Any retro CJ style TJs out there?

Shinebox_LJ

Shinebox_LJ

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Joined
May 11, 2019
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Location
Los Angeles, CA
Hey everyone! Just wondering if there are any TJs or LJs out there with a “CJ touch”? Decals, mirrors, doors, etc.. I’ve seen a bunch of beautiful ones scattered throughout the threads that have a special old school vibe about them. I’d like to get the fabric doors with the square mirrors to match on mine to give it a more retro look. I think sometimes my LJ really wants to be a CJ8 lol Let see those pics if you’re out there!

A02833E8-CADD-4CFC-B475-30B13243C040.jpeg
 
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Zorba said:
Every time I see that hardtop, I get a case of unrequited LUST! Very Land Rover-ish.
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Actually it's very "CJ-ish" :). In the 80's Jeep manufactured a hardtop they called the "World Cab", it was for export sales and none were sold retail in the U.S. It was the main inspiration for my hardtop design:

WorldCabAd.jpg


The World Cab had a barn door in the back, so that's what I did for my hardtop too.

SafariTop.jpg


The World Cab didn't have "opera windows" on either side of the rear barn door, but those weren't a Land Rover inspiration either, they were inspired by early CJ hardtops:

CJ5_1.jpg


So it may be Land Rover-ish, but all of the features and shapes were inspired by old Jeep designs :).
 
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jscherb said:
Actually it's very "CJ-ish" :). In the 80's Jeep manufactured a hardtop they called the "World Cab", it was for export sales and none were sold retail in the U.S. It was the main inspiration for my hardtop design:

View attachment 195603

The World Cab had a barn door in the back, so that's what I did for my hardtop too.

View attachment 195604

The World Cab didn't have "opera windows" on either side of the rear barn door, but those weren't a Land Rover inspiration either, they were inspired by early CJ hardtops:

View attachment 195605

So it may be Land Rover-ish, but all of the features and shapes were inspired by old Jeep designs :).
Click to expand...
Damn, I remember seeing your tops years ago, and never knew the inspiration! I too always thought they were Rover inspired...
 
I haven't gone anywhere near the extent that some of these guys have, but I've done a few touches here and there that make mine a little more CJ-ish.

It started with the MCE fenders which go back to CJ-3 territory. That obviously eliminated my front facing fender mounted turn signals so I had to put some in the grill - I used JK light housings but the CJ's had their lights in that location.

IMG_20200804_124626-01.jpeg


I then decided to start going more retro, and bought these "Wrangler" hood decals reminiscent of the old Renegades (sorry for the tiny example pic, it's what I could find). I haven't applied them yet because I'll be switching Jeeps in a few months so I'm gonna wait for the next one.

1602515717957.png


Same decal, though mine is in black, so I guess that rules out black for my next Jeep (because I'd rather limit my color selection than buy another $40 decal :ROFLMAO: )

1602515816861.png


Then i started with the interior. I bought an upright transfer case shift lever (which I still haven't quite got to work correctly) and drilled and tapped some CJ7 shift knobs to fit the M10 shift lever threads on the TJ shifters.

IMG_20200621_231933.jpg


The plasti-dip on my wheels has finally started peeling after 3 years (and not just in the places they've been kissed by rocks) so I'm going to have to strip them down, but I'm probably going to wait to see the color of my next Jeep to decide whether to put on a more permanent coat of paint or to leave them in the more CJ-era polished aluminum. (a photo from before applying the plasti-dip)

20170618_160611.jpg


It's tempting to maybe even go back to white-letters out on my next set, though I am concerned about scraping the black off on the rocks and revealing a crappy looking whitewall underneath. I don't know if that method of doing white letters is common to all white letter tires or if it's specific to certain brands. I just know I hate it.

1602516700608.png


Since my next Jeep will be an LJ, I've also thought it would be cool to 3D print an emblem like @jscherb avatar, except I was thinking TJ-6. It's recently come to my attention though that TJ6 is used to refer to TJ's that have been stretched to the LJ/CJ-6 wheelbase so I may re-evaluate as I don't want to give the impression that I did all the work to convert rather than just buying it that way.
 
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Where did you get that upright transfer case shift lever and what's the issue with it not working?
 
There is 2000 something ssangyong korando ,which is basically cj, selling here. Dye think frontend from korando could fit our tj? My front fenders are rusty, i dont want to buy taiwanese panels.
 
72aft said:
Where did you get that upright transfer case shift lever and what's the issue with it not working?
Click to expand...

there's a guy on ebay (username rodslama) that about twice a year will make up about half a dozen or so and sell them.

The problem is that he seems to have some fairly wide manufacturing tolerances so they work for some people and not for others. I'm in the second group.

For mine, the flattened spot that rides in the gate wasn't tall enough, so the rod interferes with the gate before it gets all the way forward in 2-HI. Also, the hole for the retaining pin was not the correct distance from the bend in the rod, which allowed the rod to shift forward and the bend would contact the inside of the housing before getting all the way forward in 2-hi. I've addressed both of these issues, but what I'm dealing with now is though it works fine with no center console in place, when I put the console in, the rod contacts the rear edge of the opening in the console before falling all the way home into 4-low. It'll go in if I really slam it back, but it puts pressure on the console, eventually popping it back out of 4-low which happened about 3 times over a 3-day wheeling trip I took in August. I suspect the fix will be heating it up and putting a forward bend in it to get it to clear.
 
Turdworlder said:
There is 2000 something ssangyong korando ,which is basically cj, selling here. Dye think frontend from korando could fit our tj? My front fenders are rusty, i dont want to buy taiwanese panels.
Click to expand...
No. The Korando appears to be a reasonably faithful copy of a CJ. That being the case, none of the front clip parts will fit properly on a TJ. A Korando:

ngKorandoK9Jeep1994frt.jpg.pagespeed.ic.d5KEmGYnX-.jpg


These photos compare CJ and TJ front sheet metal, I would guess the differences between the Korando and the TJ would be similar.

The curve at the sides of a CJ-style hood doesn't match the curve of the TJ cowl:

BodyLineSide.jpg


TJ hoods are longer than CJ hoods, and TJ fenders are longer than CJ fenders as well.

HoodLength.jpg


The hinges are spaced differently and the TJ hood and cowl have a raised center section but the CJ does not have that raised center.

CowlTop.jpg


And (no pic for this) the curve of the grille where the fenders bolt to it is very different.

I had to account for all of these differences when I built the CJ-style front clip for my LJ. The fiberglass parts before painting:

ScreenBehindGrille2.jpg
 
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