Extended cab 45 SWB from a 40 (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

After some half hearted attempts to sell Frank I have decided to cut it up instead. So I can make it a 4-door with a shorter bed. I'm waiting on a set of Aqualu half doors for the rear and I've already pulled the bed off, stretched the rear frame, fixed the crappy frame plates, moved the wheelbase back 3" and swapped in an FZJ80 rear axle.

20190329_165317.jpg


20190329_165301.jpg


20190329_165253.jpg


20190329_165243.jpg
 
Cab will get stretched 12" to accommodate 29" long rear doors. The frame got extended 7" so I'll end up talking 5" out of the front of the bed and open up the wheel wells a bit for the 37s.

I got a set of rear seats from a VW Tiguan. They are pretty compact, fold flat and have sliding rails. Should work good for holding kid seats. I already have VW front seats because they are comfortable and height adjust.

I'll do a few improvements along the way. Going to go to hard fuel and EVAP lines with -6 adapters to soft lines at the tank. I built a weld together fuel tank and put in a VetteWorks plate to mount a GM truck in tank pump module. The Jeep TJ pump worked fine but I could never get the fuel sender to work.
 
Love the look of your truck! Glad you are going to keep building it. Looking forward to seeing the next iteration. How long was the wheelbase before?
 
Was 126, should end up at 129 now. I put an add a leaf in the rear pack and pulled the overload leaf. I'm hoping it stiffens up the rear a bit since it's softer than the front. I'm going to spend some time and get my anti-sway bar on now that it have the bed off and room to work!
 
Very cool build that keeps evolving. Great work. Mike
 
Got the back of the cab cut off and set on the new rear mounts. I need to clean up the mounts a bit but I think it will work.
20190407_152706.jpg

20190407_152706.jpg

Chopped 2
Then I cut the front off the bed. I'll end up cutting 5" out of the front section of the bed and removing the lower corners. It will make a large wheel well !!
20190407_174651.jpg

20190407_174651.jpg

Chopped1

20190407_152657.jpg

20190407_152657.jpg

Chopped 3
I'm going to flirt with being legal and put TJ flares on the bed. I have to cut them up a bunch but should look good in the end. They will start at the cab corner, have a gap, then continue over the rear wheel well opening.
20190407_170553.jpg

20190407_170553.jpg

Bed Corner Flare

20190407_170616.jpg

20190407_170616.jpg

TJ flare
 
Made some progress on the rear cab. Finally got the correct doors from Aqualu but they forgot the hinge plates so I can't finalize the door frames yet. I plan to do the cage today and skin the cut up areas of the cab stretch.
20190413_074430.jpg

20190413_074430.jpg

20190413_074445.jpg

20190413_074445.jpg


20190412_174531.jpg

20190412_174531.jpg

Door




I think the Tiguan seats are going to work great, they sit a little high but the little people will probably appreciate that.
20190412_181126.jpg

20190412_181126.jpg

 
Cage done and the internal 2" tubes are in to make the cab structure. One side outer skin is done. I'm considering making hinge plates instead of waiting for Aqualu to ship them. I have to have that to finalize where the door will sit and to build the frame around them.
20190413_184548.jpg

20190413_184548.jpg


20190413_184536.jpg

20190413_184536.jpg


20190413_184505.jpg

20190413_184505.jpg


Door frame/sill will be a combination of 1" L angle and 1" square tube. This gives me a nice areas to seal the doors against. I still need to decide if I'm going to completely cover up the B-pillar or make slits to slide in soft top fabric.

Today is finish welding in small stuff in the cab and pull the bed to paint the frame and axle.
 
