Found myself stuck in a real crap situation. When I worked myself out of it, the hatch came open and got ripped apart by a tree.

Trying to find a new one by searching for rear hatch, but not turning up the results I want.

http://www.carparts.com/details/Jeep...FQobaQodU9EITw

Found this. I can salvage the speakers, license plate lights and fixtures, lock/cylinder, wiper, lifters, and mounting hardware as well as glass and molding from the other one. Seems like a good deal if I can't find a replacement at a JY.

ooooh, steel too, heck, i didn't know steel pre 97 tailgates existed, makes me want to buy one lol.

I've got a nice '94 I'm parting out, but I think the shipping would kill you.

I've got to give it to you, that's pretty creative.

Got one I just changed on my 98 . You can have it for a 6 pack of Corona . Long drive for you tho

How much and what color?

@peabody would that fit a 93 xj and how long is long? -- nevermind, I couldn't see you were in GA on my phone.

Gold. Let's see what shipping will be. I don't even know how to ship something that size! Any ideas?

Here's the rig: https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f75/19...rginia-228145/

Looks like 210ish for shipping through SAIA for 2 day delivery figuring it's ~70 pounds, 50" wide, 56" long, and ~10" tall.

Fingers crossed. Junkyard 15 miles away has a white '93 XJ in the lot. Maybe it has a salvageable tailgate I can get for $50.

What are your plans to keep that from happening again?

So I think it was ultimately a process issue. I've never had a unibody thing before. When the XJ is on some seriously uneven terrain the tailgate won't completely close, and during the digout process I had some friends who would periodically grab beer from the back and on the last oomph to get out the tailgate wasn't closed completely. The big hurdle was a large hump on the front left as well as a large one on the rear right, and when I romped on it to get over those two obstacles the tail end went up with some velocity which kicked the tailgate up enough for the struts to raise it the rest of the way, then when the rear left tire hit the bump the front left tire had to get over, it leaned the XJ enough for that tailgate to tag the tree that was on the right.

Since it's inevitable that I'll be in a spot where I can't close the tailgate the normal way, I'm going to add a hook or something to the next one so I can strap it down in those cases. Also probably need to get unibody stiffeners and lockers.

If I had lockers I wouldn't have had any issue getting through there =/

opening doors/hatch while flexed on uneven terrain is never a good idea lol. Frame stiffeners are your friend!

I think thats the one thing that really disappoints me about XJ's Why on earth did they have to be built with a Unibody.

Never thought I needed frame stiffeners until I needed them