Time flies... my LJ pickup is 14 years old

jscherb

TJ Enthusiast
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2020
Messages
823
Location
Elmira, NY
14 years this month I drove my Retro Wrangler pickup for the first time. On July 26, 2008 I parked my 2006 LJ in the garage and 18 days later I drove it out as a pickup. I had spent almost a year designing the project and building the necessary parts to that design and the result was a kit of parts that went together very quickly. I call the project the Retro Wrangler because my design goal was to build a modern version of the classic Willys pickup.

As part of the design process, I did many concept drawings of what the finished pickup would look like, many engineering drawings of the parts needed for the conversion, and I even built a 1/25 scale model to make sure the proportions looked right from all angles. My projects are always about design - I typically spend more time designing than I do in construction, and that really pays off for me. The model:

Tires.jpg


Once the design work was done, I fabricated all of the necessary parts before beginning the modifications to the LJ. On July 27, 2008, I parked the LJ in the garage to begin the conversion:

Parked.jpg


Three days later, most of the disassembly was done:

DSC_0277.jpg


The design called for lengthening the frame almost 24 inches and the easiest way to do that was to cut the frame at the back of the parallel section of the frame rails behind the front seats, cut a second LJ frame at the front of the parallel section and weld the two together. This provided the needed extra length was accomplished with only one joint on each side of the frame. I didn't know how to weld when I planned the project, but I bought a welder and taught myself to weld and then did all of the frame and sheet metal welding myself.

14 days after the disassembly photo above, I drove the new pickup out of the garage:

DSC_0433.jpg


Back then I didn't do my own painting or sewing, so I scheduled the truck at a local body shop for paint and scheduled it at a local hot rod shop to resew the factory soft top into a half cab. Today I would do those tasks myself.

For a few months I drove it with the soft top while I worked on the hardtop. The soft top redesign kept the Sunrider feature:

SoftTopSunrider.jpg


RetroWrangler6.jpg


The hardtop was fabricated out of a factory export CJ-7 World Cab hardtop I picked up in Wales when I lived in London two years before this project started, plus some parts from a CJ-10a half cab plus some extra sheet metal.

SanibelCauseway1.jpg


SanibelCauseway3.jpg


I haven't used the soft top since February 2009 because I like the hardtop so much.

I believe I met my original design goal to build a modern version of the classic Willys pickup...

RetroAndWillys3.jpg


JP Magazine liked the project so much they featured it in the July 2009 issue:

JpArticle.jpg


Soon after the hardtop was completed in early 2009, I drove the truck from upstate NY to Moab and tested the new truck on the trails at Easter Jeep Safari:

Moab1.jpg


The truck now has about 130,000 miles on the clock (over 100,000 since it's been a pickup) and it's still a daily driver. A few weeks ago I added a 60 year old Willys ladder rack to the bed for carrying long loads (the rack slips into the stake pockets in the bed so it isn't on the truck all the time).

LadderRack6.jpg


Back when I did this project Jeep pickups were just a memory and the Gladiator hadn't even been thought of yet. I still like my design much better than the Gladiator, I wouldn't trade my truck for a JT for anything.

TwoPickups1.jpg


TwoPickups1b.jpg


I've got photos of every detail of the project so if anyone is considering building their own TJ/LJ pickup and has questions I can probably help.
 
What a cool creation! I'll bet you get serious looks wherever you go in that thing. :love:
 
Thanks for the nice comments everyone!

...I like it a lot better than the Gladiator.

SOOOOOOOOOOO much better looking than the new Gladiator and a 2 door! (y)

No way would I trade it for a Gladiator. The Gladiator is too big and awkward; this pickup, even at about 2' longer than an LJ, is just the right size for my needs.

...I'll bet you get serious looks wherever you go in that thing. :love:

I'm so over it. For 14 years almost every time I park it to go into a store or somewhere someone has to come up to me and ask questions about it. Last week I came out of Harbor Freight to find two guys on their knees looking under it at the frame. Even soccer moms ask me about it. Everyone please leave me alone when I'm driving it :).