Worked on exhaust and cooling yesterday. The Vette manifolds I was using were leaking at the block, even with stock GM gaskets and I wasn't happy with where they put the collectors. I went with a set of block hugger headers from Speedway, and even with ceramic coating they were very reasonable. They are tight to the block!
20190419_070134.jpg

20190419_070134.jpg

I was able to make a very tidy crossover and y-pipe now with a small bullet cat and 3" pipe.
20190418_153636.jpg

20190418_153636.jpg

Radiator and condenser are back in and finishing working front to back modifying everything that changed when I shifted the motor back 2".
20190419_070204.jpg

20190419_070204.jpg

 
One side done, except for the 3/4" square tube slotted for the soft top to slide in. The upper door frame is removable with three bolts, but strong enough I can do a pull up on it.
20190420_185546.jpg

20190420_185546.jpg


20190420_185552.jpg

20190420_185552.jpg

I ended up welding the hinge hanger to the outside and also to the inside sill, I'm sure this will be strong enough considering how light the doors are. It kind of looks like the front hinges where there is a piece of steel to shield them.
 
White Stripe said:
Quite the transformation. Not a big fan of tj flares on a 40 personally. 4 door pickup will be cool.
Click to expand...
Ya I'm not completely set on TJ flares, because I still have to cut them in half and add 3" to the middle. I looked at Aqualu flares but they are pretty expensive. Some aftermarket options look OK, like these:

www.offroadelements.com

Nemesis Industries Rear Orion Flares (Wrangler TJ & LJ 1997-2006)

Allow for better tire clearance for larger tires on your Jeep Wrangler TJ/LJ with the Nemesis Industries Rear Orion Flares today! Available 4.5" or 6.5".
www.offroadelements.com www.offroadelements.com

or these:

All-Terrain

All Terrain Outfitters (ATO4x4) is Cincinnati's Ohio and now Columbus's shop for your Jeep and off road needs! We offer parts and service at both locations ran by off road enthusiasts. We will do our best for you! JL JK TJ YJ CJ XJ WK WJ Toyota Tacoma 4Runner Chevrolet Ford Dodge 1500 f150 2500...
shopallterrain.com shopallterrain.com

I like the second ones, but I know the bed sides are not perfectly flat so I'd be doing a lot of work to make something with very flat sides work...the TJ flares have some more curves to them so it makes the wavey sides less noticeable.
 
afraptor22 said:
I've seen what you can do with metal and I am no where close to that skilled!
Click to expand...
Its not that hard, they are basicaly 3 straight pieces with corners in between.
If you have a full length of your wheel opening bend in the profile you like you van cut part of it where the corners need to be. Leave an angle, horizontal and vertical looking at it in profile, and use a strecher or hammer it to create the corner.
You can then fill in the parts you cut out earlier with a bend that is to complete the flare.
There are some pics in my 78 thread.
 
waiting for time said:
Its not that hard, they are basicaly 3 straight pieces with corners in between.
If you have a full length of your wheel opening bend in the profile you like you van cut part of it where the corners need to be. Leave an angle, horizontal and vertical looking at it in profile, and use a strecher or hammer it to create the corner.
You can then fill in the parts you cut out earlier with a bend that is to complete the flare.
There are some pics in my 78 thread.
Click to expand...
I'll start looking at some examples and see what I can come up with. I'm going to use the TJ flares for now since I already have them, but a metal solution would be preferable.
 
@bugsnbikes came over today and we set the bed on. It's very long, so until I can roll it out I can't take a proper side shot.

20190422_125223.jpg

20190422_125223.jpg


I ended up spraying the original color over the Raptor liner...they are both urethane so maybe it will work. The Raptor color green was too light so I ordered their darker shade of Olive to try. Should get the rest of the exterior and bed done on Wednesday.

20190422_114028.jpg

20190422_114028.jpg

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Rear coilovers on a 40 ?
Replies
16
Views
1K
Blackknight1
Blackknight1
alberta mac
any builds with a fj40/45 and a toyota v8 ?
Replies
18
Views
2K
Vossie
Vossie
88chevota
My first 40 build - 5.3/TH350/LC-case stretched and linked
2
Replies
32
Views
3K
88chevota
88chevota
DirtSniffer
4WU 80 Series Front Axle 3 Link on a 40
Replies
8
Views
2K
DirtSniffer
DirtSniffer

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom