light weight

OK, I know I,m gonna get flamed for this but bear with me. Forget mileage, that,s been beat to death and everyone pretty much agrees you can,t do much about it. I just sold my CJ7 on 35,s and am halfway thru a build of a 98 Cherokee auto with a long arm and 35,s. So far it,s got a 6 1/2 lift,home made frame stiffeners, SYE, 35 bfgs. The 4.56,s and rear detroit should be going in this weekend. I love this thing, the old 7 had a 304 V8 and worked well but the XJ with the 4 liter can run down the highway at 60 or 70 mph all day while delivering better mileage than the old V8. With the extra wheelbase ir climbs better than the CJ too. I have a friend who ran a samuri until the body rusted away, it was so light he was almost unstopable in certain situations. Now the question. How much weight do you think you drop off an XJ by doing things like replacing the seats with those lightweight ones from say Summit. And stripping all the interior out from the back of the front seats to the very rear. Maybe losing the rear hatch and just framing it in with tube and skinning it over with thin steel and only having rear access from the rear doors which would also be stripped of all plastic,etc. Losing the rear side glass and replacing it with light gauge steel. One of those rear view cameras would mean no rear glass would be necessary. I think 2 or 3 hundred pounds loss might help the off road performance and even city driving.

Everything in the XJ is already surprisingly lightweight, one front seat equals about the same as the whole of the rear seat... the plastic does add up though, probably twenty pound of it throughout... remove the headliner for a couple more pounds.

Like you suggested, the liftgate is probably the heaviest rear component, on later models it was sheet metal, earlier fiberglass. The fiberglass is slightly lighter. I would personally get a later model gate, strip it down to the outer skin and the latch, then either tube or L-channel to keep it from being flimsy. Maybe get some higher quality plexiglass to replace the glass? Otherwise skin over that with sheet metal like you said...

Some european XJ's came pretty much exactly how you want, two door, no rear seat, metal for windows, and gutted interior. They were labeled as "XJ Vans." Great... from station wagon to minivan... ah... haha.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=44176

This thread has everything you need.

I would think any weight you saved by removing the hatch would be added back with the tubing & sheet metal.

yea budday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ziOhn-rD7Y

diggin this one back up a little, but found a link for some XJ van pictures! http://www.supermotors.net/vehicles/registry/7625/53419