new plans for my chero.

[Rent-A-Cop]

well i was going to turm my cherokee into an offroad vehicle only, i was gonna be puttin alot of money into it and then realized i would only get to show it off once or twice a year. the body is almost completely rusted thru. i was reading through my chilton manual and read that the 80s modle cherokee, wagoneer, and J-trucks all had the same frame, so i thought about making my rusted out cherokee and nice and shiney J-truck. anyone got some ideas on how hard this might be, im thinking finding the cab, body mounts,and new fenders and later the bed. did i miss anything? or does anyone have some imput for me?? thanks for reading this long thing

[cocco_78]

Well, first off thats pretty much what I'm am doing along with a few other people. The rear part of the frames are different, but where the cab and front clip are the frame and body mounts are in the same location. Its pretty much just a matter of swaping stuff around. You'll end up with a little shorter wheel base J-truck. They look pretty sweet with super short beds...

[heydave]

The bed on my J-ten is shot. I have been thinking of putting the cab on a chero frame and build a short flatbed for it. I can't decide if 10 inches is worth the swap though. ????
If you can find a good cab I say go for it!

[Rent-A-Cop]

thats kinda what i was lookin for when i bought my cherokee, i wanted a short bed J-10 or 20. but you gotta go with whats avilable i guess.i can fab whatever i need to mount a bed on i was just worried i would have to do some major fabbing to mount the cab, but scine i wont it should be smooth sailing. i know i know i just asked for all the trouble in the world by saying that. oh well too late now. i still havent decide if i want a stick shift or an auot, i already have the auto tranny.

[sandmanb]

one thing to remember is that it's real hard to find a good j-truck bed. most of them in our area of the country are completly shot.

[Rent-A-Cop]

if i cant find an orginal maybe ill be able to find a reproduction?? i dont know, maybe ill put a flat bed on it. i cant wait to here that 360 through a set of stacks :D :D :D had a set on my old chevy, dam that thing sounded good.

[Joe J-Truck]

The body mounts should be the same from the cab forward... so a J10 or J20 cab and front clip will bolt onto your chero's frame. A J-truck bed won't work however. J-truck's used wider rear frames and axles with wider spaced rear spring perches (due to the wider frame). The wheelbase is also longer than a chero or a wag. Also keep in mind all J-trucks used WT front axles and fenders.

[tomd]

A shortbed J pickup has about a 10" shorter wheelbase than a Wag/Cherokee and longbed is close to 22" IIRC

I am currently in the process of doing this type of thing, i am either going to shorten my bed and make mounts, or make a flatbed.

[Rent-A-Cop]

hmmmmm i wanted to get a set of wide track axles but those rear springs might be a problem.anyone have some ideas on that???

[mdill]

Cherokee Wide track axles should work just fine, for both front and rear,
you only need to worry about the springs if you were going to try and use
J-truck axles. The bed is the bigger concern, personally most flat beds look
like crap, and J truck beds are almost all rotted out with no reproductions
avalible that I know of.
What migh look OK is to get a step-side style bed made, there are companies
out there that do make kits for those. I hope you have a good budget.

Mike D.

[Rent-A-Cop]

cool ill just get the chero. wide tracks then. i wanted a stepside bed for it. maybe ill look into getting one made. right now my budget is small, but this is going to be a 2-3 year project at this point in time, i have to get my car paid off before i can afford to insure another vehicle. im lookin at 4 years before that happens :( :( but im wanting to take my time with this and make it look sharp. i thought i read that the short bed from a J-10 is 10 inches shorter than the chero. frame?? maybe i can make the cab an extened cab???

[tomd]

As far as flatbeds go, its all personal preference, and what your gonna be using it for, check out my site for some cool (IMHO) flatbeds.

Here is a step side shorty shorty j pickup
http://www.mp3car.com/usersites/tom/shortyj.jpg

[Bob Barry]

If you're going to be custom-fabricating a bed, you could start with the box from any model stepside truck, shorten it at one end or the other, and add trailer-fenders or whatever you think looks good over the rear wheels.

[Bluesky4x4]

Some thoughts on a bed. What about cutting up a wago and making the rear portion a bed? Or taking a retro bed, possibly stepside, off anything, and fabbing it up to fit. Your already doing something custom, take it to the next level!

[Rent-A-Cop]

naturally my plans for the bed will change over and over for the next year or 2 until i actually get to the bed itself, im gonna try to focus on the cab part right now, im tryin to figure out the process for extending it to make up the difference in size of the short bed(i have decided on that much for the bed)

[Rent-A-Cop]

also i was wondering if anyone has ever pondered scraping the current heating and cooling system for a complete electic set up you know those type of plug in heaters you can by for 18wheelers, i was thinking about doing that to really make mine a custom and unique ride

[Chero77]

If you want to get rid of the Kaiser Heater box, most '70s and '80s Chevy pickups without AC came with a heater that was mounted under the dash and used cable actuated controls. The blower motor was mounted in the engine bay in about the same position as the motor on our rigs. No doubt you could retrofit one of these to an FSJ. How much hassle that would be would mostly depend on whether the Chevy blower housing more or less lined up with the opening in the firewall for Kaiser heater box. The pros would be a cleaner engine bay and less vaccum hoses. The cons are that FSJ heaters work well and why screw around with something that works. There are at least of dozen of these Chevy pickup heater units in my local boneyard. They sell for $30 complete with core and housing and blower motor and housing. One of these days, I am going to try and retrofit one. I have never cared for the FSJ heater box taking up so much engine bay space.

[Rent-A-Cop]

im not only wanting to get some more room in the engine bay, but under the dash as well. im getting rid of the a/c stuff comletely. who needs a/c anyway. but like i said i want to have a custom J-truck, and ive never heard or seen of an all electric heating system in the cab of anny truck, if i can get a strong enough heater i might be able to rig it up to use the lower vents on the bottom of the dash, and get one or two of those portable truck window deroster to mount ontop of the dash. no doubt if i get this setup to work i will be takings tons of pic and making a complete how-to and posting it. might not be the best mod, but certinly an intresting one others might think about doing

[Rogue]

how about removing the roof aft of the B-Pillar, relocate the tailgate window into a new custom back of cab and lookout a custom JeepCheroTruck, if I could find a run of the mill Chero for cheap I'm gonna try it ;)

[Rent-A-Cop]

i wouldve done that with my chero. body i have now, but there is just too much rust, i thought about cutting off the entire back part of the J-truck cab and just getting some good sheet metal to slap in between to make the extended cab that way i wouldnt have to do too much fabbing to get the back glass to fit in.

[Rogue]

yea thats a good idea also, i was just thinking of having a roll down rear window smile.gif good luck

[Rent-A-Cop]

not a bad idea for one of those. but my tailgate on the chero. doesnt work