Half Door Advice

FadeToGray

TJ Enthusiast
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2019
Messages
192
Location
NH
Looking at purchasing a set of half doors in prep for the summer. I haven't had any luck finding a decent set of factory half doors, so I'm now scanning the aftermarket.

Anyone have any experience in comparing the JCR Off Road half doors versus the Bestop Element doors with the Element Enclosure Kit / panels?

Or are there any other options out there?

Would need the option for some sort of uppers.

Or am I just better off to wait and keep trying my luck at getting a set of factory half doors?

Thanks for the help.
 
Ultimately looking for black, but willing to paint if the price is right.
 
Check car-parts.com that's where all the junkyards list their stuff. I have a set of black ones I'm about to sell. But I'm in CA. You might try Greyhound for shipping. I just had a set of full doors shipped that way.
 
I actually was in the same boat as you until today. I have a patriot blue tj. I was keeping an eye out on Craigslist and FB marketplace for a set. My options were sit and wait for a matching set, pick up a cheaper non matching set and sand and paint black, an aluminum set from UCF, or a set of bestop soft doors. I was in no real rush so I just checked everyday for a set. Low and behold I found a set that was posted within 8 hrs. Matching paint and interior panels to my tj and soft uppers were clean and windows scratch free. Doors and panels were pretty mint. Seller met me halfway so I drove an hour away. Paid $500. In my eyes now that I found a pair it was worth the wait. If you find a nice clean matching set don’t wait. Jump all over it.

4E6332AF-44EB-4497-B8C4-235147FBD4B8.png


AE00F4E2-7D2F-4E52-9ECE-EEFC730D1334.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: lowranger
CL has saved searches too. You can set a saved search of "jeep tj doors". And it will email you everytime someone posts anything that comes up in that search. Otherwise you have to keep checking and hope you got there first.
 
CL has saved searches too. You can set a saved search of "jeep tj doors". And it will email you everytime someone posts anything that comes up in that search. Otherwise you have to keep checking and hope you got there first.

@FadeToGray
Be careful with your CL searches too. "tj door" and "tj doors" will give different results unless someone has put both singular and plural in the post somewhere as key words (moral is don't search 'half' or '1/2' etc, keep as broad as you're willing to scroll through). For example any posts that don't include 'jeep' won't show up if you put that in the search. Same with 'tj'. It's frustrating.

I've been looking for the better part of 6 months and just bought a set out of state that the guy is already planning to come near me for an event next month. Be patient if you really want factory, if you think you'll destroy them on the trail it may not be worth it (I didn't care).

I was looking into the Bestop Element doors too- one thing to note is that you have to buy the Bestop Element uppers. You can NOT use the factory style soft or hard uppers for those, and the Elements are expensive because there's no used market for them.

Another option is Poison Spyder Crawler door skins- they're bare metal and are supposed to be welded to the soft door frame, which means you'd be able to use factory uppers, though they may not be as durable and won't come with weatherstripping like the Element doors. I'm not sure if you could JB weld them on or some other alternative.

Lastly- YJ doors work with slight mods, but you'll have to mod TJ uppers to work (one pin is different). I asked folks if a similar mod could be done to the Element doors for factory uppers but I got no reply, I don't think it's common enough
 
@FadeToGray
Be careful with your CL searches too. "tj door" and "tj doors" will give different results unless someone has put both singular and plural in the post somewhere as key words (moral is don't search 'half' or '1/2' etc, keep as broad as you're willing to scroll through). For example any posts that don't include 'jeep' won't show up if you put that in the search. Same with 'tj'. It's frustrating.

I've been looking for the better part of 6 months and just bought a set out of state that the guy is already planning to come near me for an event next month. Be patient if you really want factory, if you think you'll destroy them on the trail it may not be worth it (I didn't care).

I was looking into the Bestop Element doors too- one thing to note is that you have to buy the Bestop Element uppers. You can NOT use the factory style soft or hard uppers for those, and the Elements are expensive because there's no used market for them.

Another option is Poison Spyder Crawler door skins- they're bare metal and are supposed to be welded to the soft door frame, which means you'd be able to use factory uppers, though they may not be as durable and won't come with weatherstripping like the Element doors. I'm not sure if you could JB weld them on or some other alternative.

Lastly- YJ doors work with slight mods, but you'll have to mod TJ uppers to work (one pin is different). I asked folks if a similar mod could be done to the Element doors for factory uppers but I got no reply, I don't think it's common enough

I think if you search plural i.e. - "jeep doors". You'll get both plural and singular results i.e. - "jeep door". As the singular word is included in the plural word. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. that's how I always understood it to work.

Either way go as vague as you can handle search results. Like I wouldn't worry about putting tj in the phrase. Just use like "jeep doors". Also you can have as many search phrases as you like. So if it does turn out that both plural and singular aren't covered by one plural word phrase. You can easily do "jeep doors" and "jeep door".

You can also set up your gmail (if you have it. and probably other email platforms too.) to give you a number and sound alarm every time a new email comes to your CL saved searches email. That way with a quick glance at your email tab in your browser you can see or hear if a new email has hit. Sometimes these deals are gone within moments.

*Also if your searching CL nationwide. Look into Search Tempest (it's a website www.searchtempest.com ). It searches CL across the entire country. And gives you a few state regional results. Like it will not give you a list of all the doors in the nation at once. But it breaks it down into say a dozen or so regions. Like WA, OR, ID for example is one region and one set of search results.

Which still makes it WAY easier to search for items nationwide. Than pulling up every city and or outlying area for doors or whatever you're looking for. This helps searching for Jeeps big time. Especially if you're comfortable with a local inspection and having it transported to you. With about 12 clicks you can see all the jeeps for sale in the US on CL. That's my big secret. Search Tempest. Check it out. It will change your life if you avidly look for jeeps or parts on CL.

Not sure this will work. But here's a sample page of a search I did for doors.

https://www.searchtempest.com/searc...&subCities=&q=jeep+wrangler+doors++"for+sale"