1983 Jeep Cherokee street fighter project

[ghinmi]

Unconventional vehicle, I know. I have a soft spot for full size Jeeps, have been drag racing 4 door Wagoneers for years. This project was originally intended to be a drag car but I changed plans midway through and it's going to be more of a streetfighter build.

Clearly they did not build a 2wd Cherokee, so the body is now on a '71 C10 chassis. I went through various iterations of AMC engines but have finally decided on a 5.7 hemi and TR6060 trans.

Here is a quickie rendering of how I want it to look like, although color and wheels/tires can change.

[ghinmi]

Here's the donor body as purchased. Very clean and rust-free and a wide trac already. The factory fender flares will be great.

[ghinmi]

And the chassis, from a 1971 C10 long bed. I started with a long bed because of the longer rear overhang. It's actually better than it looks, it had been left outside after the body was removed and surface rusted. No major pitting or structural rust.





Cut 15" out of the middle to bring it down to 110" wheelbase. The factory Jeep wheelbase was 109" but the front wheels weren't centered in the openings.

[ghinmi]

Body ready to be liberated from the 4x4 stuff.



And it's free!



The 4x4 frame (ironically converted to 2wd and used on another project).



First trial fit on the C10 chassis.



Fits pretty well, body needs a little clearancing to sit correctly on the frame.



But it's TALL. For now.

[ghinmi]

The floor needed clearancing in one spot on each side.





Frame lines up just right in the back, like it was made for it.



Example of body mounts that I made.

[ghinmi]

Body back off the frame again.





Sandblasted and painted.





Plated trailing arms

[ghinmi]

Did a little more fitting work, got the motor dropped down another inch or so. The oil pan is even with the bottom of the crossmember so that's as far as I want to go.









Then got to work on a transmission mount. Came out pretty good I think.

[ghinmi]

Yanked the front springs out so that I could measure for wheels/tires. These pictures show rough ride height but clearly the wrong tires. The fronts will stick out about as far as shown but the rears will come out another 2" or so. The rear wheels being sunk so far in makes it look like the rear isn't centered but it is. Going 275/40r17 front and 315/35r17 rear on 17x9.5 and 17x11 ZR1 replicas.

[ProTouring442]

Pretty neat!

I'm just finishing up on an LY5/4L60E swap in an '89 Grand Wagoneer. Mine stayed 4wd though.

[ghinmi]

I've been following yours, nice work!

The tires showed up today. I ordered them yesterday at 5:00 pm and they were here today at 11:00 am. Wow. Still waiting on wheels and ordered adapters today.