Taboo…door hinge covers

bigfishbobby · Jan 17, 2023

I just touched up a few paint dings on my door hinges. I roll my eyes at tacky hinge covers, but assuming I keep them the same color of my Jeep, would I be banished to the island of misfit toys that the angry grill people get sent to?

In all seriousness, how do you guys combat this issue, or do you worry about it at all?

guruman · Jan 17, 2023

I went with mudflaps and side steps...

I hate how the hinges take such a beating on stone and dirt roads.... seems like a design flaw to me.

bigfishbobby · Jan 17, 2023

guruman said:
I went with mudflaps and side steps...

I hate how the hinges take such a beating on stone and dirt roads.... seems like a design flaw to me.

I have power steps so they retract unfortunately. This is all made worse by putting 35x12.5’s on that stick out a little, which gives me some pause about how flaps would look to adequately protect as well. Kinda sucks. Do you have any pics of your flaps for reference?

dblplay1212 · Jan 17, 2023

I'll never understand angry grills and contrasting hinge covers.

Viking Jeeper · Jan 17, 2023

I'd rather run over an angry grill than look at one but I think hinge covers are ok. They probably look better than mud flaps. I have seen some that match the color and texture of the door handles. What wheels and tires do you have?

bigfishbobby · Jan 17, 2023

Viking Jeeper said:
I'd rather run over an angry grill than look at one but I think hinge covers are ok. They probably look better than mud flaps. I have seen some that match the color and texture of the door handles. What wheels and tires do you have?

Bronze Fuel rebel 5’s on 35x12.50 nitto ridge grapplers. I’m thinking white covers since my Jeep is bright white.

guruman · Jan 17, 2023

bigfishbobby said:
I have power steps so they retract unfortunately. This is all made worse by putting 35x12.5’s on that stick out a little, which gives me some pause about how flaps would look to adequately protect as well. Kinda sucks. Do you have any pics of your flaps for reference?

they are just the Weathertech ones I bought from Just Bolt Ons. The side steps are not on yet... still deciding. After I pulled the Rock Slide Engineering power steps off my JK to find them completely rusted, I decided I was not giving them another 2k of my money.

Mallcrawler_392 · Jan 17, 2023

guruman said:
they are just the Weathertech ones I bought from Just Bolt Ons. The side steps are not on yet... still deciding. After I pulled the Rock Slide Engineering power steps off my JK to find them completely rusted, I decided I was not giving them another 2k of my money.

View attachment 16777 View attachment 16778 View attachment 16779 View attachment 16780

Mud flaps look good

Mallcrawler_392 · Jan 17, 2023

Is PPF (Paint Protection Film) possible to cover the hinges?

bigfishbobby · Jan 17, 2023

Mallcrawler_392 said:
Is PPF (Paint Protection Film) possible to cover the hinges?

Good question. I’m sure there is an expensive answer that says yes. I would assume it would be pretty delicate though since the hinges have a pretty small forward facing area that would be of real concern.

scarab · Jan 17, 2023

Just put some PPF stripes and you should be good. Another thing is fender flares, they get smashed pretty bad as well. What I've done was PPF on the hinges, mud flaps, Mopar performance steps and two layers of new PPF on fender flares (stock PPF is worthless).

Dral97 · Jan 17, 2023

I might ‘em for my sting gray, but the’ll be door handle black, not some contrasting color.

redbeard719 · Jan 17, 2023

Here is a DIY option with precut pieces of PPF.

JEEP JLU DOOR HINGE PROTECTOR FILM (4 DOOR) | mysite-1

RED ROCKET RACINGS new pre cut paint protector film for the jeep jl door hinges are made from 3m scotch gaurd pro 8mm thick film. This kit will include 8 door side hinge covers and 8 body side hinge covers.4 ea driver and 4 ea passanger These are pre cut to fit with no need to trim or cut due to...

www.r3offroad.com

Ted392 · Jan 17, 2023

Weathertech, LOD destroyers sliders and ppf (STEK) film on entire body and hinges.

There is a pattern for the hinges in ppf and a good shop should do them. But I recommend as much ppf as you want spend.

scarab · Jan 17, 2023

Really all you need is a $20 Xpel protection film roll from Amazon. It's a 15 minutes job, don't need to put PPF on the entire hinge. I only covered this part of an upper hinge (PPF ends where the zip tie is pointing), and the lower one is obviously super easy to do. I got my first chip when I was below 500 miles. Next day I've installed the PPF, now I'm over 7k miles and it works 100%. PPF is not visible at all, my iPhone 14 pro can't even catch it lol.

Viking Jeeper · Jan 17, 2023

scarab said:
Really all you need is a $20 Xpel protection film roll from Amazon. It's a 15 minutes job, don't need to put PPF on the entire hinge. I only covered this part of an upper hinge (PPF ends where the zip tie is pointing), and the lower one is obviously super easy to do. I got my first chip when I was below 500 miles. Next day I've installed the PPF, now I'm over 7k miles and it works 100%. PPF is not visible at all, my iPhone 14 pro can't even catch it lol.

View attachment 16785

So you use heat to shrink it?

Electrified · Jan 17, 2023

Viking Jeeper said:
So you use heat to shrink it?

I want to know this too.

Mouse · Jan 17, 2023

I spend most of my time riding dirt roads and in my area some of the roads were built using crushed shale. I was never worried about chips in my JK because the fenders are textured black and little dings from stones don’t show up. With in days of having my 392 I took a few good hits on the rear fenders one actually punctured the factory PPF. I added Rokblokz flaps, RSE steps and XR fender flares. No rock chips since. I like the Rokblokz because you can take them off quickly with just three thumb screws each. only added them to the front. I’m running 315/70 R17

BadPrincess_392 · Jan 17, 2023

I found these on Amazon and they do really well. Prep is key and a little heat gun action after applying helps as well. Also makes them less noticeable because it adheres to the paint better.

Rock Stopperz Door Hinge... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Q557CYF?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

scarab · Jan 17, 2023

Viking Jeeper said:
So you use heat to shrink it?

On fender flares yes, I used a heat gun. On the hinges it wasn't necessary since they are cylindrical and only front facing parts of them need to be wrapped.