Spoiler alert: You can't install factory CJ front clip sheet metal on a TJ/LJ, none of the parts fit correctly. But some have requested info on how I did it, so here goes...
Back in the early 2000's I had a rare CJ-8 Scrambler - the Scrambler itself wasn't too rare, but it had an export "World Cab" hardtop, which is very rare in the U.S. The Scrambler really wasn't an idea daily driver, even after I converted the carbureted 4.2L to fuel injection - I wanted something I could easily and comfortably cruise across the country from NY State to the Colorado or Utah trails, so I sold the Scrambler and bought an LJ.
I really liked the World Cab hardtop so I decided to design and build an improved version in fiberglass for the LJ. The result was the Safari Cab (now in production at Gr8Tops); here's the Scrambler compared to the LJ Safari with the factory LJ grille:
The Safari Cab worked out great and is still on my LJ 13 years later, but I also wanted the classic look of the CJ Grille. I began studying the CJ parts and discovered that the only dimension in common was the width of the tub - nothing else matched...
In the first two photos below, you can see that the TJ has a raised section in the center of the cowl panel but the CJ hood and cowl panel are almost flat. Also this can't be determined by the photos, but the spacing of the hood hinges is different, so even if you tried to bolt a CJ hood to a TJ the hinges won't line up. In the bottom two photos you can see the difference between the curve of the side of the hood and the curve of the tub; also the tub as a body line a few inches above the bottom of the hood and the CJ hood is smooth there.
Also, the engine compartments are different lengths - the TJ hood and fenders are a few inches longer.
Some people have bolted the CJ hood and fenders to the TJ, but the result pretty much always looks like a hack because of the differences shown above. Basically nothing from the CJ can be used except possibly the grille, and even that doesn't bolt up to the TJ - the TJ steering box interferes with the bottom of the CJ grille and the TJ radiator doesn't bolt to the CJ grille.
I studied the TJ and CJ parts for a long time and a breakthrough happened when I removed the cowl panel from my LJ to see what was under it - it turns out that the top of the TJ tub actually matches the slight curve of the CJ tub and the raised section on the TJ is just part of the cowl and hood, not the tub. In this photo I've bolted a section of a CJ hood to the TJ (I had to drill some new holes in the hood section to match the spacing of the TJ hinges) and you can see that the tub matches the hood.
Removing the small bracket in the center of the tub would allow a CJ-shaped cowl panel to be installed on the TJ. The bracket is spot welded to the tub, so drilling out those spot welds is all that's needed to remove the bracket. This was the only modification that was necessary to the TJ to do the entire CJ conversion, and if I ever want to replace the TJ sheet metal all I've got to do is bolt the bracket back in place using the holes where the spot welds were drilled out.
With this discovery, I began working on a CJ-style cowl panel that would bolt up to the TJ. Since making custom parts in fiberglass can be much easier than working in metal, I started by taking a factory TJ cowl panel (1 in the photo below) and making a mold from it (2). Then I made a mold from a the cowl section of a CJ tub (3). I molded a TJ cowl in the first mold and a CJ cowl section in the second mold, cut the raised section out of the resulting TJ cowl and spliced a matching section of the molded CJ cowl in its place (4). That became the final "mold master" so I made a mold of it (5) and then made a final CJ-style cowl in that mold that would bolt in place perfectly to the TJ tub (6):
I installed a CJ HVAC intake grille, made adapter blocks so the hinges could be spaced properly on the CJ hood but still bolt to the narrower bolting locations on the CJ tub, and this was the result - a CJ-shaped cowl panel that would match a CJ hood perfectly but bolt to a TJ tub:
Next I did the fenders. I came across a set of fiberglass CJ fenders on Craigslist which I bought to form the basis for the new fenders. First, they had to be lengthened in the rear to match the length of the TJ fenders, that was pretty easy. I wanted to use TJ flares on the fenders because of their larger wheel openings than the CJ fenders, but the curve at the front of the fenders doesn't match the flares, so I made an intermediate mold of the front curve, molded curves and grafted them to the front of the CJ fenders. A work-in-progress photo:
When those were complete they became the mold masters and I made molds from them. Next I had to deal with the inner fenders - I wanted all of the engine compartment accessories that bolt to the fenders to bolt in place on the new fenders, but the shape where the fender meets the grille is very different between the TJ and the CJ, so I made molds of TJ inner fenders, modified the front of them to have curves to match the CJ grille, and then made final molds from them. I made inner and outer fenders from these molds and bonded the inners and outers together with this result:
Bolted to the tub and a factory CJ grille:
The grille needed to be modified to clear the TJ's steering box, so I clearanced that and built a bracket to maintain the CJ grille's integrity around the cutout. I also designed and fabricated brackets that allow the TJ radiator to bolt up to the CJ grille.
