Rebuilding A Salvaged Jeep TJ Into A Dual-Purpose Rig

There are thousands of them out there just waiting to be rescued today on Xtreme 4x4. Our dynamic duo scoured the internet and found this jam. A Jeep TJ screaming for a hardcore transformation. Plus he's a core pro two champ giving the four wheel drive guys a run for their money.

You know, there really isn't any other vehicle producer that is more proud of building capable off the lot four by fours than the Jeep Corporation. Ever since the very first Willie's Quad was contracted by the US government.

The name in brand new off road performance has been Jeep

and ever since then, Jeep has reinvented itself many times over by building everything from open top seat

to glorified station wagons like this XJ.

But did you know that the Ford Motor Company was in the running to build that first Jeep for the military kind of makes you wonder what it would have been like when this year's new line up from Ford actually included Jeeps.

Now it is safe to say that the Jeep brand has been owned by a lot of different manufacturers over the years, everyone from Willis A MC

and most recently, the Diler

corporation, but no matter who owns them, one thing is constant. Jeep owners are loyal. When a new model comes out, they'll trade in their old one for the new one, filling the lots with good use Jeeps. And that is exactly what happened when they announced that they were going to replace the TJ, possibly their most popular model with the brand new JK. Now, most recently you saw us build a new JK on the show.

It started life as a brand new and I mean, brand new Jeep with less than 500 miles on it.

And when we were finished, it was a hardcore trail truck that could not only conquer the trails, but you could drive it there instead of meeting a tow rig.

So that's what led us to this project here. We thought why not go out and pick up one of these outdated TJ S

and put together a truck that not only could you drive it every single day,

but it will also handle some hardcore wheeling.

And so the hunt for a cheap used TJ began and we found plenty of them on the internet, but we just didn't find that perfect deal and how we found the ultimate Jeep for a reasonable price

at a place called Da

Jeeps

out of Salem, Ohio. They specialize in nothing but Jeeps and have more than 400 in inventory from Willie's to JKS. Some torn down for parts, others available as complete rebuildable.

What's a rebuildable?

It's a truck that's been written off by an insurance company and the title is flagged as salvage.

And the best part is Davy is a hardcore wheeler too, so he knew what we were looking for and what we plan to do with it.

Now, Davy can ship you anything you need for your Jeep from a fender all the way up to a complete Jeep like our 2003 TJ. Now this thing has been in an accident. It was hit in the right rear corner and damaged this quarter panel. The insurance company evaluated and decided that it was not worth fixing. So they wrote it off their loss, our gain because we're gonna throw so many parts at this thing, that little bit of damage, nothing at all.

One thing you need to do before you decide on choosing a rebuildable or salvage title vehicle for your next project

is check with your insurance company and local licensing bureau

in our area. We can convert our salvage title to a rebuilt title for 75 blocks.

Obviously, there will be some paperwork and forms, but if we could not register the truck, all this work would be for nothing.

It's best to check into this before you buy your truck.

The only real issue we found was if we were ever in an accident with our Jeep, our insurance payout would be less than the vehicle blue book value.

But since we bought this Jeep, Jeep

and any damage we get is going to be on the trail. It really doesn't make any difference.

That's a really good idea to decide early on what you're going to keep and what you're going to sell from your donor truck.

Not only will free up some space, but it could be your project, an influx of cash

in our case for getting rid of the front and rear axles, the suspension except for the steering linkages, all the wheels and tires, the fenders, the seats and the doors in the bumpers.

Now, all the stuff is worth some serious cash

close enough to offset the cost of the truck.

Now, the main problem with our Jeep is this right rear corner, it got smashed up pretty bad.

Now, there's a bunch of different ways we could fix this. We can go ahead probably pull all that dent out, take care of these wrinkles in the quarter panel, fill it and prime it. We could also take this whole rear corner of the Jeep, cut it off, get a brand new panel, weld it in place and do the same thing and a lot

last step might possibly be to get an entire new tub for this Jeep and just swap everything over and then paint it to match the front end either way when we're done any of those repairs, this Jeep would look good as new.

The problem is we all know this corner would be the first thing that we'd back into a rock or a tree when we're on the trail and that, well, it would just suck. So, instead of spending time fixing this damage, we're just going to cover it up

and to do that, we're gonna install what's called a set of crusher corners. Now, a crusher corner is basically a thick steel plate in our case, 3/16 of an inch, it's cut and formed to fit around the back corner of the Jeep tub and protect it when it's out on the trail.

But these just aren't ordinary crusher corners. These are part of the gen right off road stretch kit and once we have them bolted in place with these stainless steel head fasteners and have their suspension installed underneath the Jeep. It'll relocate our wheel base to a perfect 100 inches flat

with the stock fender flare and rear tail light assembly removed.

