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98 ZJ Top Chop

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redline61

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Well I have done some searching on several different threads and found nothing on the subject, so I decided to make my own thread. I bought my new wheeling project Monday and am in the process of hacking the back off. I found a 98 5.9L limited Grand Cherokee that had been rolled. The previous owner decided that he wanted to chop the top and make it a truck, so when he ran out of time and decided to sell it, it was well on its way to being a truck.
So I will start out with a few pics of the Grand when I got it. Also if anyone knows of any threads on the subject please post them, I am very curious. Also I need to give credit were credit is due. None of this would happen if it weren't for my friend Jon, who is doing all the welding and let me work on it at his place (since I have no welder, nor am I nearly as good of a welder).
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A few links that I found. If anyone has any other than let me know so I can post them up.
http://jeephorizons.com/tech/zj_top.html Best writeup I found.

http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3395&page=5
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
We decided that we would just go with the factory window body line and cut the D pillars off and bend the window seal over so we would have a flat surface to work on when it came time to build the back of the cab.
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Discussion starter · #7 ·
Well, we got a little more done today. Finished welding the patch panels and got the tailgate all lined up. We welded a brace in behind the tailgate that it will bolt to and it will still latch at the bottom. It would've been welded in but it needs to come off so you can get to the tail lights.
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Now it's time to do some grinding.
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
Made some more progress, decided that it had to be sealed off. I drive may too much on the street and any wheeling I do is more than three hours away so it has to be bearable. Bought some 16gauge sheet metal and made the plates. I am going to weld the bottom plate all the way to the tailgate and bolt the tailgate to the rest of the Jeep with a seal. Added a few braces out of angle iron and welded them to the top cover. The seats wit quite nicely without the headrests and even latch. I also decided not to go with a bed because I wanted to be able to sleep in the back of the jeep for winter wheeling trips. Grand Slam North West is coming up soon:D I plan on grinding the welds and painting the new pieces with some cheapo Omni single stage paint that I have laying around. Hope to be ble to do that by the nd of the week and get some more pics up.
 
#12 ·
looks like your front needs some more lift. the rear must have gotten alot better without all that weight!
 
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#14 ·
are you welding that sheet ontop of the "bed"? wouldnt that make it useless??
 
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Discussion starter · #15 ·
It will make the bed useless, but I was more concerned about being able to camp in the Jeep during the winter. I want to be able to lay the seats down and sleep, hoping to go to Grand Slam and it's going to be cold. Also I like that I will have dry storage inside. I think that at least for me the bed wouldn't be very use full. Also I have a few braces in there that would have meant that I couldn't have put anything big like a spare in there. I think that the thick sheet metal and the braces are going to strengthen the unibody back up to at least as tough as factory.
 
#16 ·
i think itd be cooler to slant it like a humvee. best of both worlds there
 
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Discussion starter · #18 ·
Your friend is the guy with the white 5.9 right? I wish I had gotten some pictures but I have three cross bars welded in and the 16 gauge metal is tough, I couldn't carry the bottom sheet by myself. The horizon zj did the same thing and his Jeep seems to be doing pretty well. I hope it holds up. We'll see in the long run.
 
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