Soft Door Storage

[geezerjeeper]

While working to get my new to me CJ5 on the road, I've been thinking a lot about how it's going to be used in my daily commute. I plan to drive it mostly with just a bikini top on (the JEEP.....not me!!!). I have to deal with an almost guaranteed afternoon thunderstorm during the summer so I plan to haul the soft doors and maybe a rolled up something for behind the seats if it really comes down heavy. Question is, how do ya'll haul this stuff around? I've been thinking about maybe fabricating some type of overhead panel that the doors can sit on top of when not in use to keep them from getting in the way or worse, stolen. Maybe a flip down panel with enough room between it and the top for the doors. Suggestions...ideas?? BTW, this is a terrific site, I've been on it a lot lately, don't talk often, but love all the information.

 

[LongHorn]

While working to get my new to me CJ5 on the road, I've been thinking a lot about how it's going to be used in my daily commute. I plan to drive it mostly with just a bikini top on (the JEEP.....not me!!!). I have to deal with an almost guaranteed afternoon thunderstorm during the summer so I plan to haul the soft doors and maybe a rolled up something for behind the seats if it really comes down heavy. Question is, how do ya'll haul this stuff around? I've been thinking about maybe fabricating some type of overhead panel that the doors can sit on top of when not in use to keep them from getting in the way or worse, stolen. Maybe a flip down panel with enough room between it and the top for the doors. Suggestions...ideas?? BTW, this is a terrific site, I've been on it a lot lately, don't talk often, but love all the information.

As a former resident of the "Dome City", you have to learn to use over-passes & gas station awnings to your advantage. If it's not raining hard a "Bikini Top & Roll bar Curtain" will give adequate protection, but
when it comes a "Gully Washer" you need wipers on both sides of the windshield. If you run "Wrangler" lower half doors, you can keep the side curtains behind the seats. That & the before mentioned combination will go along way if you don't want to carry a full top.

 

[geezerjeeper]

Thanks Longhorn. I don't think the Wrangler ever had 1/2 doors to fit a "5", did it? Living this close to the big city, I have a reason to worry about "losing" my doors so I need a way to keep them secure when parked, raining or not. Not to mention taking up needed space in the back.

 

[LongHorn]

Thanks Longhorn. I don't think the Wrangler ever had 1/2 doors to fit a "5", did it? Living this close to the big city, I have a reason to worry about "losing" my doors so I need a way to keep them secure when parked, raining or not. Not to mention taking up needed space in the back.

Whoops! My bad, but their are half doors available.

 

[LongHorn]

As for security concerns, when I lived in Houston I had a 225 lbs. Rottweiler.
He was very obedient & very,very protective of the Jeep.
He considered it his dog house.

 

[geezerjeeper]

LOL, I can't go there. Our "BOY" (not to be confused with a "dog"), is a 34 lb. terrier who would probably show a would be thief where the spare key is if he thought he would get a ride out of it. I've got the two-part soft doors so I could use the lower half by itself but I would rather not have the doors on at all. I've also thought about making some tube doors and have some slip-cover type things to put on them in the event of rain, just mulling over possibilities in my downtime.

 

[Petescj]

I always ran my CJ5 with just a bikini top or no top at all during the summer. I never thought about securing my 1/2 doors. Do you run a rear seat? If not, Would it be possible to drill a hole through the paddle handles? Then in the rear have a bolt come up through the floor high enough to pass through the holes in the handles. Have the diameter large enough that you can drill a hole large enough to put a small padlock through. Can you picture what I mean?

 

[geezerjeeper]

Thanks Petescj..I've thought about doing something similar but am still leaning toward putting the doors overhead to keep them out of the way. I've played a little with fiberglass and think I could make a pretty simple and light panel that would be attached below the bikini top and between the windshield and roll bar. It would allow the doors to be locked to it with a mechanism like you desribed. I'm not sure what type of headroom is available there but think there should be 2-3 inches at least.

