MatteBlack

Has anyone ever heard of someone grafting an SJ(j10/j20/Grand Wagoneer) hood onto an XJ or MJ? I was looking through some pics of the 70's and 80's SJ's and it seems like it might look right and provide an extra cooling inlet. Not sure if you'd have to reskin the XJ hood or trim down the SJ one. Add in some venting or use the bulge to form a cowl exit and it might work real well. Thoughts?

redjeep1983

Try it and do a write up

91 limited owner

It would take a lot trimming and massaging to get it to look like it belongs there. If it where done nicely, I think it would look good. Adding a cowl or vents, would be a lot less work. I'm not trying to talk you out of it. But if your just trying to cool the engine bay area down. I my self would pick the latter. JMO!

MatteBlack

I agree, this is more about attaining the retro bulge than just an easy way to vent the air. I sort of wonder If you stop with the hood or try fitting an early grille too. A "rhino" grille from the sixties flanked by some round foglights and larger round h4 conversion units seems possible or maybe shorten a "muscle" style grille and find some place squeeze in the indicators.

91 limited owner

Maybe you have come upon a possible unfulfilled niche in the XJ custom hood sales. Could be a money making opportunity? There is a lot of XJ custom hoods available, But nothing like your idea.

MatteBlack

In all honesty, I have found very few custom made XJ hoods out there online. I expected alot more given the known heat issues.

emptypockets

It's nice you're thinking up new ideas, but I just don't see either working right. The XJ hood is pretty much flat and a FSJ has a more rounded hood. You would have to be able to somehow blend the two of them so you wouldn't notice it. Easy to do in Photoshop, not so much in real life. As for the grilles, again the XJ header panels are flat and FSJ juts out. Not to mention you would probably have FSJ guys kicking your butt for cutting up their hard to find parts.

Tom95YJ

Your Photoshop reminds me of the UltraZ hoods for 4th gen camaros.

Not to mention FSJ Parts are hard to find in decent shape , An the header panel of the XJ is infront of the hood where a FSJ's hood above and flush with the grille. IMO if you want the XJ to look like a FSJ buy a Full Size Cherokee or Wagoneer

MatteBlack

I was actually inspired by some old Mercury Cyclone scoops.


The hard part will clearly be removing the stock header and massaging the leading edge to look right on the XJ and still look like a FSJ. I don't have a the old hood to investigate how it is constructed but, I would envison modifying the header and radiator support so that an extended xj hood reskinned with the FSJ metal would sit right and allow in alot of air. I am assuming you'd be cutting away the sides and back of the FSJ skin for sure and possibly maybe even removing some section to scale the lines down to the XJs smaller size.

This is definitely something for down the road but, I am not someone who worries much about what one purist or another thinks about how I use old parts. If they care that much about them they will outbid me for them or buy them out of my hands (which few ever would). Some of the grilles might be rare but, these hoods were used on many models over many years. Besides, with all I'd be cutting away, alot of the damaged ones or ones with rust in the corners or hinges might work fine.

The way I see it, I am tipping my hat and respecting the old look of the make more than I would be desecrating some sort of precious relic. I am sure some will disagree but, it seems a little antithetical to the Jeep spirit to tell people how they can modify their ride or parts.

emptypockets

They are precious relics to those who own them. When you consider that 95-97 XJ production numbers are greater than the production numbers of ALL FSJs from 73-92 (numbers aren't available for 63-72). Now subtract all of those lost to the crusher over the years and imagine what's left. It's nice you want to tip your hat to the past, but maybe cutting up parts others would like to have for their resto isn't the way to do it. Just food for thought.

caged

what's so hard about that?
just cut the bulge out of the fsj hood and remove the section from the xj hood and weld the bulge in. then you will have to use some putty to smooth it all out, but i think it would look killer.

i say go for it.

MatteBlack

This is a long standing argument that goes way beyond the Jeep community and even beyond automobiles and vehicles. You'll always have those who want to preserve and those who want to modify and express. As a car guy in my 40's my view is on this is pretty well set.

I respect resto guys and what they do and try not to "ruin" more than I need to in my pursuits. My budget generally keeps the most sought after parts out of my projects because, I am not going to chop down an expensive part to use a small percentage of it.

I put it on par with responsible trail use.

MatteBlack

I think the most elegant solution would be removing the header and trying to retain the leading hood edge along with the bulge. I think it would look smoother by hiding one more seem/panel gap and sell the throwback look a little better.

The 2000-2001 grille sort of reminds me of the black painted "muscle" grille inset so playing that up might be the rest direction. The "military" and "rhino" version being other favorites of mine.

caged

i like those also, but i like the razor too.
it's funny, all those grilles have the rhino setup behind them all.
you can make a 90s fjs look like the 60's front end just by removing the grille and getting the small rhino grill and headlight buckets.

MatteBlack

I saw that on a show one time, I was surprised how easy of a swap it was. Looked like the hard part was getting the parts.