The final part was the hood. I needed to match the curves at the cowl and the TJ's body lines, and the hood needed to be longer than a CJ hood to accomodate the longer TJ engine compartment, so I spliced together parts of a TJ hood and two CJ hoods to solve those challenges. Work in progress:
When all of the welding, metalwork and bodywork was done, I made a mold of the result, and molded a final hood. This photo was taken right after the hood came out of the mold, it's not been trimmed yet.
I bolted it all together in the workshop:
Next was priming and painting:
I took a break from the project to drive to Alaska; I did the Dalton Highway all the way up to the Arctic Ocean and didn't want to get stone chip damage the 500 miles of non-paved roads up there so I waited until after I returned to do the final installation.
Installation was pretty straightforward - unbolt everything from the inner fenders and the grille, remove the factory sheet metal and bolt the new fiberglass parts in place. I didn't even have to drain the radiator or discharge the A/C, I simply hung them from the garage door rails while I was swapping the grilles. The ropes holding them aren't very visible in this photo but you can see them if you look closely.
The end result.
The engine compartment looks completely stock, except for one thing - the factory CJ grille has a provision for a cold air intake, so I plumbed that to the TJ airbox using stock CJ air duct hose. According to my OBDII scanner, this does reduce the intake air temperature and I won't make any claims about whether the cold air intake does anything for performance, but since the factory fitting was there on the CJ grille I had to use it
. You can see the cold air intake hose in this next photo.
With that done, I made a new emblem for the rear of the tub:
And with that, the transition was complete and here's how it compares to my Scrambler:
I took the opportunity of crossing the Animas River above Silverton in 2014 to recreate this CJ-8 ad:
I designed the CJ Grille Kit so that it could be a production product if some company ever wanted to market it, and a few companies contacted me about it but they apparently weren't serious enough to go ahead with it. I do still have all the molds so more kits could be made if there's ever a need.
The CJ Grille Kit has been on my LJ for about 11 years now, through about 150k miles of highway and at least 5,000 trail miles and there have been no issues. Other than people always asking me what year my CJ is.
I've left out many details and photos but hopefully I've told the story well enough. If anyone has detailed questions or wants to see more photos of how I did something just ask and I'll be happy to answer your questions or post more photos.
Also if people want to see what it takes to make a custom hardtop, I can do a similar post about the Safari Cab project.
Back in the early 2000's I had a rare CJ-8 Scrambler - the Scrambler itself wasn't too rare, but it had an export "World Cab" hardtop, which is very rare in the U.S. The Scrambler really wasn't an idea daily driver, even after I converted the carbureted 4.2L to fuel injection - I wanted something I could easily and comfortably cruise across the country from NY State to the Colorado or Utah trails, so I sold the Scrambler and bought an LJ.
I really liked the World Cab hardtop so I decided to design and build an improved version in fiberglass for the LJ. The result was the Safari Cab (now in production at Gr8Tops); here's the Scrambler compared to the LJ Safari with the factory LJ grille:
The Safari Cab worked out great and is still on my LJ 13 years later, but I also wanted the classic look of the CJ Grille. I began studying the CJ parts and discovered that the only dimension in common was the width of the tub - nothing else matched...
In the first two photos below, you can see that the TJ has a raised section in the center of the cowl panel but the CJ hood and cowl panel are almost flat. Also this can't be determined by the photos, but the spacing of the hood hinges is different, so even if you tried to bolt a CJ hood to a TJ the hinges won't line up. In the bottom two photos you can see the difference between the curve of the side of the hood and the curve of the tub; also the tub as a body line a few inches above the bottom of the hood and the CJ hood is smooth there.
Also, the engine compartments are different lengths - the TJ hood and fenders are a few inches longer.
Some people have bolted the CJ hood and fenders to the TJ, but the result pretty much always looks like a hack because of the differences shown above. Basically nothing from the CJ can be used except possibly the grille, and even that doesn't bolt up to the TJ - the TJ steering box interferes with the bottom of the CJ grille and the TJ radiator doesn't bolt to the CJ grille.
I studied the TJ and CJ parts for a long time and a breakthrough happened when I removed the cowl panel from my LJ to see what was under it - it turns out that the top of the TJ tub actually matches the slight curve of the CJ tub and the raised section on the TJ is just part of the cowl and hood, not the tub. In this photo I've bolted a section of a CJ hood to the TJ (I had to drill some new holes in the hood section to match the spacing of the TJ hinges) and you can see that the tub matches the hood.
