I am doing a few minor improvements to my LJ over the weekend, but I'm curious about the best way to take my doors off. Instructions say 13mm wrench, but seems like that would mar the paint. What's a good way to do this without scratching the crap out of the paint?
Just be careful with it. My craftsman 13mm open end wrench did not fit because of the paint on the nut but a Husky from HomeDepot works fine. On mine, once the nut is loose it turns off easily by hand. Many people do not put the nuts back on when reinstallling the doors.
I had one lower door nut twist off when I pulled my doors for the first time last spring. As it made that door easier to line up when putting back on, I cut the threads off of the lower hinge pin on the other side. And didn't put any of the nuts back on the upper hinge pins. I also replaced the hinge pin bushings while I had the doors off for the summer.
Rollin20z
TJ Enthusiast
The paint on my door's hinge pin nuts was so loaded up that the socket wouldn't fit. Paint removal was inevitable. Buy a can of touch up paint and respray them after reinstallation if it bothers you.
Rollin20z
TJ Enthusiast
If it's a problem just wrap a rag or small piece of rubber(like bike innertube thickness) around nut and use a pair of vice grips on it. Don't need to be cranked down super tight whereas they would crack the paint, if nuts aren't rusted on they should loosen pretty easily where you can finish taking them off by hand. If they are seized up chances their gonna snap off are pretty good anyways and then chipped paint won't be a concern. Soaking them with some liquid wrench will help also. Or use a 14 or 15mm open end wrench with a penny or dime if the 13 won't fit on because of paint build up.
Remove the hinge pin nuts & bag them, put them in a drawer somewhere so you can provide them to the new owner if you should ever sell it. There's no need to keep the nuts in place, my TJ hasn't had them on since probably 97 or 98.
Aviatortroy
TJ Enthusiast
If you are super particular, put a strip of masking tape on the door behind each nut and you will protect the paint. But I use a 1/4 inch drive socket with 6” wobble extension and it’s never a problem. By far the worst part is trying to put the doors back on without scratching the hell out of everything
89grand
TJ Addict
I also bagged my nuts, and haven't reinstalled them in years myself, but sometimes I wonder if some scum bag thieves knew what the doors were worth, would they still be there. I've been tempted to reinstall them for that reason. Full doors go for what $1000 or so? That buys a lot of meth, even selling them for a few hundred, which is what most losers do. Steal your shit worth $1000, and sell it for $150.
They sell thread on caps that protect paint for the ends, cool for guys into cosmetics.
Maybe this is a dumb question and I could have RTFM, but when you take the doors off how do you disable the door pinswitches that turn on the interior footwell and dome lights? Do you just bypass the switches or is there a way to turn the lights off? Can you just pull a fuse?
Yep RTFM. Pull fuse #4 to disable the door switches. The interior lights can still be turned on via the dash light dimmer control.
You pull the #4 fuse...they’ll correct me fast if I’m wrong.