anybody <97 tried adapting to metal hatch?

[xuv-this]

yeah, my ole 95' fiberglass hatch is starting to go downhill. so naturally, i am considering trying to run a 97+

 

[ctavel]

From what little experiance I have, the different years tail lights are different shapes and the tail gate itself is a different shape so you'd have to get new tail lights while you were at it. You could get it to work with enough fabbing, but you could also try and find a very early model XJ b/c I believe that they came with steel tailgates-- I could very easily be wrong though.
For the cost though, I'd just get another fiberglass one and call it a day.

 

[xuv-this]

i figured on that, but i was thinking: surely someone has tried it?

 

[ctavel]

I would imagine the way to do it would be to do the swap as a whole unit -- tailgate, lights, hinges. if you did it that way, aside from the latch, I would imagine that it would work, but I'm going to stop talking becasue I don't really have any tech on this

 

[Eagle]

Park an old style XJ next to a new style and pop open the hatches. Competely aside from the hinge problem, the opening in the body is different. Look at them side-by-side and you'll see why it won't work.

 

[xuv-this]

ooohhh. thanks.

 

[ArcticXJ]

It could be done...

If you were willing to hack your xj off at the C pillar, and replace the entire portion with that of the newer XJ.

So, as Eagle stated, in a word: No.

 

[Eagle]

It might be a bit less drastic than all that, but it would be work. Remove the taillights and compare a 97+ against a 96- and you'll see that the sheet metal supporting the taillights is different, because the 97+ taillights are narrower. I suppose an energetic young man with a welder could do some creative hybridizing, but I spent some quality time looking at this at the u-pull one day and decided it just isn't worth my while to play with it.

 

[xuv-this]

thanks. mine either, then.

 

[xtrememtbiker85]

did we all forget that the hinges on the out side of the 96 xj were moved to inside the door jamb and the strut mounts are moved and the locking mechanism is completely different. plus the stated tail lights etc.

 

[Eagle]

did we all forget that the hinges on the out side of the 96 xj were moved to inside the door jamb and the strut mounts are moved and the locking mechanism is completely different. plus the stated tail lights etc.

No.

The hinges were mentioned in posts number 4 and 5.