The corner is temporarily clamped onto the side of the Jeep.

Then 38 holes are drilled into the body and the new wheel well opening mark,

the corner comes back off and the opening is trimmed

and the holes opened up to half an inch.

The panel is then finally installed using the supplied rib

nuts.

Now, there will be a few issues when you're stretching out the rear end of your Jeep like this. And one of those issues is having a fuel cell right in the way of your axle, but we'll fix that coming up.

I know personally, I hate it when a fuel tank gets into my axle.

Taylor launched his career over 30 years ago. And after the break, see how core's most prolific champion continues to dominate the

prows. When Xtreme 4x4 continues.

Welcome back to Xtreme 4x4 and outside taking a break in the tech center are your hosts, Ian Johnson and Jesse's.

Wow. What an in show? I actually feel like a real television celebrity. It's true. And although it is pretty comfortable out here, I hope the boss doesn't catch us. Just sort of goofing off like this last time I checked, she was on a conference call right

now. Later on this year, we fully expect to finish up our core Pro two race truck and take it out on the track for some laps and one of the drivers we might ask to get behind the wheel. It's gonna be Scott Taylor. He's one of course greatest champions and the only one to ever race against the four wheel drive class and win. We were able to catch up with this future legend in Prim Nevada.

The core series ripped into Prim Nevada for the season's final race

topping the race late was the big dollar Jason Baldwin Cup.

There's $66,000 to win out there. It's gonna be crazy.

It's like a top gun with the radar locks. You know, the radars are locked and you're full steam ahead. Going for that monster coin were 24 Pro four and two wheel drives. Believe me, it's pretty intense. They were slugging it out, you know, one winner take all race because we got lot of prows,

they take different lines. There's gonna be a lot of contact and we got to make sure we stay out of that contact in these class combined races. The pro fours have a natural advantage. Pro four since all four tires are spinning, you have traction, you can point the vehicle wherever you want to go. Wide open.

Pro two heavy hitter, Scott Taylor doesn't get weak around the big bad props. They're just out there. Another vehicle to me

taking down the big class, Scott Taylor stands alone. I'm the only guy that's ever beat the four wheel drives in a big time four wheel drive against two wheel drive race. I don't know how to say this, but I mean, it's the biggest rush you'll ever have in your entire life. His historic wins weren't a fluke. There's only one Scott Taylor and everybody has heard of him. Everybody knows of him since his core debut in 1999 Scott's six titles and 38 victories. Make him the winningest driver in the sports history. When I show up here, I have all confidence that I can win the race or I wouldn't stay home. I believe Scott is one of those true people that has no fear. He's not scared of any situation he's in there all the way. It's a great pleasure to watch

to earn a spot in the Baldwin Cup. Hold number eight had to run the qualifier.

I've done that before. That's no big deal. Fresh off winning the World Series off road title.

The 52 year old showed the kids how it's done.

It all comes down to experience when to pedal it, One to back pedal it.

You've been there done that. Those pages are painted in your book. It's not just the

winning ways that make Sky Jocker proud. Scott shares a lot of the same values that we do. He's a great driver and just a really great guy that we love being around. He represents us very well blowing through the four and two wheel drive competition. Taylor took the win and earned a spot in this season's richest race. Oh, yeah. We're in the big show. We got in there

as the clock ticked down to race time,

the Skyjacker team were making last minute adjustments right now. We've got the rear shocks off the truck. We went out to practice this morning

and what we found was the fact that the truck was not acting exactly like we wanted Scott Taylor and I talked, he said, come back, let's take the shocks off of it. Figure out what's wrong. We're doing a little shock valving

trying to get the car to hand a little better with 18 inches of travel in the front and 20 in the rear. These custom built shocks need constant attention. Every racetrack you go,

you got to start over and get things felt exactly right. You got to have your optimum performance for every place you go.

That's a big part of being at the front of the pack. Our race shocks. We've had a part thousands of times it doesn't take, but 15 minutes to get them off the car

reveled and put back on,

clean it up, put it back together where you'll fly. Now

with the suspension dialed in Taylor was running strong

then heartbreak. You know, it's a $3 brake line. A rock must have hit it,

bopped it right off, broke the fit in and that was it. But that's racing, you know, and that's the way it goes,

you know,

that's just the way it goes. It's just, it is frustrating. Not one to accept defeat. Scott Taylor will be back.

I can run with these young guys. I'm strong. I'm in good shape as long as I can continue to win races and set track records and things of that nature.

