cherokee, cheromanche, rail(buggy) conversion project

I have read most of the topics i could find on here dealing with chopping the vehicle, cages, etc..

I had an 84 cherokee 2door up for sale, but decided to pull the for sale signs and mod it for use on the land i am buying in terlingua. Its beat up, was used heavily for mudding before i purchased it, and as it was under 3k it didnt qualify for "lemon law" protection... so far i have replaced the front shocks (they went out about 2 weeks after i bought it), replaced the alternator with an alternator from the air conditioned model, replaced the fuel pump, and quite a few hoses.. Right now I am running 30.5x9.5 on the stock rims, and still need to replace the carburetor (vaccum advance died, and economy was crap when i bought it), plus need to replace the 4wd actuator with a cable ver (posi-lok, or similar).

The plans for it right now are to cut the roof and sides, save the back panel where the lif mounts and weld it behind the 2 front seats, utilize the top half of the rear lid for the cab window, and the bottom half for the truck tailgate. after that it will be time to start caging it or at least reinforcing everything..

Later in 2005 or 2006, i plan on slowly removing and rewiring everything, and doing a full conversion to an open rail/buggy style..

I guess the only thing i am looking for is any input on building a subframe and such when i do the full conversion next year (possible a little later).

here's a pic of it now.

sounds like a good project, but the picture cant be seen. you might want to check the url or something good luck though. and keep us updated

Strange, I swear I saw a picture of a Medium Blue 2 door XJ just a few minutes earlier. Now it is gone.

I also have a 2 door and have been playing around with photoshop trying to see hwat It would look like as a Cheromanchee. A few people on the forum have built them and could probably help with it. In the end, I decided that it will be better for me to buy an MJ for what I want it to do.

Copperhead

sorry about that, the pic is hosted on my box, and some fool nailed a pole a few blocks from here when i was leaving the house to pick up a gps... it should be displaying ok now.

3-4 weeks ago, there was an mj up for sale here, i think it finally sold for 3-400 on govliquidations.com, i was going to put a bid in, but everything i am doing now is on a major budget (read as, no cash)... I love being a consultant, until i realize i don't get a check every week or two...

ack, wrong pic up now... been one of those days.. will fix it later, either way, i finished the majority of the cutting today.

pics can be viewed at http://66.90.159.3/cheromanche

am going to attempt to get the majority of the welding done within the next few days.

i hope the rest of that roof will be goin also. can't wait to see pictures of this when its done. im gunna be doin somthin similiar as mine gets dents from the trail. keep us updated.

dont drive that too far as it is, the roof is an integral part of the structure... or else you'll fold over like a pita...

yum pitas! heh i have just taken it a few blocks over paved roads. a little later tonight i am going to start ripping all the carpet out, see how hard it will be to remove the rear seatback, etc.

tomorrow i plan on doing the major portion of the welding, starting with cutting and reattaching whats left of the liftgate. after that i will run some reinforcement pipes, and if i have time, repair the floorpans and such.

it still has a long way to go, but i think its coming along nicely for the first day of actual work

heres a link that they make cherokee chops and turn them into a commanche style and also they make buggies from cherokees it gave me good ideas.


www.xjdb.com

look at MJ and XJ.

check out:

http://www.geocities.com/jammerjamesharmon/XJ_other_stuff.html



james
www.geocities.com/jammerjamesharmon

I wouldent start out with an 84,

Get an 89 or newer, better cooling system, better drive train (better tranny, better T-case, better drive shafts...)

It would be much easier to sell the 84 now and upgrade to a newer one now, then to swap your drive train later on after all the mods...

trintek said:

yum pitas! heh i have just taken it a few blocks over paved roads. a little later tonight i am going to start ripping all the carpet out, see how hard it will be to remove the rear seatback, etc.

tomorrow i plan on doing the major portion of the welding, starting with cutting and reattaching whats left of the liftgate. after that i will run some reinforcement pipes, and if i have time, repair the floorpans and such.

it still has a long way to go, but i think its coming along nicely for the first day of actual work

Click to expand...

rear seat is easy. front part is built to come out, rear part is held in by 2 bolts. rear carpit is easy, front carpit is a PITA.
have to take out center console/seats/trim on sides/seatbelt attachments
had to pull my carpit after i hydroed the rig and flooded the inside and it started to smell like pond...
fun times!
good luck with the structure, and keep going with pictures...

still havent taken the back seat out yet, the front part is out, the back part is waiting on a few things... i ended up just razorblading the carpet as i dont plan on reusing it anyway, and, worst case scenario... i figured i had some rust on the drivers side... i didn't plan for it to look like a flintstones wagon.. will have to replace the entire front panel, well.. i think the seat mounts are still good, but from the seat forward is pretty bad :/

i dont have access to a pipe bender, and am low on funds, so, picked up some weldable socketed fittings, finished up the top portion of the reinforcements, and have them wedged into place for now, am going to hold off on anymore drilling and cutting until the weekend.

