Body swapping, the latest "harebrained" idea, the Jeeprolet

Itsavanman

Adventurer
I know I might catch some flak for this, but so what.. anyways, I've had this thing for roofless pickups since the 90s with owning not one but 2 dakota convertibles, whats not to love, haul, tow, open air motoring. anyone with a jeep knows what I'm talking about, that is until you need to haul a load of rocks, or plywood, or anything but people.. yeah jeeps are fun, but honestly pretty damn impractical, not to mention expensive. I know you guys who don't think twice about dropping 30k on a vehicle might not think this is so bad, but for a lot of us, this is out of the question.

I've always loved the look of the M37, it has the combination of what I want, but lets be honest, after 50 years, most your not going to just hop in and drive a 300 mile road trip without having to pop open a tool box. So here comes the "what if" crap what if I tradeded some off road prowess for modern(ish) fuel injection readily available parts, while retaining functionality, aaaaand, add some wind in your hair fun. yeah I could just plop a modern fuel injected engine, and newer axles in a m37, but I don't have one.. I do have a very sound mechanically early 00's chevy half ton. (uh oh where's this headed, put the pipe down)

So, what has the look, open roof, and are everywhere, JEEPS! with Swiss cheese frames (thanks Chrysler) there's still quite a bit of cheap YJ's out there, cheap because the frame has sworn off frame duty, for a life impersonating Swiss cheese. now I know I'd be in for a ton of work, but yeah, that's kinda the point. there's enough somewhat solid body'd jeeps around, that with some body work could work for what I want. essentially take a yj tub, shorten the rear passenger area to about the length of a small extended cab, weld on some new body mounts, probably fineness the firewall, etc etc. build a flatbed and voila! open cab pickup.. if I could make it work, the look would essentially be a yj with full size axles converted to a pickup, but actually retain the IFS (yeah, you jeep folks, are really gonna hate that)

I could bang this out in a day, with some zip ties, and some duct tape! O.K. but seriously am I out of my mind? probably.. it would take some creative metal work to look right, but, yeah could be super cool, or a complete dud. you decide...
 

Smileyshaun

Observer
go for it , I've been finding it a lot easier to do a body swap then if I would have just moved parts over to my jeep frame . What's the worst case scenario it doesn't work and you just put it back on the stock frame
 

Martinjmpr

Wiffleball Batter
People have done crazier or more bizarre things.

Why not just get a Tahoe and cut the roof off?


cutroof tahoe.jpg
 

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Itsavanman

Adventurer
yeah cj8 but with a flatbed of the long bed variety. trying to copy an m37, but with a small extended cab, and flat bed, hell I could just hack the roof off mine really, but I think it would look goofy that way, I think the CJ or YJ tub and fenders with a shortened tub to small extended cab might possibly look good..
 

6gun

Active member
I've had an ideal like this for years! Cheap YJ body cut behind front seats, Scrambler half top and an aluminum flatbed/Ute tray type bed. Ideally mounted on an F-150 frame Just cause I'm a Ford guy! I once saw a custom made 4dr CJ body stretched to fit a K30 Dually frame that's what kinda got me started on the ideal.
 

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