Need some quick help on '96-down & '97-up hood

[Georgia Mike]

'96 & down, '97 & up hoods. Any difference in them? I'm gonna swap the doors & front sheetmetal from this '99 I have onto my '96, but I have someone that wants to buy the hood. Will my '96 hood lines match the '99 header panel lines? I'd measure, but the guy wants an answer now, and the '99 is at the shop & my '96 is here.....

 

[94xjsport94]

Andy told me they would when I had my 98.

 

[Lowrange2]

Yes. The hood is the same. I have a 93 hood on my 93 with a 99 header panel and fenders.

You're going to have the most fun trying to put the doors from the 99 onto the 96. The hinges and striker are different between the two.

It'd certainly doable, though.

 

[shelbyluvv]

84-86 are different. All the other years will work fine.

 

[Georgia Mike]

So I can't just unbolt the hinges from the '99 door shells and bolt my '96 hinges to them? What is the difference between the strikers?

 

[PacificEd]

The '96 and older use a post striker. The later style use a "hoop" (I don't know what you'd call it) and it is located in a slightly different position.

I can tell you I tear belt loops off my jeans with the 1996 and earlier style. The later type won't let this happen.

 

[Lowrange2]

Here you can see the different in the doors. JP Magazine did an article on the swap...

 

[Lowrange2]

This shows some of the modification to the striker.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1110412

 

[Lowrange2]

KP put late model doors on his MJ. Perhaps he'll post up with some pointers.

 

[Georgia Mike]

As long as I don't have to completely reengineer the hinges that striker mod looks pretty straightforward. It's worth the effort to get rid of that stupid window post that blocks the mirror lol. I looked around earlier about just swapping the window assembly into my shells, but it looked like it would just be easier to swap the whole doors

 

[Lowrange2]

Yup. I suggest just removing the doors and throwing them away.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Lol well I'm gonna fix them so I can remove them easily. That's part of the attraction of the manual controls.

 

[Alexia]

The hoods are mostly all the same except for some minor differences in hood prop mounting positions.

The washer there is welded into the original hole for the 1996- striker. The top bolt for the 1997+ striker mounts at roughly the same height, but further inwards.(The higher up bolt position was a screw up.) Use the 1997+ striker bolted on to the top to line up the bottom bolt after adjusting the door closing position.

The hinge style does not matter as the mounting to the door is the same.

 

[shelbyluvv]

That is JohnnyC's MJ in the JP article. There are a pile of guys on ComancheClub that have done the complete 97+ comversion on MJs, me included. Cruise over there and go into the DIY section and there is a complete write up on how to do the conversion.

Mike I got my dash and other interior parts from you a few years ago to do my conversion.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Did you? I don't remember. I've parted out quite a few XJ's. I'm like the Grim Reaper for dead XJ's. They see me rollin' up with my trailer and cringe cause they know what's up lol :laugh3:

Yeah that striker mod looks very doable, and looks to be well worth the effort to get a better field of view out of the window. Thanks for the confirmation on the hinges. I thought they looked the same, but I never even thought to look at the strikers!