm bushings, TRE's, the steering box, the steering shaft u-joint...I checked it all, and it all came back perfectly fine. This left me a little afraid to be honest, because that leaves one other possibility - a crack in the uni-frame. So, I pulled the steering box and saw no cracks. I pulled the track bar mount. Again, no cracks. So what was the cause??? After a little more searching, I came across this in the driver side wheel well:
Yes, that gap is the body of The Jeep separating from the uni-frame. Hopefully this next weekend will see it repaired along with some added bracing. Front stiffeners are also going in as well as a rear TJ track bar as a front end brace.
Yeah, if you go back a few pages I took pictures of the whole thing. It's nice once they're done, but it takes the good part of a day to do all 4 doors. The rears are easy because you just use a 5-wire harness (I pulled mine from a couple JY Ford WIndstar's. They have a 5 wire harness sitting right next to the top of the engine on the driver side). You can get the ZJ harnesses from teh doors of ones with the infinity sound or the engine bay (right at the firewall) of almost any ZJ. Also, on the front doors, you need to dremel out the connection holes in the body and it's time consuming because there 2 layers of thicker metal.
Thanks, I thought I remembered reading a writeup on it, but I couldn't remember which build thread it was in - now I remember!!! Good to know about the windstar harness too. I know a lot of guys ditch the power options, but it's my daily driver, I live in Florida where the weather changes every five seconds, and I'm spoiled with having all power options after having every vehicle I've owned in the 13 years beforehand NOT have power lol. So anyway, every available means to be able to keep power and make the doors removable is great in my book.
Originally Posted by no rdplz
Recently I have been getting a loud "pop" any time I turn my steering wheel. Like any other seasoned Jeeper, my first place to look was the track bar. And everything was good. So then I checked control arm bushings, TRE's, the steering box, the steering shaft u-joint...I checked it all, and it all came back perfectly fine. This left me a little afraid to be honest, because that leaves one other possibility - a crack in the uni-frame. So, I pulled the steering box and saw no cracks. I pulled the track bar mount. Again, no cracks. So what was the cause??? After a little more searching, I came across this in the driver side wheel well:
Yes, that gap is the body of The Jeep separating from the uni-frame. Hopefully this next weekend will see it repaired along with some added bracing. Front stiffeners are also going in as well as a rear TJ track bar as a front end brace.
Great.... I'm pretty sure this is the same location the popping noise in mine is coming from... just what I was worried about. Hopefully my flux welder will be an appropriate tool to fix that though.
Originally Posted by no rdplz
Got the black on the lower sections of the doors so The Jeep is back to it's normal look.
Looks good, you plan on putting some clear on the paint or you just gonna leave it?
08-07-2014, 04:22 PM
