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XJ 4 door with pickup cab?

gsmith

NAXJA Forum User
Would like to see pics from guys who ditched the hatch & rear roof made a working tailgate and used the rear of an mj cab or made something really clean to create a crewcab with ultra short bed look. Seen it on this site but would like some input from some guys who did it themselves. I can do all the bodywork, paint and welding no problem. Just want tips to make it easier and faster. Any potential snags and timeframe start to finish. Thanks!
 
Here's some pics as I went along.
http://www.floridajeepers.net/viewtopic.php?t=22748&highlight=cheromanche

Product today but always changing

8inchSJcoils.JPG
 
gsmith said:
Would like to see pics from guys who ditched the hatch & rear roof made a working tailgate and used the rear of an mj cab or made something really clean to create a crewcab with ultra short bed look. Seen it on this site but would like some input from some guys who did it themselves. I can do all the bodywork, paint and welding no problem. Just want tips to make it easier and faster. Any potential snags and timeframe start to finish. Thanks!

Here are pics of mine being done: http://fototime.com/inv/B4A05DB0AC37174

I cut the MJ cab at the pinch seam near the bottom. The MJ cab is taller than the XJ, so the XJ roof goes all the way to the back, and the roof and MJ cab sides are joined at the drip rail. On mine, the seam at the top rear where the back of the cab meets the roof is fiberglassed in on the inside to make that joint strong and durable. The cab was positioned so the back seat still works.

Have fun,
 
those r nice but IMO this is the best one ive seen
6752.jpg


the cab and bed r separate
 
MogifiedXJ said:
That is one of the coolest cherokees I have ever saw. Do you have any more pics or a link perhaps???

Since the bed and cab are seperate, I think it qualifies as a Comanche.
 
Lawn Cher' said:
Since the bed and cab are seperate, I think it qualifies as a Comanche.



who cares if they r separate its more flexible that way
 
DansGreyMj said:
who cares if they r separate its more flexible that way

It is important to have the bed separate from the body if you want to use the truck bed like a truck bed.

You don't want to be like those Honda Ridgeline guys with all the waves in the sheet metal behind the rear doors because they put heavy stuff in the bed of their "truck".
 
Is that a modified XJ with a shortened MJ bed?

That looks REALLY good and is the cleanest 4 door XJ pickup conversion I've ever seen, in pics at least.
 
That red crew cab MJ just ended tonight again still unsold apearently it's stuck around 5 grand and no one wants to pay more for it... As with most of us, he seems to think his rig is worth twice as much as anyone else does... In this case I'd be inclined to agree considering the crazy amount of time and money that must have cost. Still no one who wants to buy it agrees.

Try as I might I couldn't get the guy to send me full sized pictures or I would have posted them here. He said he was going to send them but never did.
 
Ted Young said:
Is that a modified XJ with a shortened MJ bed?

That looks REALLY good and is the cleanest 4 door XJ pickup conversion I've ever seen, in pics at least.

It almost looks tooo easy. haha I mean you but right behind the back seat, weld rear hatch in place, then measure and cut the bed... this would be a fun build IMO. Plus great to have to say you have one.
 
in all seriousness there's nothing easy to it. assuming you have all the doner parts you need. The rear hatch of an XJ is Fiberglass until the redesign and not weldable. Even if it was you still have to attach your rear suspension onto something that's not going to fold up like a taco the first time you cross some rail road tracks.

To do a proffesional job on the other hand on a rig you plan to drive and use regularly you need an MJ to cut up, some frame rails need to be grafted to the front 4 door XJ to mount the bed and suspension to, or you need to lengthen the MJ frame (a long bed and wheel base MJ might be usefull here). and graft the 4 door on. you need to stretch the wheel base fill in panels where the wheel well used to be on the XJ graft the back of the MJ cab behind the XJ far enough back that the XJ's rear seats are still useable. which means your cut on the XJ and the cut on the graft have to include more sheet metal (you can't just use the rear window line as a stopping point like some "back half" chop job trail rigs do; the seats go further back than that) Unless you want to put Compact truck king cab jump seats back there.

Lining up those huge grafts will be a problem, and will require a few man days of welding thin sheet metal, all the way around, dressing the welds and then seam sealing them against weld porosity and unless you are a master sheet metal fabricator you will have hundreds of hours of body work ahead of you before paint. And that's to say nothing of stretching your wheel base and suspension work (remember its much heavier than it used to be). It also doesn't address the rear doors which have a wheel arch in them that is now funny looking and out of place.
 
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