yellaheep

Myself and another NAXJA member had LOOOOONG discussions about doing just that. Seems to me, the easiest route would be to take a 2dr XJ, cut it at the a-pillars and then across the floor/unibody a few inches ahead of the rear part of the door jamb. Make those same cuts to the MJ, sleeve the hollow unibody parts, then slide the 2 halves together, connecting or even overlapping the floors and unibody rails for strength. I do know that one of our CC members put together a 4dr using the XJ front half and MJ rear half and discovered that the width of the bodies and body line contour at the rocker panels was different between the MJ and XJ. Not sure how he ended up making the two halves play nice together in that area but I do recall he did get the halves together before he sold the project. I agree that the added cargo area and increased leg room would be damn-near worth all that effort. I'm not sold on the overall look of the longer doors on a pick up cab but again, the trade off may be worth it to some. Image Not Found Personally, rather than a 4dr "crew" cab MJ, I'd like to do the 2dr splice with a bit extra added to the back of the cab. That would be optimal in my book. Unfortunately, in order to pull that off, you need to either commit to the XJ roof all the way back and trim the top of the MJ cab roof line at the back, or section in another bit of MJ cab roof to extend the cab.

Take some measurements...... Pretty certain you'll find that the Dakota is a few inches wider....... Wide enough to look goofy.

I'm fairly certain I have one of those antenna delete plugs in my parts stash too. PM if ya want me to dig it up.

Not being local never stopped you before........ an MJ from Georgia and a trailer from California....... :D Definitely a cool and unique truck though......

Um............ that ain't good. Building ONTO the bed????? We all know our MJ's don't flex much between bed and cab........ but there IS some movement. That truck is one pot-hole or speed bump away from a whole lot of cracked body filler and ruined paint. Massively bad idea.

Never understood why those are so damn expensive. They're a road-stone away from throwing $400 away........ Hard to justify, and kinda odd looking too.

I hear ya on the time it takes to find just the right XJ....... I got my screen name from my very 1st XJ, a beat up '85 that had been rattle-can painted yellow. When that rig got wore out 'wheeling, I couldn't find another yellow one so I did a total strip down and full body paint job on a '93 using Corvette yellow. When I traded that one off for a buggy, I went looking for an '01 in Solar Yellow for a driver/light trail rig. Never did find one worth buying. ...... of course after pulling the trigger on a very nice XJ in Gunmetal Pearl Metallic........ a pristine Solar Yellow one popped up on Craigs........ :fs1:

I'm really beginning to not like this guy............ :D That's my "holy grail" XJ you have there. Agate interior and Silver Stone exterior colors, Icons, hooks and skids, heated leather......... dayum. Stoopid-nice Cherokee. I consider that well-bought at $7k given it's condition and options.

I don't think you need the limb........ stand on firm ground. It says tailgate for a 2002 and NO mention of Comanche or MJ. Someone got a little excited........ :D

I dunno about that....... Why would they limit the production to 100, but do it over the course of more than one production year? I mean, prove me wrong by all means, but I'm only seeing these as being '87's on the registry website....

Interesting. Hadn't noticed the tan interior in #25. All of them I've seen to this point have been red with black interior. :dunno: Well in the case of Street Comanches......... aren't they all just one year? 1989 if I'm not mistaken.

Nice truck for the most part. Still scratching my head as to why he would put such expensive LED off road lights BELOW the rear bumper........

I don't think that's gonna be a Street Comanche. They all had black interior with bucket seats. This one has tan interior with a bench. A previous owner probably just ordered the body kit from JC Whitney years ago.

Yup, those aftermarket header panels are about 3/8th to 1/2" too narrow. My '91 had one on it when I got it. Parted out another black rig with what I thought would be an OEM one, polished up the paint, bolted it on and.......... dammit, same issue, a 1/4" of fender sticking out past the edge of the header panel....... two aftermarket units. Oh well, the truck is getting the '98 facelift anyway. Bucky's looking good Bob....... get the girl HOME! Are you gonna remember what it's like to drive an MJ at this rate??? LOL!

