I really liked the way CJs looked and I would just buy one but compared to nowadays CJs are hard to live with so I’m wondering how much can I make my TJ look like a CJ
Joeinnewjersey
TJ Enthusiast
This was something I was interested in as well as I love the look of the CJ. Thing I’ve tried: buying the wiper blade holders that leave the blade more in the middle of the windshield. This doesnt work bc the driver blade will end up going off the windshield. Things to try: chrome it up. Hinges and things like temp mirrors for when doors are off can 80s things up. Also on the temp mirrors I wish there was a way to mount them on front of the windshield like the CJ. Other things: Move the signal bulbs to the grill area like a CJ. Cut away the back roll over bars and replace with slanted ones (wouldnt do this for safety reasons). Get leather looking ribbed seat covers or buy the cj inspired replacement seats. Umm, don’t use LED bulbs. And I guess you could paint the jeep with an 80s inspired color or give it stripes found on special models like the Laredo.
thrasherbb
Member
Yes, those are mine.
It's a 100% bolt-on front clip in fiberglass; no mods to the TJ were required and nothing in the engine compartment changed. The grille is a factory CJ grille and the fenders/hood/cowl panel are fiberglass.
Some Moab shots...
Posed next to a friend's CJ-8:
I did the conversion back in 2014 and I've put over 100k miles on it since then, including lots of trail miles. Navigating an obstacle at Easter Jeep Safari:
The best part of it is when Jeep people come up to me and ask what year my CJ is
.
scherb is a master at his craft! I don't think I'd have the patience for doing that sort of fiberglass work and ending up with a good result, I think it would be more attainable for me to just figure out how to drop a CJ8 body onto an LJ chassis.
Thanks for the kind words.
If you dropped a CJ-8 body onto a TJ chassis some patience may be required to figure out how to mount all of the TJ's engine compartment accessories on CJ inner fenders; those fenders don't have the indents and mounting provisions for the TJ parts, and they're a few inches shorter than the TJ fenders so things will be cramped. The design of the CJ Grille Kit for the TJ includes new CJ-style fender with proper mounting provisions for the TJ engine compartment accessories, everything is a direct bolt-on swap with nothing to figure out:
Patience and accuracy is only required during the mold making process for fiberglass. Once an accurate mold is made from a master part, everything else is about as easy as baking a cake. This is the master part I made to make the mold from, it did take some patience to get it perfect:
One the mold is made (the red thing) no more patience is required. Pulling that master from the completed mold:
The first hood out of the mold, before trimming:
Making more parts in the mold is easy.
The CJ Grille Kit consists of about a half dozen molds - hood, cowl panel, inner and outer fenders. More kits can be made in those molds, no patience required
.A complete set of parts bolted to a test tub in my workshop...