I'm gonna keep doing this

now, a lot of you guys have been asking why with a show called Xtreme 4x4, we didn't build a Pro four truck instead. We chose to build this Pro two. Well, the answer to that is actually pretty simple. Although the Pro Four truck is a wild piece of machinery. The pro two class of core has been garnering a lot of heavy hitters in the name of off road racing.

Guys like Jeremy mcgrath,

Ricky Johnson, really excel in this class as well as a lot of the desert racing guys that come over, find a lot more comfortable in the seat of the two wheel drive race truck. Guys like Alan Luger as well as the infamous Robbie Gordon.

Plus you've got to respect a truck that's simply two wheel drive and that can go as wild as this thing can off road. So that is why we chose the pro two.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Xtreme 4x4 and our J TJ dual purpose project.

The idea here was to turn a written off Jeep into something that we could drive to the trail real it and then drive it home at the end of the day.

Now, so far, we've got to the entire inside of this truck and have added a set of crusher corners for a couple of reasons

to extend the will base back to 100 inches which the Jeep guys absolutely love

to hide the damage that wrote the Jeep off in the first place

and these things are so strong

that they will protect us from

any

in

the future.

See,

look at that

one.

Now, the one issue that always happens when you stretch the wheelbase on a Jeep is the rear axle is gonna contact the stock gas tank when it's at full compression. Now, there's a couple ways to fix this. The cheapest way is obviously just to buy an aftermarket fuel cell, drop it in behind the rear seat or just take the rear seat all together and put a fuel cell there.

But we don't want to do that for a couple of reasons. Number one on the 03 and up TJ S,

they have this elaborate evaporative canister that's mounted in the back of the Jeep. Now you do need to reinstall this if you plan to have your Jeep tagged for the road and we do.

So that means we got to reuse all the stock lines in Phoenix. So on the back of our Jeep, we opted for a gen right off road replacement fuel tank. It's an all aluminum tank that's custom designed with an integrated skid plate and it's clearance to allow the axle to travel up at full compression even with the stretch wielding,

all we have to do is swap over the sending unit and in tank fuel pump from the original tank,

then the new tank is installed into our Jeep.

The stock lines and electrical connections have enough slack for the new location.

A

full seven inches back

and

no,

you don't lose any ground clearance. This set up actually sits one inch higher than the original skid plate, plus it's a lot stronger

since this truck is going to serve both daily driver duties as well as trail rides.

We decided to add these rocker

guards to help limit the damage to our top. When we're out on the trail,

they are full six inches tall and have an integrated to step that is angled up 15 degrees to help with rock sliding.

They come powder coated black and we ordered ours in a longer version to match our

wetch will base.

So far today,

we've been dealing with some body protection on our 03 J TJ crusher corners on the back and rocker protectors and sliders on the side. Now, the last piece of protection to go on our J today is going to be a set of two

Fers. Now we thought instead of ordering a set, we're going to build our own with a custom twist

with some

58 T be in our two shark and some design ideas marked on the jeep body and masking tape.

We that one piece with 2, 120 degree bend.

This was installed in the front of the grill as

a

and another piece is meant to be the actual fender itself

and finally, some straight pieces added to finish it off.

Then some brackets are added to make the grill hoop removable.

Now, all we got to do is make a mounting bracket for the rear,

a support brace across here,

trim this rocker guard

and then add some fill in panels on the side and top and we got a trick set of tube fenders.

Now, the nice thing about the design of our front tube structure is we could still use the hood just like stock with the hinges as well as keep the front hood latch in place.

The

roll cage is designed for roll over protection during the vehicle accident

as well as the mounting points for the seat belt.

But this case is just nowhere near strong enough for anything hard core. So instead of trying to make it stronger, we're going to start over from scratch.

Now, one upgrade that's great for any stock roll cage or aftermarket. One in a Jeep is to tie it directly into the frame rail. You can do that with a piece of tubing

off the frame and then going up and hitting where the cage sits on top of the tub by adding this piece of tubing makes the cage super strong.

Now, typically on a trail rig, we would take that frame side tubing

solid weed to a plate sandwich, the body in between the two plates b

them together and that's where the top side of the roll cage would go. But what that does is it basically makes it a rigid frame and create vibration when you're going at higher speeds.

Now, since this is going to be a dual purpose vehicle, we're going to be using poly bushings mounted to that bottom plate. What that will do is help with some body flex as well as take care of some of that highway vibration.

So there you go, a great start to our 2003. Jeep TJ. Gonna be a great trail rig. Yeah, next time you see this thing, we're gonna drop in a new roll cage, some seats still at the suspension and even some new axles basically make this Jeep just as good on the outside as it is on the inside. Kind of like

jelly donut

one.

They're good.