Michiana Jeep Club

Pretty common mod and many well documented ways to do it. Here is how I went about it.

I picked up the CJ tailgate from a club member and new hinges from Quadratec. Once the tailgate backing plates were cut out and replaced the gate swap could begin.

Body side hinge holes marked and drilled.


Body side hinge backing plate


Hole cut to slip backing plate in to the tub


Backing plate bolted in position

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Backing plate welded in and gap filled with weld



Ground flush and primerd


Tailgate mounted and YJ tailgate hinges holes filled

Looks good Matt!

Great Job Matt!!

looks better than the YJ gate

that looks real good I would like to do that with my TJ

Go for it! The openings are the same size. I saw one on Ebay last week in MI. For what I bought all the parts for and sold my stock gate on e-bay for I made a few bucks

Found this on E-bay if anyone wants to do the swap...I can help w/ the tub mounts if needed.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/jeep-cj- ... dZViewItem

is there anyway to use the original hinges as a tire carrier

Anything is possible...I had no intent of carring a spare on the back of the Jeep so they had to go. The idea has merrit...They seem stout enough to hold the weight of 35" tire. Making a triangular mount that bolts to the hinges out of round or square tube...or better yet welded to the barrel of the gate side hinge to make it cleaner (if they are forged or stamped steel that is, I expect they are) would be the easy part. Making a snug and well supported mount and latch on the driver side would be the intersing part...could be as simple as a few tabs in with a hitch pin and a snubber to keep the vibration down...or a more complicated reciver and latch. Should be pretty easy really...