Quite an accomplishment, and a testament of your love for your Jeep.

Actually, not so much about love for Jeep - I really wanted a cool classic pickup and I could have restored an old Willys or Chevy or something but the TJ has just the right amount of modern electronics and modern mechanical technology to make it a great daily driver and it could be built to closely resemble a classic fifties pickup. Win win.


BTW today I'm in Pigeon Forge, TN, it's vendor setup day for the Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion. Took this photo today during setup, MORryde is in the foreground, Overland Outfitters is to the left of them. That's my JKU and Jeep-tub trailer in the OO booth, they're being borrowed by OO for this show. If anyone is attending the event stop by these booths and say hi, I'll probably be spending most of my time there.

MORrydeAndOOBooths.jpg
 
Isettas?
I had a hotrod 600 pulled the 600cc 20hp and replaced it with a BMW 700cs engine that made 40hp.

Here is my 700LS that I sold to BMW in 91.
It was the cleanest one they had seen.
My CS at BMW.jpg
 
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I've been asked some questions about half tops, both soft and hard, so here's more info than you probably ever wanted to know.

I built the hardtop for my pickup as a second phase of the project; the first top I had was a modification of the factory soft top. I came up with this modification plan:

SoftTopPlan1.jpg


SoftTopPlan2.jpg


SoftTopPlan3.jpg


SoftTopPlan4.jpg


Work in progress:

TopFrame-1.jpg


I did the mods to the soft top frame and then took the Jeep and the factory soft top canvas to a local hot rod upholstery shop and they cut and resewed the canvas to the new plan.

RetroSoftTop_zpszkko50rn.jpg


Since then I've taught myself to sew and I have a sewing machine capable of the heavy duty work required to resew a soft top so if I were to do the project again I'd do the sewing myself.

The soft top was only in use for a few months; as soon as I finished the hardtop I removed the soft top and haven't used it again in almost 14 years.

For a short while I used a Gr8Tops XTop half cab hardtop - Matt at Gr8Tops was nice enough to lend me one, he was interested in testing how it fit on a pickup and I wanted to see how it looked on my truck. It fit and sealed perfectly, but the it wasn't exactly the look I was going for - the original Willys trucks didn't have a flat roof so I was looking for something with a little more profile for my truck. But the Gr8Tops top was very high quality and if it was the look I wanted I could have painted it red and called it a day.

attachment.jpg


I lived in London for work for a couple of years around 2005 and while there on eBay I found a very rare (and non-existent in the U.S.) Jeep factory CJ-7 World Cab in Wales. I couldn't not buy it, so I picked it up in Wales and stored it until we moved back to the states. At the time I had a 2000 TJ so when I got home I did a quick test fit of the top on the TJ to see what mods might be required to turn it into a half cab.

DSC_7059.jpg


Dsc_7060.jpg


And from a good friend I was able to acquire a CJ-10a half cab, which would provide the back wall of the pickup cab.

TopParts.jpg


A lot of sheet metal work was required to convert the World Cab and the CJ-10a cab into a pickup half cab; I won't show all of the detail here. Modifications included lengthening the sides of the CJ-10a cab because that cab was way too short:

SideExtend.jpg


Changing the shape of the lower jamb to better fit and seal with the TJ doors:

CJvsTJDetails-1.jpg


Fabricating new curved upper jambs because the World Cab doors had square upper corners and I needed a jamb to fit the curved corners of the TJ doors:

UpperJambs5.jpg


And cutting and piecing together the World Cab roof:

topday12.jpg


After paint:

Hardtop1-1.jpg


BTW Jeep produced two versions of the World Cab - the CJ-7 version I modified into the half cab, and a CJ-8 version. I may be the only person in the U.S. to have had both, I had a Scrambler with a World Cab in the early 2000's. The only CJ-8 World Cabs that were released in the U.S. went to the U.S. Postal Service in Alaska for rural mail delivery, they were called "Alaskan Postal CJ-8s", and I had one of those hardtops.