not sure how i am going to finish the edges and such, was going to reuse the back section, but... the sawzall blade hung up and took a chunk out of it.. not sure if i can get a straight edge out of it now. lesson learned, don't use the same blade you just cut pipe with for slicing sheetmetal...

pic as it stands now


reinforcements should be resized and hardmounted this weekend at some point.. as i am not interested in caging it in yet, and still have to work on my welding skills, this is going to be a strange sort of reinforcement... basically, they are running into the body above both doors and will be bolted into place then spot welded, the other side of it will go to (i think its the c pillar) and be either welded or bolted and welded at that point as well.. i should have enough pipe left over to run a brace piece between the pipes at the rear of the cab roof.

Looks good but are you using pipe or tubing?

I'm not even sure that will be adaquite enough to keep the unibody together, let alone protect anything in a hard role or flop.

It definately wont protect anything in a roll.. at this moment the rig is only used for light city driving and desert use.. basically this stage of the conversion is to help me haul a load of stuff out to the desert so i can start working on my house. The landscape out there is roughly 3000'-3200' elevation with natural terracing and a dry creek bed. so it isnt being used for any real crawling or extreme offroad use. as far as holding the unibody together, i will stress test it when i have everything mounted and see how much it gives, hopefully it wont fold, if it dows, then i will grab a few friends, some jacks, and some heavy gauge steel plate or tube to fix the problems.

at the moment i am using pipe, its galvanized 1 1/4" thick-walled pipe (1/8-1/4" wall thickness). when i get a pipe bender and decide to do the complete conversion into a buggy style, i will spring for better materials, but for now, the pipe was free, the weldable links were discounted and are thick as hell, and all it really needs to do is keep the lack of frame from buckling, so... should work... I would NOT use this for any type of rock crawling or catching air, but, it works well for transport useage and light offroading, so...

major work in progress

edit:
small update... after going out and messing with everything, i am convinced the welds will hold, BUT am going to change out the design anyway... as i said, much of this is just testing stuff and trying to make sure the unibody doesnt buckle... decided i am going to shave the long pipes a little and run them directly from the top of the door area to the open end of the c pillar (once again, i think its the c pillar, not 100% sure). I figure this will give it a better angle to work with and will hopefully provide much more support.

the last post got me thinking, and what i ended up with was "sure, it will last for around town driving, and the welds will hold, but... would i rather have multiple pipes, fittings, and welds... or just one piece of pipe per side and 2 welds?"

if i had a pipe or tube bender, i am sure this wouldn't be as big of an issue, but... right now i am at 3 welds per side, and thats just for the 45 degree angle... i think the dual weld approach, and a bit of reinforcing the original unibody portions it ties into will work much better in the long run. *shrugs* either way, the pix will keep coming, and hopefully i can get some more done tomorrow, even if it is just cutting and spotwelding the pipes to see how well it works... the nice part about this approach is, i dont have to trash any of the original work, and if it doesnt work out, i can use the original work and just bring both of the long pipes down to some 1/2" plate for the tie in.

btw, if anyone wants to help me finance this, all of the removed parts that aren't being reused are available in this post http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=36086

quick question... i wanted to remove the doors and replace with a brace, some sheet metal and netting, my bro (owns an xj and a grand wagoneer) suggested i just cut the doors down to the size i want, then add the netting..

any comments are appreciated, am not used to modding unibodies, so, am always looking for insight.. also, instead of springing for race netting, i was thinking of going with one of these two products.

Orange netting

Black netting

I've used the orange in security situations and know it will support quite a bit of weight, not too sure about the black... anything i use would be making use of sealed aircraft cable for the stitched/joined areas...

once again, any comments welcome, even if it is to rag on me.

due to rain, i havent worked on it today, but took the advice of my bro and came up with this for the new brace base design.



top pic is the current opening

next down is the base shape of the cap that will be temporarily put into place to seal out water and such.

last is the design for the brace base, 1/8th inch thick steel, 3 bolts, 6 bolt holes, straps will come down on the outside of the body steel, and will be welded into place around the edges, then bolted in place through the holes.

the large circle is a rough estimate of where the pipe will join and be welded. To get a bit more tension, i will be jacking up the body under the 'b' pillar to let it flex a little before sizing, cutting, and welding the pipe in place...

roof mount will be similar to the 'c' pillar mount most likely. am still deciding if i should run a pipe through the channel above the doors or just use 1/8th" steel for that as well.

Been a long while since i was last here... so here's an update.. The rear rollbar/cage setup is 75% or so complete. Here are two pics of it's current progress...





The paint is just to cover welds and such to keep it from rusting until i have some time to grind them down a little...

Anyone know of a good replacement for the carter yfa carb on an 84 cherokee? mine is trashed, and i doubt a rebuild will fix it this time.