Hi, I am rebuilding my 1986 S15 Jimmy with my son right now. One of the things we want to do is make the doors removable. Hinge bushings were worn and they had a lot of sag and I thought he would do better with the doors off to learn bodywork. I want to eventually make tubular doors using hinges and latch plates form a parts truck for nice weather but want to make the doors easy to put back on for bad weather and winter driving. Has anyone done the electrical connection for this. I have no issues with the mechanical. I don't want to reinvent the wheel on the electrical. I will make something for sure but want to know it if it's been done. I need to pointed into the right direction. Weblink would be a great help. Thanks in advance.

 

What' you're probably after is commonly called a "bulkhead connector". I would suggest something weather resistant, being that it's going to be open to the elements.

You can get these from various sources, in various sizes, pin count, pin/wire gauge size, thread together or clip together, etc.

Then it's just a matter of cutting the harness, drilling a hole in the door jamb on the body side, wiring the harness to the connector and fastening it to the body, then putting the mating connected on the pigtail coming out of the door.

I have plans to do something similar to make a removable roof rack with LED light bars mounted on it.

 

I did it on my K5 that I used to have. I just used a Molex connector, but I don't remember how many pins it had. Obviously, you'd need to get one that matches the number of wires you have.

The roof rack on my current Blazer is removable, with the lights connected via a "flat 4" trailer plug that goes out the back hatch. Not as fancy as what blazen_red_4x4 suggested, but it works.

 

That's great direction. I work in the automotive die industry and know exactly what you are talking about. I looked at McMaster-Carr and they have a number of connectors like you mention. I will do a more in depth search, count up my bundle and see how many pins I need. The factory harness travels through a corrugated rubber tube that fits snugly into the door and then on the body-side. I would basically be replacing this with the connector. So weather proof will be a necessity. I may end up keeping that setup and putting the connector inside the door with access through the panel or something. Work in progress, tons of options. Thanks for the input. Much appreciated. Any inputs are good inputs. Looks like I have 11 wires to deal with, so a 12 pin connector will be in order.