How to Take Doors Off Jeep Without Damage
It makes sense that you would be curious if you saw a Jeep traveling down the road or on the trails without any doors. Jeep door removal is a fairly common practice, but if you’ve never done it yourself, you might not comprehend the trend’s apparent oddness. Actually, going doorless has a lot of benefits that you might find appealing. The main justifications for removing your Jeep’s doors and instructions for doing so are covered below.
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Reasons to Take Doors Off Jeep
To Increase Your Jeep’s Fuel Efficiency
The ability to increase a Jeep’s fuel efficiency is one of the main reasons why people do so. On average, a Jeep’s front doors weigh about 70 pounds, while the back doors typically weigh about 45 pounds. As a result, your Jeep’s weight can be reduced by a whopping 350 pounds if all of its doors are removed. That’s a large load!
Removing the doors on your Jeep can ultimately have a significant impact on how much you pay at the pump because a vehicle’s fuel economy can typically increase by 1 to 2 percent for every 100 pounds of weight removed.
To Make Room for More Weight
To make space for more weight, removing the Jeep’s doors is one more of the top reasons to do so. As was already mentioned, removing the doors from your Jeep can help it weigh about 350 pounds less. You can now add that extra weight back onto your car if you need to tow a heavy load. Removing the doors is a practical solution for those who need to use their Jeep for some heavy lifting but don’t want to go over its towing limit.
To Get the Full Off-Roading Experience
Removing the doors on your Jeep can make driving much more enjoyable in addition to being practical. Don’t get us wrong, off-roading inside a hidden cabin is fun in and of itself. However, traveling down trails while feeling the wind on your skin, mud flying up around you, and taking in a more unhindered view of your stunning surroundings is an entirely different experience. If you enjoy off-roading a lot, you’ll want to check out how changing your Jeep’s doors can affect how it performs on the trails.
What You Will Need for the Bushing Installation
- Quadratec Delrin Bushing Kit (for two or four door applications)
- T-45 Torx socket and driver
- Rat tail file (or chain saw sharpener)
- White lithium grease
- A hammer for driving out the old bushings (ball peen suggested)
- An empty German beer six pack holder and a scrap of cardboard.
- Blue painter’s masking tape
Recommended, but not required: A Mopar paint pen in your Jeep’s body color
Additional items for dealing with stuck doors:
- Penetrating oil (PB Blaster, WD-40, Liquid Wrench or similar) with nozzle tube
- A clean rag for dealing with oil overspray
- Hydraulic floor jack
- 2×4 wood piece approximately 24-inches long (longer might be required for lifted Jeeps or smaller jacks)
- Additional strips of medium grit emery cloth to remove rust
- A second person for the final removal step
How to Remove the Doors on a Jeep
Now that you are aware of the possible reasons why you might want to take a Jeep’s doors off, let’s discuss how you can do so without difficulty. The first thing you should know before removing the doors from a Jeep is that you should always roll all of the windows down. By doing this, you can safeguard the glass and prevent unintentional damage to your windows. Once you’ve done that, just follow these simple steps:
- Disconnect any power cables before removing the footwell from your Jeep’s dashboard or the b-pillar.
- After that, gently detach the door straps from the hooks.
- Finally, unbolt the door hinges of the car and carefully slide the door off and away.
Once the doors are off, store them somewhere secure and dry to prevent damage. As of right now, your Jeep’s doors don’t need to be attached while you drive around Freeburg or on Lebanon’s off-road trails!
How to Take the Top Off a Jeep
A Jeep model’s top can also be removed by the driver, but a Jeep expert in our service department is better qualified to handle this task. Even with the right tools, removing a Jeep Wrangler hard top can take some time and effort. If you aren’t careful, you might also harm something significant.
How to Put Jeep Doors Back On
Jeep door removal is essentially a one-person job that only takes a few minutes.
To line up those bolts with the hinges again as you reinstall the Jeep doors, you might need an additional pair of hands.
Simply align the tops of the door hinges themselves with the bottoms of the bolts that are still in the door hinges.
This can be a little bit tricky because you have to line it up just right so the bolts in the top and bottom door hinges line up perfectly at the same time.
It just takes a little patience, and it’s not that difficult to do.
Conclusion
Repeat three more times for the remaining doors, placing it carefully in the location you chose each time. For the front and back doors, the panels covering the wiring connector are shaped differently, but the process is the same.
It’s as easy as going backwards to reinstall the doors. Put the door back in place, secure the retaining rod with bolts, rewire the door, and then screw the locking nuts back onto the hinges to complete the task.
NOTE: Driving without side mirrors is prohibited on public roads. You’ll need to purchase accessory mirrors that bolt into the upper door hinges if you intend to drive on the road without doors, which is not advised because the doors are part of the crash structure if you get T-boned. Numerous aftermarket businesses also offer half-doors with mirrors.
FAQs
Is It Unsafe to Take Doors Off Jeep?
As long as you take care of a few minor details first, it is completely legal to remove your Jeep doors and drive on public roads without them. Your Jeep’s doors and mirrors will both need to be removed. You must re-attach your mirrors in order to follow state regulations.
Can All Jeeps Take the Doors Off?
Jeep models are renowned for having exterior customization options. You can remove the doors or tops, making them one of the most desirable cars out there. In actuality, removable doors are an option on every Jeep Wrangler, Gladiator, and Wrangler Unlimited model.
Where is the Jeep Tool Kit Located?
A tool kit that can be found in the glove box or the back of the car is a standard feature on every Wrangler.
Why Are Jeeps Allowed to Have No Doors?
This is so that troops can enter and exit more easily in war and conflict zones where these doors and rooftops had to be easily detachable. Although Jeeps do have doors as standard equipment, most owners choose to have them removed.
