Need clarification for a newbie-sounding question regarding doors

Red Dog

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Jan 12, 2019
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Iowa, Trenton's Tiki Hut
So back in 2007 I bought a '97 TJ Sport with half doors. Over the years I bought door uppers that have the sliding glass for use in the winter, work nice, I like them, but just not "perfect" I guess? Around ten years ago I kicked around the idea of getting a hard top for use during the winter (rear defrost, glass windows I could scrape, the usual), and if I recall correctly the Quadratec rep I spoke to told me if I went that route I'd need different door uppers. Not a biggie. I asked about just using full steel doors but was told they wouldn't be compatible due to the latch on the half doors being lower than the full doors and there wouldn't be any way to install a latch.

While surfing the internet lately, both on this forum and others, I get the impression that with TJ's it actually is possible to swap between half and full doors. Is that correct? If so, is there anything I would have to install/adapt to enable using full steel doors during the winter and half during the warmer months?

Main reasons I'm considering full doors for seasonal use:

1) Full one piece, glass window. I would wager they would be even easier to clean/scrape than two half panes on the sliding uppers.
2) Not sure if it is common or not, but when driving at higher speeds at least my driver side door upper tends to flutter/shake. If I understand things correctly, the solid frame of a full door wouldn't do this (or at least not as often).
3) Probably the worst reason of all time, but I can't fit a jumbo pizza box from Godfathers through the opening of the sliding door uppers. I know it would fit through the opening on a full door.

So am I understanding correctly that as long as a full steel door is in the correct range of years for a '97, all I would have to do to install/use it in place of my half door is lift the current door out and slide the full door into the hinges?

Thank you in advance for any clarification anyone can provide.
 
I use half doors in the summer and full doors in the winter. It is as easy and swapping the doors over. The hard upper should work with the hardtop (though I can't confirm this as I only have soft uppers).
 
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Both door types work with the latch the same.

If you get a set of full doors, and end up painting them to match, one word of advice. Do all the adjustments to the hinges and latch before getting them painted...:mad:
 
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