Chop top XJ..with Exo cage... End to an Era..

BRUISER

BRUISER

silent.. but deadly
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Mar 17, 2005
Location
Raleigh
Well after my last trip to Tellico I smashed the front fender, rear tailgate, rear fender, and rear passenger glass..I decided it was time to finally Chop the XJ .

But I have not liked the flat look of what I have seen on other XJ's that have been chopped so I took a differnet route.

I decided to use the XJ rear tailgate as my back glass to keep the factory curved angles, then once we got to looking at it we decided why not make the tailgate still open

so yup I cut the back used the rear tailgate and the tailgate will stil open ( just because )

Here are some pics of before, during and hope to have it done by the end of this week.

We started Thursday night by stripping the interior, then Friday we started by cutting and getting to work.

Here we go.. I have lots of pics
 
Here are few pics of what it looked like when I started

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Here is where it got interesting..

I grafted on the rear edge off the roof to my cut so that way we could keep the hinges and the angle of the tailgate so it would open correct.. I also kept the rear support beam inside the roof and moved that up so now the "c" pillar is stronger then it ever was..

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So after we got the top of the tailgate fitted we then focused on the bottom half.. I decided to make the bottom half solid so to help with water and keeping the inside of the Jeep sealed.

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after much debate I finally decided how I wanted to make the sides of the bed and we went at it.

You can see from the pics we used a brake to bend the steel so it fit the curves I wanted correct and we also bent a lip at the top for strenght that attached to the inside of the outside fender.

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The last 2 pics so the tailgate off getting ready to get plated so it will seal against the bottom panel we made

also last pic shows the bottom half with the lip we welded on so the weather stripping can be connected to seal the hatch

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Nice work guys! I like your attention to detail...
 
Nice!
Are you concerned about extra body flex w/ so much of the original "box" cut out?
Although, I figure putting that half-wall in below the liftgate helps out quite a bit.
 
Wow, that looks realy cool.. great job!

though intiially, I was thinking you were FINALLY going to put a cage in that thing...
 
RatLabGuy said:
Nice!
Are you concerned about extra body flex w/ so much of the original "box" cut out?
Although, I figure putting that half-wall in below the liftgate helps out quite a bit.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliments everyone..

As for Flex nope not at all.

If you could see it, you would understand the back is 100% stronger then it ever was..
 
Rich said:
Wow, that looks realy cool.. great job!
though intiially, I was thinking you were FINALLY going to put a cage in that thing...
Click to expand...

that is also going to happen with this build.. I have 200 feet of tube just waiting to go on it :)
 
Nice Pics!

So you made it stronger and it looks better and you did all that work and it really shows. Nice chop job! But, instead of cutting down on weight it will now weigh even more with all that new metal and tube right?? How much will that XJ weigh overall??
 
DOUGHBOYDD2500HD said:
So you made it stronger and it looks better and you did all that work and it really shows. Nice chop job! But, instead of cutting down on weight it will now weigh even more with all that new metal and tube right?? How much will that XJ weigh overall??
Click to expand...

I am sure it will weight more, but honestly I am not a weight person.. my XJ is probably one of the heavier Jeeps around here and yet I can still walk up most trails I try.. so wieght is not an issue for me..

Plus if I want to cut weight maybe "I" should go on a diet :)
 
OBX Fisherman said:
Nice fab work! Good to see a chopped XJ with a finished and professional look on the body work.
Click to expand...

Thanks.. I put a bunch of thought into making it look good.
 
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