Blackbettyjr

Well guys here we go Miss Black Betty Jr. and I's build thread. This right here is my second XJ the first was a 95 this is a 97. I'll go through all the major mods and mention the little ones and just like my first thread on this page ill keep track of how much i spend.

See the little guy right there in the middle? Bone stock. I picked up this little gem January 13, 2013 140k 4.0 auto. basically rust free(inwisconsin). Slapped a rack on it i built a couple years ago for a buddy.
*($1400 for the jeep and rear lift leafs)
*($120 for the rack)



I daily drove it for a while while building a hodge podge lift. In total I'm 6.5" up used some skyjacker, RC, and procomp. Its a short arm currently. dual stablizer, shock relaction. As I was doing the lift i was trying to get the tires and rims on and some other mods before a local car show.
*(removable doors FREE)
*($750 for the lift)
*(Chopped front fenders FREE)



The day before the car show we decided to do a cowl hood 2.75".
*(cowl hood FREE)


say hi to my buddy kody


Now its the day of the car show and my rims and tires got on 35x14.5x15 Thornbirds. The Aero wheels showed up at 9 a.m. the day of the show we had to be there by 11 a.m. were cutting it close.
*($250 Thornbirds 2 brand new 2 ok)
*($250 Aero 3" back spaced wheels)



Drove this around for about 2 weeks before i got bored of it pulled her into the shop and thats where she sits. I'm doing my second chop top.

I'll give a step by step and some advice in this section.

Now guys don't let cutting up your rig scare u don't get all into your research and turn into a chicken. if u can weld and do basic body work you'll be alright

STEP #1

Find a donor vehicle I've seen everything from a explorer back wall to a s10. Personally i like to keep everything Jeep so for my chop ill be cutting up a early 90's MJ. This old girl was sitting in a local junk yard the odometer read 360,XXX miles so the way i see it she had a good life lets cut it up.



cut as much out of the donar wall as u can.
*($40 back wall)



STEP #2

Now that u have the pieces u need its time to start stripping down ur xj if your just doing a chop you need to basically take from the front seats back out.





STEP #3

Cut the C pilar i usually cut at least 2" above the bottom of the window it gives you some room to play with and to get a straight line on the roof line up the window spot welds then measure down the drip rails (if they arent destroyed)



right after i chopped it i decided to yank out the tank and the old reese hitch. plan on doing a fuel cell when i do the motor swap. also chopped the rear fenders.Now that the back wall was out the way i see it is perfect time for a inner cage i do some pretty serious wheeling and also who doesn's wanna use some of the cool little wrangler add ons hear and there.. i used 2" .180 DOM steal. i'm done up to the B pilar ill keep going after the back wall is in. at the end of the project the inner cage will be tied into the exocage.
*(2 sticks of tubing $60) (and some trade)




STEP #4

this is the pain staking slow portion sometimes takes days other times a hours just take your time and work at your own place templates help a ton

I measured down about 3"'s below the window seal and cut it straight across to square it up. tossed up up just to see how it looks. just trying to get it close





now its time to narrow up the wall i like to get it as skinny as possible so i can maximize the bed space. also i ended up measuring 1" below the window seal and squared it off again that was just enough to get the drip rails and the body lines to line up but now arose another problem the top cap was still a half inch to tall. so i lined up where the bottom half of the wall almost lines up and drew a line across and cut the cap off.

armymedic120

Subbed I love a good chop top

MOBBiN

In for more! Looks good so far.

Blackbettyjr

I figured i'd show y'all i kept all the inner structure from the MJ got really really lucky when i cut the MJ's "B" pilars at a 45 degree angle just making em fit in and they happen to line up pretty much perfect on the inside i plan on welding those tomorrow





Well made some headway today hopefully doing a bunch more tomorrow
i started out the day getting the top cap cut off




then next i lined up the body lines and drip rail and spot welded that in it looks terrible but i have a miller 225 its a bit to big for sheet metal but ill get er filled in eventually



the cap gave me some issues back and forth i lined up the drivers side almost perfect not thinking and i get to the passenger side and found a 3/4 inch gap. luckily after about 3 more beers i just decided to throw a filler piece in also cut 45's in the corner and rolled it over with some shaping hammers



and so far this is what i got today looks rough but she'll get there in the end

JeepaholicNinja

Can't see the pics on my phone but subscribed! Love chop tops! I saw an xj near where I live on its roof in a ditch off of the road and was saddened....a few weeks later I saw it driving around with a chop top lol! Now that's a motivator to start chopping if I ever saw one haha!

Blackbettyjr

Well started out my sunday selling my bike now i got money to actually work on my jeep for a while


I finally got the rear doors removed still havent flopped my hinges and done the removable door mod on the rear yet but ill probably get to that next week sometime


and last night 8/12 i started putting the slope caps on this is a tedious pain in the @$$ job but at the end of the day it makes a huge differnce. the things u do on a chop top and nobody ever notices that means you've done it right
u can build up a weld and grind it out i've seen it done just dont agree with it. i started with the section of roof i cut off and started cutting them out (it helps to number them too.


also the outside 2 dont have this fancy glue or w.e. it is on it so be sure not to lose yours in the roof support set me back like 30 minutes


now i got em out rough cut have to shave them down alot more and flatten some of the corners out i bent


Shaved down


and tacked in

Blackbettyjr

After she's all welded together i started the slow process of grinding.

Before


After


This will be my life for a little while ill keep ya'll posted next to come is the bedsides bedfloor and possibly axels

Blackbettyjr

Well i got really bored grinding down welds today so i started mocking up the seats and my original plan was to do quad bucket seats but.... thats sorta out the window at the moment this is what i ran into... zero leg room... for anyone

armymedic120

I ran into that when mocking up a tj for my buddy. Baja seats work well or go look at folding boat seats

BKohs

Looking pretty good so far. I really want to do a chop on an xj, but I'm not sure how I want to do it. I like being able to fold down my back seat and throw a bunch of crap in there. My thought is to set it up like a chevy avalance. Not sure how it would work though.

Blackbettyjr

If you use the stock bench seat and relocate the back top piece they will flip down and with a flip of a wrist u can always pull out the bottom seat

Jarrett

did you tie the front of the cage into the firewall?

Blackbettyjr

ya its actually dropped to the floor and tied into the firewall also so later on after the motor swap i can do an engine cage

rex21

Looking good man. Where you at in WI?

Blackbettyjr

Southwest WI