Good, you can come down after you get back from BCT and help me start the chop on mine. I'm really on the edge about doing it, but once I buy a welder and get some convincing from friends It'll happen quick.

 

shoot i didnt care about mine really... jig saw with a metal blade across the middle... sawzall on the sides of the roof and C pillars (cause its to thick for a jigsaw)... a 4 foot level... and bam... done it myself in like 15 minutes... lol

 

I got my XJ all ready chopped by PO. He did it in a very booty fab way, and it looks way hack on a bunch of stuff. I strongly recommend adding stiffners and a cage if anyone does this mod.


I am beating on my rig till it splits in half... then I will find another one and do it a lot nicer. adding a third seat and a family style cage. Pics can be found in my webshots page posted in my sig.

 

A club member from the Northern MN Jeepers knows this guy personally. Extremely talented with body work and customizing. He did all the work himself to my knowledge.

 

So I understand that the Cherokee has unibody construction. Putting a cage in is pretty much essential if you are going to have a vehicle that is safe for the road and trail.

My questions then is where do you anchor the cage to the body in order to achieve maximum stability? I am assuming that it would be to the frame at some point but the frame is also going to have some flex to it. If you mount it to the body I can see it ripping the sheet metal of the body right through in a rollover.

Anyone put a frame in? Have the drawings? Care to share them?

 

I'd say drop the xj onto a extended wheelbase wrangler 2 door. (they're called "unlimited" I believe). The wrangler has a 2 inch longer wheelbase. So its not exact, but its the closest match I've found. Fab body mounts to the unibody rails of the xj and viola! You have a body lift to boot.

 

Yeah, and then you have a frame that sits down about 6" below the rocker panels of the Jeep. It'd be more trouble than its worth

 

about putting an xj on a frame-

people have done that and imo it really doesnt look that good and ive heard it said by someone who did it "you shoulda punched me in my face when i mentioned doin this to ya!" ...i laughed when he said it.

 

If I had my xj fixed it would be chopped!

 

It all depends. I honestly think that if done right a 2dr cherokee looks better and is more functional that way. I'm going to do mine so I can retain a back seat closed in and luggage area if I ever need it. 4doors need to either be chopped behind the b pillar or not at all IMO. making a 4door Truggy is just pointless, you lose the closed in luggage area/back seat and don't gain much of anything.

 

i was talking about the frame. i love chopped xj's my neighbor has one that he used the hatch to enclose it...

 

Yeah, the frame is a pain in the rear. for mine I'm going to run a piece of 2x4 .188 wall DOM to tie the two fram rails together in the rear and to use as a tie-in for the cage I'm gonna build, I don't want the cage to take up "bed" space so I'm gonna run it through the side of the body and tie it to the 2x4 crossmember. First I gotta buy a welder and make a tube bender. Thankfully I know a guy who has been working on cars for 30+ years and can weld just about anything that'll be mentoring me on it.

 

This is by far the best job of this type of modification I have seen done. It makes me want to chop my 2 door down.

 

thats the sexiest thing i have ever seen guys!!
that guy should work for the Jeep desingn department, he just owned Chip Foose hahah.
wowwww

 

off topic a little bit but these are also B A