Full Size Jeep Network

Arighty I have been dreaming of an FSJ for a long time and have had several Jeeps through the years. Last year I sold my JK and had no jeep for the first time since I was 16 and it felt wrong so I bought a 1970 J4000 that needs a full restore.

I have fabbed suspensions and bumpers lifted stuff engine swaps etc in the past but never a full restoration.

The intent for this truck is to be a weekend camper and occasional daily driver. It won't see much offroad work but two tracks and minor trails are definitely going to happen.

I built a custom offroad teardrop camper last year that's on 33s with independent air bag suspension. I'll add pics when I get more time. It's awesome to take anywhere in and I constantly get questions about it. Towing it with the JK was equally cool since the JK was built to and the cool factor matched.

Since I sold the JK I don't have a cool tow vehicle anymore so that's where the J4000 fits in. It will be getting a 6.0 LS and 4l80e trans.

I have a rolled 2001 Chevy 2500 that is the donor. I really like the idea of swapping the Jeep body onto the chevy frame to keep the modern brakes and suspension and bigger frame etc.

Once I get the Chevy stripped to the frame I can start measuring to see how much work it will be to go that way vs the engine swap.

New to the pictures so it's gonna be a bit

The JK and Camper. And my brothers 1992 Commanche



The new project




And the donor Chevy

Very good looking J4000 there. i've never seen a bedside-mounted spare tire setup in life even though I've read about them being an option. My truck might have had one as there are 4 mounting holes in roughly that same spot on the side of my truck's bed.

Anyway, sounds like an excellent project. If you have time, check out member jaber's build in the Show and Tell area. He put a J20 cab and nose and a service body on a late model Dodge chassis. It's not GM but the concept is like what you mentioned for yours.

Welcome! Looks like a nice find to me. You might have a Camper Special there. The spare mount is a Camper Special feature but you could also buy them in the Jeep Dealer parts dept. I had a 72 for a while but did not get it street legal before I sold it to fund another FSJ project. I found the same bracket can hold a tire inside the bed as well. Do you have dual tanks?

Mine was modified by 1st owner for DRW. It is an aftermarket kit and not true DRW axle.

It does not have any tanks right now. The original owner had pulled it at some point prior to 1983. If I found one I would probably add the aux tank in the bed I have seen on other trucks and plumb it to the Chevy tank.

Sounds like a sweet project, subscribed to watch...

Thanks Twisted, here's a link to the start to make it easier to find.
http://www.fsjnetwork.com/forum/viewtop ... 4&start=40

After doing mine, I am watching for a similar donor as yours to do my wife's wagoneer next. She REALLY wants to drive it again soon.

Jaber I read your whole thread and it's quite awesome. I'll have questions and I'm sure you'll have some experience with the. First one being, could you not drop the body lower on the frame? I'm hoping most of the frame is hidden under the truck and the wheel wells are a bit lower than yours. It obviously gonna be different with the Chevy vs Dodge frane but what was the limitting factor.

Jaber I read your whole thread and it's quite awesome. I'll have questions and I'm sure you'll have some experience with the. First one being, could you not drop the body lower on the frame? I'm hoping most of the frame is hidden under the truck and the wheel wells are a bit lower than yours. It obviously gonna be different with the Chevy vs Dodge frane but what was the limitting factor.

I would have had to channel the whole thing. I did channel about 8" where the frame makes a sharp up turn. I was also keeping the bottom of the bed as level as the bottom of the cab. It will be interesting to see the bare Chevy frame when you get it stripped, we can do comparison pics.
I'm also still looking to drop the front at least 3", that's going to help hide it better.

The GM frame is very different from a Ram frame. The center section is much lower, and from the a-pillar forward its has a hump and kind of flares out for the a-arms. My guess is that more of the the frame will show up under the cab. As you can already see it on GMs.

I'm not 100% set on using the Chevy frame but I would really love to have all of its benefits. The chevy I have is not a HD so the frame is only around 8inches tall vs the HD frame that is over 10inches from what I've read. I'm hoping the cab covers it up but if not I think a pair of sliders under the cab might help but I want it to look mostly factory 1970 truck.

But I'm also contemplating putting 37s on it with a set of original 8 lug Ford slot mag wheels. I love the wheels but the 8 lug versions only came in 16.5" it seems and that makes tires costly unless I go with 37s from a Humvee which are dirt cheap and look pretty sweet. So 37s don't look factory but could be pretty cool.

Very nice J4000, two-tone paint and "custom cab" options. Do you have the VIN ?

Well started moving the Chevy to my dads barn to tear it down and it turns out it doesnt fit on my car hauler with the plow on it so two trips it is.

Goal for Saturday is to have the Chevy body off the frame and have the steering column and pedals pulled. Also planning to keep the Chevy brake system complete so pulling the master cylinder etc as well. I will save the section of the firewall that is needed for the booster and steering column.

I am hoping I can use the Jeep column with the 4L80e but I dont know how that will end up working out. Might need to get the sweet Lokar floor shifter set up.

Well the plans changed. I found a 2004 regular cab long bed Chevy rolling chassis with engine and manual tcase for cheap and only 60k miles. So the big plus here is that the wheelbase on the new frame is within 1 inch of the J4000 and has 4.10 gears and the trans will not need a rebuild just a shift kit to hold some extra power if needed.

So this weekend I pulled the 6.0 engine trans and tcase from the donor roll over. The engine will go into the new chassis and the Jeep body fit around it. Ill sell the higher mileage trans and electronic t case. I also took the hydroboost brakes from the roll over since I plan to use that in the Jeep.

Well got back to part of the project....disassembling the second Chevy.

Started with this


and ended up with this.



I'm hoping after selling the bed and doors and bumpers that I will be close to getting this truck for free.

Going to be pulling the plumbing off the frame and trans etc and having it sandblasted and primed. I will be putting 2x coats of Chassis Saver on it so it never rusts. After the sand blasting and priming its time to tear down the J4000.

The images are not showing up, I think they need to be made public since they are hosted with google images.

Stuka wrote:The images are not showing up, I think they need to be made public since they are hosted with google images.

Forgot I have to open the picture in a new tab and used that URL for the post. They are all in a shared for public viewing album but coping the image address in the album doesn't work.

Thanks for the reminder.

Hmmm - white Chevy + Chevy rolling chassis + green Chevy drivetrain...I'm lost. How many Chevy's does it take to build an FSJ?

:>

Hahaha you make a good point.

The white chevy was intended to be the donor for all of it, frame axles engine trans etc. But the white chevy wheelbase was too long. I could have shortened it but a single cab long bed Chevy is within and inch of the Jeep wheelbase.

So I found the green Chevy which did not have an engine but it did have the wheelbase I wanted and the axles are 4.10s which is a plus over the 3.73s the white truck had since I want to run 37s.


So I'm using the engine from the white truck (the truck has since been sent to the scrap yard). The trans and transfer case and frame and axles will be from the green chevy and it will be wrapped in the gorgeous FSJ skin.