Hard doors vs. soft doors opinions

[taskunitbruiser]

Wanted to get opinions when faced with the choice between soft and hard X-doors for 4-man M1151A1. Which one do you prefer? I have heard people like the soft because can remove easily and, of course, much cheaper. I have heard neither keeps rain out much.

Can soft doors be painted or will it peel? How crappy is the glass in hard doors (i.e delamination issues)? Are X-doors worth 10x the price?

 

[DREDnot]

I've painted soft doors numerous times and haven't had problems. Hard doors look cool but at $4K for a set I like the soft doors better. I have both but I usually run soft in front and aluminum half doors in back.




The X door glass is almost always shite. Yellow and delaminating . New was always really expensive. I replaced mine with the cheap thin lexan. It scratches easily but was $40 each.

 

[TOBASH]

I've painted soft doors numerous times and haven't had problems. Hard doors look cool but at $4K for a set I like the soft doors better. I have both but I usually run soft in front and aluminum half doors in back.

View attachment 906724


The X door glass is almost always shite. Yellow and delaminating . New was always really expensive. I replaced mine with the cheap thin lexan. It scratches easily but was $40 each.

I couldn’t have said it better Dred…

If you lived in Alaska, maybe hard doors or insulated doors. If you lived in Chicago, hard doors to help against theft.

 

[taskunitbruiser]

Has anyone gone to a local seamstress to repair the window zippers? What are good options for that?

 

[TOBASH]

Has anyone gone to a local seamstress to repair the window zippers? What are good options for that?

Any boat shoppe can fix this. They also sell the stuff to clean the plastic windows to get rid of the cloudiness.

 

[MarkM]

The theft issue is a big deal. I have two blink cameras on mine. One on the dash and one mounted out the pass bed side watching my M101A2. I absolutely get that the real X-Doors are big bucks but they are soooo much better than the soft doors. When I got my set I only had to replace one glass due to delimitation. If possible get the real X-Doors. I have no personal knowledge about the aftermarket X-Doors.

Mark

 

[mgFray]

I have the insulated arctic doors for mine in the winter. It stays plenty warm enough (2-man) with them and the insulated top/curtain.

HOWEVER, be aware the arctic doors have REALLLLLLLY small windows (and the windows don't open), so they suck in the summer. I also have regular canvas summer doors or I drive with no doors in the summer. (My canvas doors have been reskinned, but prior to that I mostly had the arctic doors on for the elements and when driving just had no doors...)

I don't have any experience with the X-doors, but simply due to cost I'd likely not bother. They might be nice if you have a slant back or ambulance -- but for any soft-top unit seems like canvas or arctic makes more sense.

 

[LouiSypher]

Has anyone gone to a local seamstress to repair the window zippers? What are good options for that?

I have and it cost me $300 for them to repair my zippers. Not sure it was worth it vs just buying new covers for the soft frames from William Welch at Blue Ox Tops.

 

[Autonomy_Lost]

Having had both, I'd say the biggest difference is that x doors just look cool. But they dont offer too much in practicality over soft doors.

Fyi, x doors can still be easily removed in summer if you want to drive with the doors off. They arent crazy heavy or anything.

 

[Awol]

I have and it cost me $300 for them to repair my zippers. Not sure it was worth it vs just buying new covers for the soft frames from William Welch at Blue Ox Tops.

Man I just saw he makes soft doors with tinted windows. I gotta have a set!

 

[peggrw]

Has anyone gone to a local seamstress to repair the window zippers?

About half my zipper on both soft doors had pulled away. Since I'm cheap I just grabbed a heavy needle, heavy duty thread, and a thimble. Took a couple hours of in/out with the needle making sure to hit the original holes and looks just fine, unless you're the type of person that stares a stitching. The repair is solid.

 

[juanprado]

if zipper is functional, very easy to do yourself. Check out speedi stitcher:

https://www.sailrite.com/Speedy-Stitcher-Sewing-Awl-Kit?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA44OtBhAOEiwAj4gpOcJqNXSyxb7h0KoSeuHx8za0tm6MrBfVnTMjsWUl4r1sAj7WJwGzshoCyTAQAvD_BwE

Comes with white thread but can be changed out to black. Some of my soft doors had each color so no biggie, whatever you like. But use their thread or equivalent that is uv rated. I think that is the reason the oe soft doors have a problem is the quality of the thread and not uv rated.

So since I have done now all my doors and both sides of the zipper, I had done just patches to fix the unsewn areas previously and you guessed it ....they then became unsewn where I had not repaired so don't ask me how i know, just stitch everything even if good just go over the existing stitching....

Thimble is an excellent idea. I coated my thread with blood sometimes as a lubricant......

 

[TOBASH]

“Speedy” Stitcher is less than an accurate name IMHO.

 

[MattNC]

For thread I have had good luck with UV resistant braided fishing line. I used 30lb test spiderwire.