DSC_1811.jpg


DSC_1804.jpg


Technically the CJ-10a cab is also a World Cab because it has the square corner doors, but it was only used on the CJ-10a aircraft tug for the U.S. Air Force. In this next photo are all of the World Cab parts in my driveway, the CJ-7 World Cab doors with square corners are also in this photo:

AllWorldCabs_zps2ef0351a.jpg


I liked the CJ-8 World Cab so much that when I sold the Scrambler and bought my LJ the World Cab was the inspiration for my Safari Cab hardtop design. Here's a CJ-8 World Cab ad and my Safari Cab LJ, which I call the LJ-8 because of the CJ grill I put on it and the hardtop design inspired by the Scrambler World Cab:

WorldCabAd.jpg


After I finished my LJ Safari Cab and Gr8Tops licensed it to put it in production, I built a prototype half cab version of it in the same molds as the full cab. I thought Gr8Tops might be interested in producing that as well but they decided not to, so so far only one example of the Safari half cab has been made. Because it's based on the Safari Cab, which was inspired by the World Cab, the Safari half cab is almost identical to the half cab I made out of the CJ-7 World Cab.

HalfCabProject3.jpg


One reason I thought G8Tops might be interested in the Safari Half Cab design is that it's the only half cab hardtop that can be installed on a TJ without modifying the roll bars - because it is modular it can be installed in separate pieces:

RollBarPassThru2.jpg


RollBarPassThru.jpg


Being modular, it also breaks down nice and compact for storage:

ModularTop_zpsb931801d.jpg


Installed with no modification of the roll bars:

BobTest11.jpg


Gr8Top wasn't interested, so only the one prototype example was made. After test installing it on the Jeep above in 2011, it's been sitting in my basement ever since.

Probably more than anyone ever wanted to know about my half cab projects, but always happy to answer any other questions anyone might have about the half cabs or the pickup :).
 
I've been asked some questions about half tops, both soft and hard, so here's more info than you probably ever wanted to know.

I built the hardtop for my pickup as a second phase of the project; the first top I had was a modification of the factory soft top. I came up with this modification plan:

View attachment 354307

View attachment 354308

View attachment 354309

View attachment 354310

Work in progress:

View attachment 354311

I did the mods to the soft top frame and then took the Jeep and the factory soft top canvas to a local hot rod upholstery shop and they cut and resewed the canvas to the new plan.

View attachment 354312

Since then I've taught myself to sew and I have a sewing machine capable of the heavy duty work required to resew a soft top so if I were to do the project again I'd do the sewing myself.

The soft top was only in use for a few months; as soon as I finished the hardtop I removed the soft top and haven't used it again in almost 14 years.

For a short while I used a Gr8Tops XTop half cab hardtop - Matt at Gr8Tops was nice enough to lend me one, he was interested in testing how it fit on a pickup and I wanted to see how it looked on my truck. It fit and sealed perfectly, but the it wasn't exactly the look I was going for - the original Willys trucks didn't have a flat roof so I was looking for something with a little more profile for my truck. But the Gr8Tops top was very high quality and if it was the look I wanted I could have painted it red and called it a day.

View attachment 354313

I lived in London for work for a couple of years around 2005 and while there on eBay I found a very rare (and non-existent in the U.S.) Jeep factory CJ-7 World Cab in Wales. I couldn't not buy it, so I picked it up in Wales and stored it until we moved back to the states. At the time I had a 2000 TJ so when I got home I did a quick test fit of the top on the TJ to see what mods might be required to turn it into a half cab.

View attachment 354314

View attachment 354315

And from a good friend I was able to acquire a CJ-10a half cab, which would provide the back wall of the pickup cab.

