How to take off Jeep Gladiator doors

One of the key quirks that makes a Jeep a Jeep is the ability to take the doors and roof off and fold down the windshield. It's easier than ever on the new Wrangler, and Jeep has added the same features to the Wrangler-like Jeep Gladiator pickup. In fact, it's an even easier job on the Gladiator, and we'll tell you how.

Although it's a pickup instead of an SUV, the Gladiator shares a lot of parts and design with the four-door Wrangler Unlimited. This means taking off the doors and roof and putting the windshield down require the same simple steps. It sounds intimidating, but my wife and I were able to take all the doors and roof off our long-term Wrangler Unlimited in half an hour, including consulting the instructions, and the Gladiator doesn't have quite as many bolts to remove.

How to take the Gladiator's doors off

Taking anything off the Gladiator starts with the toolkit that comes in the center armrest storage bin of every truck. Jeep provides you with a ratchet, two Torx bits, a 15mm socket, and laminated Ikea-like instructions. To remove the doors, you'll need the short T-50 bit and the long T-40 bit. We also recommend putting the windows down, which we'll get to in a bit.

There's a reason the Wrangler and Gladiator are the only vehicles whose door hinges you can still see: They're easy to get to. Aerodynamicists tucked them away on every other car, truck, and SUV a long time ago, but then how would you be able to pop the doors off? Rather than removing the hinges, you're actually separating them by unlocking the pin that holds them together.

To do this, use the ratchet and T-50 bit to remove the lock nuts from the underside of each hinge on the exterior of the vehicle. Remember, it's righty tighty, lefty loosey as you look at the head of the bolt. In this case, that means pulling the ratchet toward the front of the vehicle on the driver's side and toward the rear on the passenger's side to loosen.

To make sure you don't lose your lock nuts, Jeep has placed a convenient storage rack under the rear passenger seat on the driver's side. Lift up the seat bottom, and you'll find a foam holder with holes for all the door hinge bolts, plus the bolts for the roof and windshield, which we'll get to later.

Don't try to pull the doors off as soon as you've got the hinges unbolted, though. There are two more things holding it on. First, open the door (it won't fall off) and look inside the front of the door jamb. There will be a black strap with all the wiring for the locks and windows inside it and a retaining rod to keep the door from swinging all the way open and hitting things. We'll start with the wiring so the door doesn't go swinging around while you're working inside.

Follow the strap with the wiring inside the car and pull off the plastic panel where it ends. The panels are held on by plastic straps so you won't lose them. Inside, you'll see the wiring connector. To unlock it, push the red tab up, then locate the white lever. On the leading edge of the lever, there's a black retaining tab you need to press with a finger while you lift up on the lever to release the connector. It'll be tight the first few times, so take your time, make sure you've got all the locking tabs released, and work it out of place slowly. Once it's loose, you can pop the panel back in place to protect the rest of the wiring.

Lastly, switch your ratchet to the long T-40 bit, and locate the retaining rod right above the lower door hinge. It's held to the jamb with one bolt. Remove that, swing the door and rod out of the way, and put the bolt back in the hole it came out of. (It doesn't have a place in the cargo area, and this keeps dirt out of the hole.)

Now you're ready to take the door off. First, figure out where you're going to put it. You'll be setting it down on the painted bottom edge of the door, so find a soft spot or put down a blanket. Jeep molded handles into the underside of each door's armrest to lift from when taking the doors off, but we find it's easier to roll down the windows and lift from the top of the window frame. Get a good grip and lift straight up, and the door will pop right off.

Set it down carefully in the spot you picked, and repeat three more times for the rest of the doors. The panels covering the wiring connector are shaped differently for the front and rear doors, but the procedure is the same.

Reinstalling the doors is as simple as doing everything in reverse. Pop the door back on, bolt up the retaining rod, reconnect the wiring, thread the locking nuts back on the hinges, and you're done.

NOTE: It's illegal to drive on public roads without side mirrors. If you plan to drive on the road without doors, which is not recommended because the doors are part of the crash structure if you get T-boned, you'll need to buy accessory mirrors that bolt into the upper door hinges. Half-doors with mirrors are also offered by a number of aftermarket companies.

How to take a Gladiator's hard top roof off

The Wrangler has for decades now been the only SUV you can buy in America with a removable roof, and like with the doors, that features carries over to the Gladiator, which Jeep offers with either a folding soft top or a composite hard top. Opening the roof is easier than ever on the new Wranglers and Gladiator; soft tops simply open with a pair of latches and fold right back, so we'll focus on removing the hard top, which requires the toolkit again.

