[cmoore]

Put a CJ grill on a TJ?

I've thing for CJs and have long since sought to build a little nostalgia into my TJ. While my TJ has never been a good CJ impostor, the flatfenders and front CJ turns have added some nostalgia. So a while back a good friend, who knows how much I like CJs, donated a 47 CJ2a* grill to me (Thanks ChrisK). Finally got around to seeing what it would take to put a CJ grill on my TJ.



A CJ grill will obviously not fit on a TJ unadultered. But the 2a* grill is interesting because it is narrower than the TJ grill. This allows the CJ grill to be frenched into the TJ grill. Basically I cut the TJ grill out. Trimmed the back half of the CJ grill to clear and dropped it inside the TJ shell. This keeps all of the TJ mounts for fenders and hood.


I traced a template of the CJ grill and cut the shape into the TJ. Then the CJ grill was tacked in all around. The TJ grill has forward "hips" at head light level so I had to shave the "hips" down. I then added some sheet metal to fill in the holes where the old lights were. I ground down the welds and gobbed bondo over everything.



I've got some sanding and paint to do yet but so far I'm digging the conversion. New lights are still in a UPS box somewhere but I'm hopeful to have most of it done and bolted back in shortly.

Updates as I progress.

[edit] early jeep aficionados have informed me that my grill is likely an M38 grill--identified by the hinge holes on the lower face.[/edit]

[PurpleTJ]

should be very interesting. good luck

[mudb8]

looking good, I started doing about the same thing for mine a few years ago, just never finished and nearly forgot, now I'm hyped again!

[99TJSahara]

Crawled, can't wait to see how it turns out.

[Humboldt]

Now that's cool.

[finalreckoning]

Freakin sweet dude!
Have you added a CJ tailgate?

[Jim Shanks]

NICE Work!

Jim

[iowajeepers]

Lookin' good. I moved some other parts of that 2a recently. So while I couldn't rescue the darn thing myself, it lives on in multiple rigs now

[RocknRubi]

Awsome! X2 about the tail gate

[iowajeepers]

Also, after taking a closer look at the pics, is that monster of a Warn gonna block a bit of the passenger head lamp? No that it matters other than it's the beginning of a pirate eye patch ;p

Are you going to paint it white or black to match your flat fenders?

[cmoore]

Originally Posted by finalreckoning

Freakin sweet dude!
Have you added a CJ tailgate?

I'm not currently running a tailgate. I've thought about a CJ gate forever but my spare is a 39.5 and so the gate would be completely hidden.

Originally Posted by iowajeepers

Also, after taking a closer look at the pics, is that monster of a Warn gonna block a bit of the passenger head lamp? No that it matters other than it's the beginning of a pirate eye patch ;p

Are you going to paint it white or black to match your flat fenders?

Looking at going with a Savvy front bumper and a new lower profile winch.

White paint but maybe a little more airbrush work (just cracks).

[iowajeepers]

Originally Posted by finalreckoning

Freakin sweet dude!
Have you added a CJ tailgate?

If I remember correctly, cmoore's tailgate is in my garage awaiting fitment to a YJ due to him not running a TG at all.

[JeepRocks86]

interesting.

[02OlllllllOTJ]

gonna be rad dude...id love to have the cj tailgate on my tj. anyone kno of anyone that sells a tj tailgate with the jeep logo on it?

[GroundAssault]

Dude, of all the mods on JF, I am actually excited to see how this looks...crawled