View attachment 354316

A lot of sheet metal work was required to convert the World Cab and the CJ-10a cab into a pickup half cab; I won't show all of the detail here. Modifications included lengthening the sides of the CJ-10a cab because that cab was way too short:

View attachment 354317

Changing the shape of the lower jamb to better fit and seal with the TJ doors:

View attachment 354318

Fabricating new curved upper jambs because the World Cab doors had square upper corners and I needed a jamb to fit the curved corners of the TJ doors:

View attachment 354319

And cutting and piecing together the World Cab roof:

View attachment 354320

After paint:

View attachment 354321

BTW Jeep produced two versions of the World Cab - the CJ-7 version I modified into the half cab, and a CJ-8 version. I may be the only person in the U.S. to have had both, I had a Scrambler with a World Cab in the early 2000's. The only CJ-8 World Cabs that were released in the U.S. went to the U.S. Postal Service in Alaska for rural mail delivery, they were called "Alaskan Postal CJ-8s", and I had one of those hardtops.

View attachment 354322

View attachment 354323

Technically the CJ-10a cab is also a World Cab because it has the square corner doors, but it was only used on the CJ-10a aircraft tug for the U.S. Air Force. In this next photo are all of the World Cab parts in my driveway, the CJ-7 World Cab doors with square corners are also in this photo:

View attachment 354324

I liked the CJ-8 World Cab so much that when I sold the Scrambler and bought my LJ the World Cab was the inspiration for my Safari Cab hardtop design. Here's a CJ-8 World Cab ad and my Safari Cab LJ, which I call the LJ-8 because of the CJ grill I put on it and the hardtop design inspired by the Scrambler World Cab:

View attachment 354325

After I finished my LJ Safari Cab and Gr8Tops licensed it to put it in production, I built a prototype half cab version of it in the same molds as the full cab. I thought Gr8Tops might be interested in producing that as well but they decided not to, so so far only one example of the Safari half cab has been made. Because it's based on the Safari Cab, which was inspired by the World Cab, the Safari half cab is almost identical to the half cab I made out of the CJ-7 World Cab.

View attachment 354326

One reason I thought G8Tops might be interested in the Safari Half Cab design is that it's the only half cab hardtop that can be installed on a TJ without modifying the roll bars - because it is modular it can be installed in separate pieces:

View attachment 354327

View attachment 354328

Being modular, it also breaks down nice and compact for storage:

View attachment 354329

Installed with no modification of the roll bars:

View attachment 354330

Gr8Top wasn't interested, so only the one prototype example was made. After test installing it on the Jeep above in 2011, it's been sitting in my basement ever since.

Probably more than anyone ever wanted to know about my half cab projects, but always happy to answer any other questions anyone might have about the half cabs or the pickup :).

awesome talent and craftsmanship sir.
 
I'm back from the Smoky show now, thanks to the forum friends who stopped by to say hi! And my apologies to those who stopped by when I was too busy to talk - Overland Outfitters products were very popular at the show and they were swamped so they asked me to help out in their booth - mostly fetching products from the trailer when people wanted to buy something, but occasionally explaining to someone how a product works or why it was designed the way it was (since I designed their products. I'm the guilty party when it comes to answering design questions). I also helped out a bit in the MORryde booth next door, it always seems there's some tech question someone asks that they need my help with and since I also designed their Trail Kitchen and the HD hinges/tailgate reinforcements and I was in the next booth I helped out MORryde too.

Coincidentally, WranglerFix was right behind the OO booth (it's the orange canopy in the background between my JKU and my trailer); Mark and I had a great conversation about the shortcomings of the '06 PCM and based on that conversation I think I'll order a spare from him to carry on the trail. Don't want to be stuck on the trail due to a PCM failure, even though the PCM in my LJ has been working fine for over 200k miles, why take a chance :).

WranglerFix.jpg
 
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