 

[mylittlecj5]

In my experience...I've never seen a need to have the doors on for a rain shower. The only thing I need is a dry towel for the seat before I get in! Having lived in the Seattle area for years, and now just north of you in SW OK, I've seen my share of rain showers while driving the CJ. A simple bikini top, a small squeegee and some speed works for me.
I look at it as part of driving a convertible, you don't drive it if you want your hair to look nice when you get there! I'm nearly bald so that doesn't apply to me, tho!

 

[LongHorn]

In my experience...I've never seen a need to have the doors on for a rain shower. The only thing I need is a dry towel for the seat before I get in! Having lived in the Seattle area for years, and now just north of you in SW OK, I've seen my share of rain showers while driving the CJ. A simple bikini top, a small squeegee and some speed works for me.
I look at it as part of driving a convertible, you don't drive it if you want your hair to look nice when you get there! I'm nearly bald so that doesn't apply to me, tho!

I hear you, but you can't call what they have in "Seattle" rain.
It's more like a heavy dew. While I can't say to much about OK.
I know a afternoon pop up in"Houston" can mean 3"-4" in an hour!

 

[IOPort51]

I hear you, but you can't call what they have in "Seattle" rain.
It's more like a heavy dew. While I can't say to much about OK.
I know a afternoon pop up in"Houston" can mean 3"-4" in an hour!

In Houston , if you stand still for more than an hour, moss will grow on the north side of your leg.

 

[mylittlecj5]

I hear you, but you can't call what they have in "Seattle" rain.
It's more like a heavy dew.

While I can't say to much about OK.
I know a afternoon pop up in"Houston" can mean 3"-4" in an hour!

http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/#post27510#ixzz0bBvXisFt
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LOL true, but eventually it gets wet enough that is does really rain there. Those sudden summer showers are really wet...

 

[mylittlecj5]

In Houston , if you stand still for more than an hour, moss will grow on the north side of your leg.

if you stand still for an hour on the grass in Seattle, no one will find you again under all the mud...

 

[geezerjeeper]

Thanks everybody. The biggest pain in my commute when it rains is about 20 miles I have to do on US59. Currently, in my Honda Element (yes, I admit I like the ugly little things), which sits up pretty high, the semi's will throw a really good stream of nasty wet stuff all the way up to the window level. In an open Jeep I see that as a real mess. Keeping a full top on the Jeep defeats my whole purpose for having it, not to mention summers in Houston w/o AC. I'm going to "solve" or at least minimize the problem somehow...I'll keep you posted.

 

[ColoradoCJ7]

I really like your idea for overhead storage of the soft doors. Mine have internal supports so even a soft pouch attached to the top should work unless you have a center support for your roll bar. I am thinking something like this:

Windshield Top Roll Bar

/--------------------
/ \______________/ O
/
/

 

[BajaEdition]

you know the idea of overhead storage sounds great
I think a couple of hours with some square tubing and a welder and you could fab up a killer setup. Oh yea they do make 1/2 doors, I prefer them and the area you needed to reserve for storage would be less, as would be putting them on.

 

[geezerjeeper]

Baja and Colorado...sorry for the delay in my response but I just returned from a week's vacation :-). Didn't even allow myself a cell phone...nice.

I have thought a bit more about this topic and I think I'm going to try a "fast and easy" solution to start with. I'm going to order some of the door hinge plates (the two little brackets that the door pins slide into). I'm going to fab up some type of small bracket, probably with a piece of angle iron and attach it to the top of the windshield frame. The frame currently on my jeep needs to be replaced due to really bad rust and corrosion so it makes a great test fixture. The idea is that when I pull the doors off after use, I will then slide them into their "storage" hinge plates at the top of the w/s frame and swing the other end up to the roll bar where I will have some other device to hold them up and secure them. This should work well enough. I can worry about the appearance of it all later. It will probably take a couple of weeks to get everything ready to try, I'll let you know as things happen.