91 MJ Driver Door Jamb fail

[pago cruiser]

I have seen several photos of the door hinge frame member failing; and have actually ordered a reinforcement plate, as both of mine are.

 

Though I have not seen any threads on the door jamb latch side material fail.

 

Any elegant solutions, other than welding on thicker material (that would still allow the door to close) and buggering up my paint?

 

 

[89 MJ]

You’re going to have to weld it back up and paint at least that part to fix it correctly

[masimmons25]

My father once repaired a passenger side latch pin that fully detached by putting a larger plate under the pin to distribute the force when closing the door and then putting another plate on the inside and having the nut that is on the inside of the latch pin sandwich the everything together.

 

You have to remove the seat, and the b pillar trim then remove the rear speaker, then you can reach up through the speaker hole to get the inside plate and nut in place.

 

His implementation was quite crude looking but you could probably dress it up by shaping the plate to match the contour lines in that area of sheet metal instead of just a rectangular piece of steel.

 

Its not the most elegant fix but it has held for over 10 years. 

[pago cruiser]

Thanks gents.

Good to know there is access to the floating reinforcement plate within the B Pillar - have not pulled off the trim yet.  

While this does not seem common in MJ's or Cherokees, is appears common in Blazer Land.

 

I have been thinking of changing doors to a later model XJ in order to get full size windows and door trim to match the later XJ dash (which allows a double din radio/GPS Map install).   As the striker has to be changed for that to happen, that would seem to be a good time to deal with this metal fail as well.  Which reminds me to get the strikers as well as the doors when collecting parts.

 

Pics of how some Blazer guys deal with this.

 

[pago cruiser]

Lurking around at others' builds for ideas, stumbled upon this gem.

From 87Warriers Comanche Build, circa 2011...

Thanks 87!

Have attached his photo so it can be associated with the thread title.

 

 

 

 

[pizzaman09]

I need to fix this issue on my Austin Healey Sprite right now.  Careful welding with a gas mig will get you a long way towards a fixed striker.

[ghetdjc320]

T&M fab also makes a striker reinforcement plate. Just installed the pair on my build.