Removing the small bracket in the center of the tub would allow a CJ-shaped cowl panel to be installed on the TJ. The bracket is spot welded to the tub, so drilling out those spot welds is all that's needed to remove the bracket. This was the only modification that was necessary to the TJ to do the entire CJ conversion, and if I ever want to replace the TJ sheet metal all I've got to do is bolt the bracket back in place using the holes where the spot welds were drilled out.
With this discovery, I began working on a CJ-style cowl panel that would bolt up to the TJ. Since making custom parts in fiberglass can be much easier than working in metal, I started by taking a factory TJ cowl panel (1 in the photo below) and making a mold from it (2). Then I made a mold from a the cowl section of a CJ tub (3). I molded a TJ cowl in the first mold and a CJ cowl section in the second mold, cut the raised section out of the resulting TJ cowl and spliced a matching section of the molded CJ cowl in its place (4). That became the final "mold master" so I made a mold of it (5) and then made a final CJ-style cowl in that mold that would bolt in place perfectly to the TJ tub (6):
I installed a CJ HVAC intake grille, made adapter blocks so the hinges could be spaced properly on the CJ hood but still bolt to the narrower bolting locations on the CJ tub, and this was the result - a CJ-shaped cowl panel that would match a CJ hood perfectly but bolt to a TJ tub:
Next I did the fenders. I came across a set of fiberglass CJ fenders on Craigslist which I bought to form the basis for the new fenders. First, they had to be lengthened in the rear to match the length of the TJ fenders, that was pretty easy. I wanted to use TJ flares on the fenders because of their larger wheel openings than the CJ fenders, but the curve at the front of the fenders doesn't match the flares, so I made an intermediate mold of the front curve, molded curves and grafted them to the front of the CJ fenders. A work-in-progress photo:
When those were complete they became the mold masters and I made molds from them. Next I had to deal with the inner fenders - I wanted all of the engine compartment accessories that bolt to the fenders to bolt in place on the new fenders, but the shape where the fender meets the grille is very different between the TJ and the CJ, so I made molds of TJ inner fenders, modified the front of them to have curves to match the CJ grille, and then made final molds from them. I made inner and outer fenders from these molds and bonded the inners and outers together with this result:
Bolted to the tub and a factory CJ grille:
The grille needed to be modified to clear the TJ's steering box, so I clearanced that and built a bracket to maintain the CJ grille's integrity around the cutout. I also designed and fabricated brackets that allow the TJ radiator to bolt up to the CJ grille.
The final part was the hood. I needed to match the curves at the cowl and the TJ's body lines, and the hood needed to be longer than a CJ hood to accomodate the longer TJ engine compartment, so I spliced together parts of a TJ hood and two CJ hoods to solve those challenges. Work in progress:
When all of the welding, metalwork and bodywork was done, I made a mold of the result, and molded a final hood. This photo was taken right after the hood came out of the mold, it's not been trimmed yet.
I bolted it all together in the workshop:
Next was priming and painting:
I took a break from the project to drive to Alaska; I did the Dalton Highway all the way up to the Arctic Ocean and didn't want to get stone chip damage the 500 miles of non-paved roads up there so I waited until after I returned to do the final installation.
Installation was pretty straightforward - unbolt everything from the inner fenders and the grille, remove the factory sheet metal and bolt the new fiberglass parts in place. I didn't even have to drain the radiator or discharge the A/C, I simply hung them from the garage door rails while I was swapping the grilles. The ropes holding them aren't very visible in this photo but you can see them if you look closely.
The end result.
The engine compartment looks completely stock, except for one thing - the factory CJ grille has a provision for a cold air intake, so I plumbed that to the TJ airbox using stock CJ air duct hose. According to my OBDII scanner, this does reduce the intake air temperature and I won't make any claims about whether the cold air intake does anything for performance, but since the factory fitting was there on the CJ grille I had to use it
. You can see the cold air intake hose in this next photo. With that done, I made a new emblem for the rear of the tub:
And with that, the transition was complete and here's how it compares to my Scrambler:
I took the opportunity of crossing the Animas River above Silverton in 2014 to recreate this CJ-8 ad:
I designed the CJ Grille Kit so that it could be a production product if some company ever wanted to market it, and a few companies contacted me about it but they apparently weren't serious enough to go ahead with it. I do still have all the molds so more kits could be made if there's ever a need.
The CJ Grille Kit has been on my LJ for about 11 years now, through about 150k miles of highway and at least 5,000 trail miles and there have been no issues. Other than people always asking me what year my CJ is
.I've left out many details and photos but hopefully I've told the story well enough. If anyone has detailed questions or wants to see more photos of how I did something just ask and I'll be happy to answer your questions or post more photos.
Also if people want to see what it takes to make a custom hardtop, I can do a similar post about the Safari Cab project.
