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So You Want A JK Wrangler Pickup Part 2 - Four Wheeler Magazine

Sean P. Holman Contributor

One of the hottest discussions in the wheeling world these days is the possibility of Jeep bringing a true JK-based pickup truck to market. While that isn’t something you can get from the factory right now, Mopar is selling a $5,499 kit that will convert any ’07-’12 Wrangler Unlimited in to a two-seat, open-air cargo hauler.

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Last month we tore in to a brand new ’12 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited to bring you an overview of what it takes to transform the popular JK in to a Mopar JK-8. Don-A-Vee Chrysler Jeep in Placentia, California, commissioned this conversion and Hi-Tech Collision and Auto Glass in Anaheim Hills, California, handled the actual installation. This month, we’ll wrap up our story by completing phase two, the reassembly of our donor vehicle, and finishing the JK-8 buildup.

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As a reminder of what you are getting with the conversion, the JK-8 kit includes all of the parts you see here.

Because of how involved the kit is, we highly recommend having the conversion handled by a professional installer. When all is said and done, expect to pay about $5,000 to $6,000 in labor and be without your JK for up to three weeks. The kit will take about 100 labor hours to complete. To see what you’ll end up with after all that work, read on.

How It Works
Overall the JK-8 kit is comprehensive and well thought out, although at this price point, we would have liked to see the parts included to trim out the interior for a more complete OE feel. One of our surprises was the leaky windows, although we found an easy fix for the problem. If it were our personal rig, we’d ditch the supplied hardtop and its funky proportions and go with half-doors and a full soft top, maybe even keeping the rear bench for the ultimate modern CJ-8. For those of you who are curious, our JK-8 conversion weighed in at 4,240 pounds, a savings of about 300 pounds.

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While the exterior of the JK-8 looked great, we were surprised that Mopar doesn’t provide any provisions to trim out the interior, leaving the Sport Bar looking rather naked without padding, and without the interior light or overhead speakers. PhotosView Slideshow After checking the quarter-panels for fit, we removed them and covered the welding surfaces with Copperweld weld-through primer.

After checking the quarter-panels for fit, we removed them and covered the welding surfaces with Copperweld weld-through primer.

The replacement B-pillar Sport Bar downtube was then put in to place and spot-welded.

Next, we connected the new rear downtubes to the Sport Bar structure.

With the modified Sport Bar structure bolted together, the new rear downtubes were then welded to the crossmember.

Here you can see the inner quarter-panel clamped to the tub, ready for spot-welding.

Once the inner panel is welded, the outer quarter-panel and taillight-cap were installed and spot-welded.

The next step of the project required us to turn our attention to the rear of the cab. Here you can see the load floor support crossmember, which doubles as a drainage channel and bulkhead support.

After welding the crossmember in place, it was time to install the load floor panel.

In this photo, you can see the load floor has been welded and sealed. Also note that the factory rear storage cubby is covered by a panel and is not functional in the JK-8 conversion.

Next, the bulkhead and top are placed together and checked for fit. Once the final placement is determined, the fiberglass parts are removed and prepped for paint.

Also note that the bulkhead has this rather large gap for running the wiring harness through. Hi-Tech found a different routing method and sealed the gap on this install.

Once the bodywork was complete, the Jeep was prepped for the paint booth.

Here you can see the Jeep’s fresh new coat of black paint being applied to the new body panels.

Out of the paint booth and with the hardtop and bulkhead in place, we installed the supplied windows and were surprised to find that they leaked water. To fix the issue, we had a professional glass installer seal the windows with urethane.

To better seal and protect the bed, it was lined with spray-in bedliner. It also gives the conversion a more finished look.

The resourceful team at Hi-Tech were able to repurpose some of the original factory padding and trim down the stock Sport Bar trim, which at least allowed us to retain the dome light for a more OE look.

With the installation process complete, our JK-8 rolled out of the shop as a unique twist on the JK platform and a new draw to the Don-A-Vee showroom.

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So You Want A JK Wrangler Pickup Part 2 - Four Wheeler Magazine

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