Removing the roof starts above the front seats. Every hard top has a pair of squareish removable roof panels over the front seats it calls the "Freedom Top." Each is held on by one latch and three L-shaped knobs.

Start in the driver's seat and flip down the sun visor to expose the latch. Pop it down, then locate the three L knobs. Each only turns 90 degrees, so give each a twist to the left (counterclockwise as you look at them). Climb out of the Jeep, and carefully lift up the panel to remove it. If you buy a hardtop Gladiator, it will come with a large bag to store the panels in. Unzip the pockets, and slide the panels in. Repeat on the passenger's side.

Now it's time for the rest of the roof. It's one big piece, but Jeep's made it as light as possible so two people can easily lift it off and on. Before you reach for the toolkit, though, you need to disconnect the wiring for the rear window defroster. Open the driver-side rear door, and look inside to the right. Just behind the door opening, next to the roll bar, roughly at shoulder height, you'll find a square black plastic cover hiding the wiring connector. Pop off the cover, set it aside, and lift up on the red tab as you pull the connector apart.

Once the wiring is disconnected, it's time to start unbolting. Put the short T-50 bit back in the ratchet, and put down the rear seats. To do so, push the button on the side of either headrest to fold it down, then pull the release strap next to the headrest and lower the seat back. Look back in the corner next to the wiring connector you removed, and you'll see a bolt holding the roof on. There's another one in the same place on the other side of the truck.

With those two out of the way, it's time to peel off the black cover below the rear window. Hiding underneath are four more bolts.

The last two bolts are on the top of the truck, so open the front doors if you haven't already removed them and stand up on the door sill. On the either corner of the leading edge of the hard top, on the top of the roll cage, there's a bolt holding the roof down. Remove each, and store them with the rest.

With everything disconnected, it's time to grab a helper and remove the top. Open the rear doors, and take your places on either side of the truck. Press up gently on the leading edge of the hard top above the door opening to pop it loose, then work your fingers under the edge of the hard top behind the doors and lift up. Then walk together toward the rear of the truck, carrying the roof over the bed until it's clear of the truck. The roof is heavier at the rear, so be prepared for it to tip backward when you lift.

Reinstalling the roof, like the doors, is just reversing the process. Put the roof back on, replace the bolts around and behind the rear seats and on the top of the roll cage, reconnect the wiring, and replace the Freedom Top panels, passenger's side first.

Bonus: How to put the Gladiator's windshield down

Jeeps were originally designed to be stacked two high in shipping containers on their way to the front lines across the Atlantic and Pacific, which is one reason why the windshield on a Wrangler folds down (the other is because it's much easier to shoot out of when you're not shooting through the windshield). It's gotten harder and harder to do over the decades, but for the new generation Jeep has made it as easy as possible, and that's carried over to the Gladiator.

Before you can put the windshield down, you need to remove the windshield wipers. At the base of each wiper arm, pop off the round plastic cap to expose the nut holding it on. Use the 15mm socket provided in the toolkit to remove the bolt. The wiper arm should pull straight off, but it's very common for them to get stuck the first time. The best solution is to strike the bolt you just removed the nut from with a hammer. Be very careful doing this so you don't miss and hit the hood or the windshield. One sharp strike should break it loose. Once the wiper arms are off, store them in a safe place and replace the nuts to keep dirt out of the threads.

Switch the 15mm socket for the long T-40 bit. Climb inside the Jeep, and flip up the sun visors. Behind them are four evenly spaced holds in the roll cage. Inside each is a bolt holding the windshield up. Remove each bolt, and store them under the driver-side rear seat in the marked holes.

To lower the windshield, get out of the truck and grasp the edges of the windshield frame from the outside. This will allow you to control the windshield so it doesn't slam down on the hood. Once it's resting on the pads on the hood, use the provided hook and strap in the center armrest bin to strap the windshield down to the loop on the hood so it doesn't flop around. Finally, locate the black plastic rectangle in the same center armrest bin, and carefully install it over cameras and sensors behind the rearview mirror to protect them from dirt and rocks.

To reinstall the windshield, just reverse the process. Remove the cover, unstrap the windshield, tilt it up, reinstall the bolts behind the sun visors, and bolt the windshield wipers back on.