Defender 90 soft top conversion

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T

TRKnapp

Member
Posts
31
Location
Kent
I have a defender 90 300tdi hard top and want to convert it to a soft top,
with regards to the rear door do I need to buy a tailgate and fit new hinges or can you get half height rear doors that are hinged at the sides like the standard full height rear door?
Any help greatly appreciated!
 
Either buy a tailgate or you cut a defender door in half and put a peice of capping at the top.

You can side hinge a tailgate too. V.easy
 
You can side-hinge a normal tailgate or buy a genuine one (more expensive but bolt straight on and more user friendly).
I take it you don't want a drop-down tailgate?

Mine was an ex-MOD hardtop and I converted it to soft-top some 15-years ago. Bought a drop-down tailgate but immediately converted it to side-hinged. Connected to my swingaway spare-wheel carrier, still working fine (the inner panel isn't supplied in a galvanised finish by the way, I had that done).

 
Looks good, to convert to side hinges did you just use standard rear door hinges and bolt them to the tailgate?
Thanks for the info as well.
 
Yes, as easy as that.
Use nyloc's as there is no anti-crush stiffening inside the box-section of a normal tailgate, if you got carried away you could flatten the structure.

You will have to work out the type of latch arrangement you want, you could stick with the single top-latch or (as I did), fit a lower one as well (see photo).

As for the now empty holes that fixed the drop-down hinges, I just fitted some nuts / bolts / washers. You wouldn't notice they were there.

 
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