Sedan chop?

[shaggimo]

Hey capt. You can relocate the filler on the chero tank. Utilizing the xj's spout, cut a couple holes, weld up originals, then weld the filler spout in the correct place, and your good to go.

[JayNaga]

I dont have a Cherokee but I do have an Eagle. A soft top was something that I planned on doing. I thought that I could have a small one that just went right behind the front seats and the another one that would wrap all the way from the roof, over the roll bar, and back to the tail gate. I also would be creating a tail gate as well. I will try to reuse the tail section of the eagle and the original lights but if not possible I would have to find some other lights that would work better.

[captspillane]

I don't want to relocate it. I was looking at the XJ tank as a weld free solution to making a Kammback into a short pickup body. He could also use the XJ tank too for his sedan if he adds a tailgate.

I need a side filler to make the Kammback rear panel into tailgate. There is a natural seam in the rear that I want to take advantage of. I want the center part, including the tailights, to flip down as a tailgate. To make that happen the center fill behind the license plate has to be eliminated. I would cut off the rear window and roof even with the back of the pillar and horizontally rearward from the bottom of the rear window.

[carnuck]

Put the fuel fill where the bulls eye is on the rear 1/4

[Draekon]

It'd be cool to do a kammback bronco style, but that would take a lot more work than just cutting and smoothing.

[captspillane]

If you can figure out a clean professional looking tailgate I'd love to see it. I've posted the Kammback photos for your benefit if you do follow through with these ideas. I'm assuming your custom tailgate on the sedan will slope forward like the Kammback does.

The Sedan taillights are about four inches thick and the metal plate they bolt to is heavily recessed from the bumper. The original taillights also have a bend in them where the outside half of the light is angled outward. Likewise your rear bumper and the rear filler piece is curved. I think you would need to use an Eagle front bumper or SX4 rear bumper if you make a custom tailgate that is flat. I think CJ7 tailights would look retarded, but intergrating lights similar to an XJ into your quarter panel has potential.

The top of the rear quarter panel also slopes downward on either side of the trunk. The only way I can see to make something that works visually is to mimic the shape of the Kammback. You could even go as far as to find a heavily rotted Gremlin and splice the last few inches of quarter panel to your sedan.

You can see the distressed white sedan next to my Kammback begging for a chop as well. I'm not a fan of sedans either. I was also thinking of combining it with a Spirit to make a VAM Lerma style four door long wheelbase SX4. That would look awesome with a spoiler and Eagle trim.

[JayNaga]

I think Im pretty set on actually following through with this sedan chop. I have seen the el eaglemino post and saw that others were considering it but has anybody followed thorugh with it? I just found out a friend of mine is doing a pick up chop on his 240sx which is good because I can help him out with his chop before I do mine and see what  problems we run into. But does anybody know of someone who actually did a chop like this?

[shanebo]

I think it would be cool. Done right it would be an attention grabber for sure. Heck half the sedans you find are already half way there in alot of cases due to rust, my 86 was well on its way to being a four door sundancer.

[carnuck]

I think it would be cool. Done right it would be an attention grabber for sure. Heck half the sedans you find are already half way there in alot of cases due to rust, my 86 was well on its way to being a four door sundancer.

Usually it's the floor falling out and not the roof though!

[rohnk]

Good luck on this project! I eagerly await to see how you figure out how to do this. It will definately be something that nobody else has. Done right, it will be a really neat project.

I've seen on some shows that they will run tape where they want to make the cuts and then look inside by drilling holes to see what is in there that might be in the way. Then you just draw a line using the tape as a guide and use a grinder or jig saw to get through it. I don't think you would want to go to the local fire department to have them cut it with the jaws of life! Although they would have fun with it!

[rollguy]

But does anybody know of someone who actually did a chop like this?

I did a '66 Nova wagon many years ago, and made an "ElNova":



It turned out pretty good, but I did have the advantage of using the stock wagon tailgate.  In a way I wish I never did it to this car.  I had no idea how rare a '66 Nova wagon would become!

[JayNaga]

Nice pictures Rollguy. I was actually more curious if anyone has done it to an eagle. I have seen tons of pictures of other cars chopped into trucks but I still havent seen a picture of a real eagle truck.

[JayNaga]

Did a couple more drawings

[vangremlin]

I know there has been a lot of discussion about creating an Eagle pickup in this thread and others.  I received an email about Redneck car repair and I thought this picture might serve as an inspiration to anyone considering the conversion.  Good luck!

[JayNaga]

that inspires nothing