as per title i chopped my tailgate,main reasons were gas struts no good,got sick of stuff falling out the back when i open it when on a angle,and something different.the top surface of the bottom part is some native timber cut and rebated in and then glued and screwed,this makes a 4-5inch wide surface to pour or sit your drinks on. some thin ali glued and rivited to the window part of tailgate has some foam stuff which seals quite nice when closed.

Nice....I always wanted to do this..but now I have no hatch at all.


BTW, you still have the hatch shock problem! JK

Nice! You gonna make it so the lower section swings down like a standard tailgate? Just thinking of what you'll do should you need to get larger items in/out of the Jeep.

You do realize you can replace the struts and it only takes about 30 seconds to do so right...

that wasnt the only reason he did it. i like it i also have a crv where it does this and its really nice to be able to only open the top half. it would be even cooler if you hinged the lower half so it to could open.

Interesting idea, the drop down gate is a good idea as well. I'm not seeing a latch? How do you keep it closed?

I get that, but it's still got the problem of having to be propped open.

the first pic looks like there latches on the sides.

I like that idea a lot. What did you use to cut that? Also is your lower half at all usable.

thanks for the comments,the bottom section is fixed shut for now but that may change later.as d50 said i have some latches on the side to keep it shut,the struts are easy to change but not that easy to find good ones in nz,i drilled a hole through the shaft and just put a pin in to stay open.it was easy to cut being fiberglass( just watch the dust),i cut it where it is thinnest with a 1mm thick cut off wheel on my grinder.
vaughan

You can buy them new. I think I paid like $30 for a set from Napa the day I bought my Jeep.

.by time i pay $30 us convert to nz $, ship half way round the world they would probaly cost me quite a bit more.i would love to be able to buy bits so cheap and easily for my jeep down here but most of our 4x4s are toyotas and nissans or other jap stuff,i am putting toyota axles under mine for cheaper than a regear of the front d30.
vaughan

pretty cool mod. Keep in mind, stock lift supports are pressurized to lift the complete heavy tailgate. It may suck to try and close just the upper half with new full pressurized units. You may want to look for smaller list supports and maybe even run only 1 of them.

They're just struts, you can buy them in AZ. They're not vehicle specific other than the length.