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Hard Doors - Which Ones Will Work?
 
1) Determining Vehicle
  There are differences between CJ-5's and CJ'7's? Yes, there are. Mainly in the shape of the opening of the door bottom. CJ-5 doors WILL NOT work with CJ-7's and vice versa.
2) CJ-5
  There are quite a few doors I have seen for the CJ-5 over the years and it really comes down to whether you have an older CJ-5 or a newer era one. There was more aftermarket support as the years went on and the emergence of fiberglass really helped as well. The hard doors I have seen for CJ-5's are metal earlier on and fiberglass later on. ACME made a door and hard top kit and you can still find these on eBay. I do believe there was even a wood kit plan that you could purchase to build your own. I happened to see one of these in VT of all places. I thought it was for the Hawaii crowd, but I guess not.
3) CJ-7 and Wrangler
  There are 2 types of hard doors for these rigs, the old style handles and the new style handles. The new style handles emerged about 82 and that makes CJ and YJ Full hard doors completely interchangeable up until 1995. The older style mechanism had a turn style handle and a unique striker on the door latch area. The newer style had a paddle type handle and a striker that stuck out like a modern day door.

These doors are identical and should work with both style hard tops. There are things to watch for with these hard doors and that is the weak points where they tend to rust up here in the Northeast. Once that happens, it is not all that easy to repair them (unlike what most eBayers say). Keep an eye out for the jams and rust problems. If you find a set like that, IMHO, keep looking. The better ones might cost a bit more money, but it is well worth it in the long run.



  Conclusions
  I don't know everything, so don't beat me up here. There are half doors, soft doors, and other types of doors that I haven't even mentioned I would imagine. This should give a taste of what doors interchange, mainly among CJ-7 and Wranglers. This question comes up a lot for pre-82 CJ-7's. Getting a new set of doors and new strikers seems to be the advice most given.

cb (07/12/07)

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