I'm sure this isn't your issue, but I wrestled with the frames on my half doors for a while. Then, took a minute and realized that one pin was longer. Not sure they're all that way, but if I slowed down and got it in, then the other two went in super easy.
I found full doors and have had them on this winter, and as the wizard has said a few times on here, this glaringly showed me how crappy the TJ half doors really are. Crazy how now I can actually take a call and talk in the TJ with the top up.
I almost always default to Bestop if I'm looking for quality soft top parts. If I was getting new top halfs, I would look at that, or into the sliding window soft top halves, but I've got no experience with them personally.
Yes, thanks.. I am familiar with the pins. And no stranger to half doors. I had a set of Rugged Ridge half doors on my last JK, and a set of upper and lower soft doors on the JK prior. I ended up using the RR doors year round. The windows have toggles sewn into the zipper seam that allowed the windows to be secured open at half height or open diagonally. This was convenient.
Fully expecting things to get louder with the halfies.
At this point, I have spent so much getting the doors right I don't want to skimp on this final step and I have a Trektop NX, though... can't lie.. the Bestop are twice the price of all the other options (as is usually the case with Bestop stuff) and that's painful.
If I can get these in order, I will absolutely find a set of sliders for winter.
I just bought these Rugged Ridge for $200
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003AOPCB0?tag=wranglerorg-20
I put the Smittybuilt skins on last week for $140
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003EOZMTI?tag=wranglerorg-20
Didnt even need the sun treatement for an hour
It was too cold out so I just roughed em up and had my son assist. Came out perfect
Now Im gonna tint them
I've got the RR frames in my cart at the moment. That's my fallback. How was the shipping? Was everything straight? Did the pins need tweaking or were they drop in?
Tint.. Are you going to do a regular film tint on them? I was curious about doing that. My full door glass is tinted.
Second what cpwolf said about the one pin being longer. That's how mine are and I stopped struggling once I figured it out. Assuming that's not the case and your pins really are out of alignment, you could probably just bend them back into alignment with a bench vise and a pair of pliers.
A slight tap of the pins with a hammer will align them. No need to do anything else after that.
I can confirm with certainty that the pins are bent. I've already straightened one. I'm sure someone could get them straight but I am at the point that I am tired of working on these doors and just want them done. My experience with straightening the pins is that it's kind of like chasing your tail. One bend here requires another bend there and that then begs another bend a different way. The fitment of the RR uppers on my JK spoiled me. Those just dropped right in with zero effort. A slight tweak at the top to seal against the surround and I was good for a few years.
Okay, well let me know if you want to sell them and what you’d be asking, that is if you are willing to ship them. If you are buying new you’d already have packaging from your new set and I would pay for the post over to PA as long it’s not to expensive. It’s up to you if you want to sell the skins with them or not I’d be looking for a black set of skins but I have no problem buying new
My plan is to pay a visit to eBay/MarketPlace seller CustomWranglers this morning. He is a few minutes from me. While he's known to be a bit on the pricey side, he's become a friend and, well... I'll see what he has. I have a few options. If he has a straight set of frames I will trade mine for a few $$ and then retro fit the skins over. If there is something else that catches my eye, is plug-n-play and is a decent price I'll take them, just to be done with this project, in which case my set will be available. I just shipped a second set of half doors from NY to Colorado so while shipping the upper frames isn't something I look forward to, it is doable and easier than shipping doors. Stay tuned.