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

jscherb said:

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:

View attachment 353583

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:

View attachment 353584

Three days later, most of the disassembly was done:

View attachment 353585

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:

View attachment 353586

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:

View attachment 353587

View attachment 353588

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.

View attachment 353589

View attachment 353590

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...

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

View attachment 353592

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:

View attachment 353593

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).

View attachment 353594

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.

View attachment 353595

View attachment 353596

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.

Click to expand...

jscherb said:

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:

View attachment 353583

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:

View attachment 353584

Three days later, most of the disassembly was done:

View attachment 353585

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:

View attachment 353586

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:

View attachment 353587

View attachment 353588

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.

View attachment 353589

View attachment 353590

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...

View attachment 353591

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

View attachment 353592

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:

View attachment 353593

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).

View attachment 353594

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.

View attachment 353595

View attachment 353596

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.

Click to expand...

jscherb said:

*snip*

I'm trying to decide if I'll recommend these ideas to OO. Personally I like the look of these a lot better than ordinary fabric MOLLE pouches, but I don't know if other people will feel the same.

Click to expand...

wigsajumper said:

I hope you do. I prefer them over the fabric MOLLE pouches. I love MOLLE for its adaptability just not a fan of using it because it all has that "Wanna be Tactical" look.

Click to expand...