Project: Four door Longbed.

[Austin 4x4]

i have had this idea for for quite some time, and now i am finaly working on it. long before i knew what an FSJ was i knew i wanted a four door pickup and i wanted it to be a jeep. my goal is to have a camping and tow rig that has room for the whole gang, and a waggy is just too small. the plan is two use two vehicles to make one, a truck and a wagoneer. one of my main goals is to retain the brow. inorder to do this i am basicly going to stretch the truck cab with the b-pillar section from a wagoneer. first i needed to find two donors.

the first donor is a '73 J4000. picked it up for $500 with a broken transfer case adapter. a new one of those and a new edelbrock carb, she runs like a champ.





second donor is an '80 wagoneer. got this one for $400. dosnt run and looks like it hasn't for some time. but it is a solid almost rust free body.

[Songman]

Can't wait to see where this one goes. Looks like a good plan.

[Austin 4x4]

first thing on my list was to take the parts from the wagoneer that i wanted. so i proceded to gut it and start the hacking. i took a sawzall to it and just cut it biger than what i needed so it can be trimed exact size later. i wont be using any of the roof or floor from it.





then it was on to the rear doors. im going to use the rear doors from the wagoneer. they will line up perfectly and latch with the back of the truck cab once i swap the latches. obviously the rear doors from a wagoneer have a cutout for the wheel. solution is to use part of the front door.

[Austin 4x4]

because i don't want to shorten the bed and i want to have four doors. no factory jeep frame will work. i thought about a lot of diffrent things to do, but the simplest is just to stretch the frame on the '73. the total stretch needs to be 33 1/4" which is the length of the wagoneer rear doors. to do the stretch i am using 6x2 3/16 thick square tubing and then boxing the frame with 3/16 plate. best part is all of this is being done in a two car garage, and all the cuting is done with a HF 4 1/2" gringer .

pulling the bed of by myself with the engine hoist. not the best idea to drop the tank when it is full of gas, ask me how i know.





setting the frame all level.



cut line marked.



and cut. no turning back now.



view from the street. im shure the neighbors are just loving this, oh well thats a them problem.



got the 6x2 in place, and spent about an hour measuring and double checking with lots of cross measurments before i clamped it in place.





and finaly welded with the TIG.







still have to box the frame. i'll have more updates tomarow.

[rustywagoneers_com]

Looks like you're doing a good (very good) job of it.

I hate to harsh your buzz... I think you are going to find that if you want to have much leg room in the back, you needed to add more than just 33-1/4" (the length of the waggy rear doors).

The rear section of the cab (behind the front door) is long enough for reasonable seating / leg room because the length is in the door. In the back seat of a waggy, you are 'recessed' a good long way into the body. When turning a waggy into a 4-door cab, if you want to keep the stock wag rear seat (and leg room, which is honestly, just barely enough) Then you have to cut the body 8 -9 inches behind the rear door opening.

Still watching to see what you come up with/ end up with.

[men in black]

Nice work

What year Camaro is that?

I had a 78 and 79 Z28

[fulsizjeep]

Cool. My hat is off to you for the work you have ahead. Interested in how this works out.

Curiousity: Does the J4000 really have a QuadraTrac? I see manual hubs on the front. If yes, are you keeping it QT? Hard to tell - is it a 6000 GVW truck? thanks

[RUparrothead]

Awesome work, especially with the trusty HF 4.5 grinder. I love mine!

[KaiserMan]

Looking pretty good so far! Nice to see soeone doing a crew cab and keeping the long bed.

[krek]

I hate to harsh your buzz... I think you are going to find that if you want to have much leg room in the back, you needed to add more than just 33-1/4" (the length of the waggy rear doors).

That's the one thing I'd change about the ChopTop if I could... the body was cut off immediately aft of the rear doors.



In this project he has the back of the original cab which is going to give him a few inches of additional space and he's fabbing his own floor which will help.

Good luck with build, it looks great so far!

[jaber]

Looking pretty good so far! Nice to see soeone doing a crew cab and keeping the long bed.

X2. This has been the way I've wanted to build one.
Looks great so far, I'm watching also....

[Tad]

That's the one thing I'd change about the ChopTop if I could... the body was cut off immediately aft of the rear doors...

It's one of the things I would change on mine also.
I guestimate about 8-9" just like Dave said above, I've kept about 14" from the rear of a Chero, not sure if I will ever get it grafted on.

[Brizio]

Nice job so far!!! Nice Camaro too!!! We have a 79 Z28...

[Austin 4x4]

Looks like you're doing a good (very good) job of it.

I hate to harsh your buzz... I think you are going to find that if you want to have much leg room in the back, you needed to add more than just 33-1/4" (the length of the waggy rear doors).

The rear section of the cab (behind the front door) is long enough for reasonable seating / leg room because the length is in the door. In the back seat of a waggy, you are 'recessed' a good long way into the body. When turning a waggy into a 4-door cab, if you want to keep the stock wag rear seat (and leg room, which is honestly, just barely enough) Then you have to cut the body 8 -9 inches behind the rear door opening.

Still watching to see what you come up with/ end up with.

yeah, i no there isnt going to be much leg room. remember the back of the truck cab will make the end of the cab about 4-5" behind the rear door. but hey i aint gona be siting there

[Austin 4x4]

Cool. My hat is off to you for the work you have ahead. Interested in how this works out.

Curiousity: Does the J4000 really have a QuadraTrac? I see manual hubs on the front. If yes, are you keeping it QT? Hard to tell - is it a 6000 GVW truck? thanks

the previous owner swaped it out for a D20, only when they did it they didnt bolt it to the crossmember. which led to the adapter cracking, and me geting the truck for $500 because he thoucht it needed a transfercase. and it is only a 5000 GVW truck.

oh, and the camaro is a '79 with a custome 4-link and some serious body mods mabey one day ill get it painted.