Hinge pins are easier to line up by yourself. Trying to line up the hinges with the screws/bolts is difficult.

That said a full door with windows is hard to handle by yourself to start with.

Yeah, I just bought a new door at a salvage yard, and it was heavier than I expected. It does seem like it would be easier to drop pins in the hinges rather than try to get bolts started when putting the door back on...

Any issues with sagging or not sealing properly? Wind noise on the highway is a concern...

I have have pins in mine, but mainly because I swap to the half doors. Overall, it isn't too bad with the pin, however there are some problems (at least with mine)

I do get a whistle on the higway...it isn't terrible, but it is there. It sounds like a hard wind is getting the top of the door and pulling it out. I also have a noise that I thought was a loose body mount, although I am starting to think it is the pin shifting around.

If you go with a pin, you may want to find a way to bolt it. I have been thinking of welding a sleeve on the door side of the hinge with a 3/8" ID that way I could tighten a nut down to keep the slop out. This would be nice because you wouldn't have to tighten it down, you would just have that option. Again, I don't know if this would help the wind noise, but I am hoping.

If you have help, I would just unbolt the bolts on the door. They are pretty easy to get to with a 12mm racheting wrench...it's just holding up the door for alignment and also keeping it from slamming to the ground.

i did the bolt thing for a few years, I would recommend the pins as that is what I use now. Don't forget to taper the ends though.

I assume a snug fit between pin and hinge is best to position the door correctly.

The looser the fit, the easier the installation . . . and the more rattling and wind noise.

Yeah...figures.

The more I have thought about it, the more I like the idea of weldingin a 3/8" I/D sleeve once you have drilled out the hole. This will help in 2 ways:

I know once I have the top hole line up, the slop between the pin and the hole can cause the pin to shift at an angle and make it tough to manuever the pin down through the bottom hole. With a sleeve it should help eleviate this...although you still have to match up the lower hole.

It would also help in allowing the hinge to be snugged down, either through a clevis pin or other method without distorting the hinge "ears"

This is how I did mine and you can buy them individually at home depot or any hardware store. Just make sure you get the right size and don't drill the hinge holes out, whatever you do, otherwise you doors will sag after time and you will have to buy new hinges. "Speaking from experience."

Swapped doors on my Trooper the other day.


It fits much better than the old one, so that should help with wind noise and rain leakage. I am 99% sure the old one was in an accident and reskinned.

Anyway, the swap was also sort of a test run for removing the doors at a trail ride. Unbolting the door was pretty easy, but getting it back on is definitely a two-man job, at least until the first bolt is in.

But the biggest obstacle to this working on a regular basis is the wiring harness. There are 3 electrical connectors to the door, and two of them are long enough to pull out of the fender, making reconnection easy. However, the third one is not long enough, making reconnection very very difficult. It took me an hour of trying different ways to hold it up so I could plug in the door's connector before I got it, and it is not something I care to try again. I traced the harness back under the dash to see if an more slack was available, but no joy.

Now all I can think of is to make an extension of some kind, assuming I had another female connector, which I don't. Guess I could get one from a boneyard, but not sure it is worth it...