I have no doubt that's a clean, nice truck....... dunno about $10K nice, especially with it missing it's Eliminator graphics and the addition of early model looking body trim. Oh and the "super rare" American Racing rims....... yeah, no. Shoulda kept the OEM modulars.

LOL....... clearly you haven't read this entire thread. Emissions. It'll be required to have an evap canister, cat converter(s), possibly an EGR valve...... that kinda thing. If the original truck had it, the modified version has to have it as well. Secondly, carbureators are the suck. Especially out here where elevation changes are common just driving across the state. The diesel engine really turns me off in such a small truck. The noise in particular. Those 4BT Cummins engins sound like a friggin' farm tractor and while torque monsters, move the truck like a turtle for daily driving. No thanks. A nice, powerful fuel injected V8 with an overdrive transmission........ :thumbsup:

Yeah, that one keeps popping up and disappearing a couple days later. Dunno what's up with it. It's a 2wd 5 speed though and kinda beat........ not "ideal". It lives up in Kittridge, for some reason the guy won't show it there, insists on meeting somewhere else. Couldn't get my schedule to match his the first time he had it for sale.

No Ford engines or transmissions guys. Nope, uh uh, no way.

No interest in doing a diesel. But yeah, the ideal truck will be an '89-'92 Metric Ton with and column shift auto. Leaning toward 4x4 more than 2wd.

I looked at Greyhound. Would have been $48 per fender, but boxed would have probably added to that. Neither Lurch nor I were real excited about having to make the trek to the bus stations though. The nearest one to me is about 30 min. Since Lurch helped me out, I wanted to make it easier for him and have them picked up at his place. I just shipped a large box to one of the members here via FedEx using his account. When I looked it up, it was going to be $68 (15x25x36 and 36 lbs.) FedEx said it used "dimensional weight" as well to calculate shipping. NO LARGE BOX UP CHARGE LIKE UPS. Eff UPS. I can't believe they felt their calculations of 180 lbs "dimensional weight" plus the large box $55 charge per boxed fender was even remotely accurate or fair. Oh well. This sets me back a bit on the project........ no real biggie. Just have to sell some stuff. The hunt continues for the project truck.

Wishing I had the scratch to pick up that blue long bed........ a bucket seat, console automatic with the behind-the-bumper winch kit. Perfect for the dually project........

Two huge problems with your suggestions..... As interesting as they may be...... 1) Emissions. I'm guessing you don't have it where you live and I hate you for that.....:D 2) Ford. Not in my vocabulary. Never will be. Oh and should I find that I can no longer care and provide for my stroker motor, I'll post up an adoption thread with the appropriate adoption application and process. :D

......... And it's a 2 door! :D

Ouch........ expensive lesson learned today......... So, thinking it'd save money and be a better option for shipping, I used the shipping account for the company my wife works for - boss approval and all. When we entered the info for the pick-up from Lurch and used the dimensions and weight he provided, UPS gave the "negotiated rate" price of $39 each fender. Now, initially, I had asked Lurch to just "bubble-wrap the heck outta them" and slap a label on them. Ultimately, he wrapped them and put them into wardrobe boxes. Lurch told me this and I expected the rate would go up a bit since the size had increased, but the weight shouldn't have by much since the initial info we'd given was a weight of 30 lbs each (when I got these home, I weighed them - 10 lbs each.) Well, UPS boned me hard. The size of the wardrobe boxes had to be shipped using their "Dimensional Weight" calculations. Essentially they charged me $55 each box for "Large Box" size which they say we didn't select when we were given the original negotiated rate. THEN, they charged $105 for one box and $100 for the other box....... UPS says those boxes "dimensionally weigh" 180 lbs each. the actual rate was reduced a bit when UPS applied the company's account rate. I now owe $280 to cover the shipping. HOLY BALLZ. :fs1: "Dimensional Weight"........ what a crock of :bs: Don't get me wrong, I'm not in the least mad at Lurch.......... but UPS can go smoke a pole. Neither of those boxed should have weighed more than 40 lbs each all said and done. I guess the size is what got expensive.