Hard doors for DJ-5?

Hi guys-

I purchased a 1976 DJ-5D late last year that I am currently working on and I'm wondering if anyone has ever seen one of these that have had the original sliding doors replaced with conventional hinged doors? The original doors have windows that must be opened and closed manually and I (actually my wife) would prefer windows that are crank operated.

I don't expect to be able to find any that will just bolt on but am up for some fabrication if not too involved.

Some pics of the DJ are here:
http://home.dmv.com/~warnerwerks/DJ5build.html

Thanks,
Scott

 

Nice job on the resto-mod of the Postal, looking good. The only doors I can think of that might come close are hard doors from an early CJ with a hardtop. Some of them were square bottomed, similar to the door opening on a DJ. I'm not sure if they had roll-down windows though, as some of thse had sliding windows as well. If you can't find crank-down windowed doors that work it doesn't look like it would be too difficult to hingle your existing doors at the front and attach a post on the rear with a simple latch.

 

Thanks for your reply - I had seen some of the early doors that you are referring to but they also had the sliding windows only the window size was a little smaller. I have also considered converting the original doors as you suggested but they are very heavy and I would still be left with the manually operated windows. My thoughts were to use the shorter CJ doors and add sheet metal below the doors like a regular jeep. I'm just a little concerned that the front of the newer style doors would have different angles where they meet the windshield.

I'm trying to get away from rebuilding the original doors which will require all new window weatherstripping and door seals which are rather expensive. The original doors also have the cumbersome overhead track and related hardware that really doesn't operate that well. I doubt that the Jeep will be used with the doors open anyway but had considered hinging later model doors at the rear so they could opened back and latched against the body if desired.