The Scrambler/Overlander Project:
Exterior Upgrades

I like the look of many of the current TJ exterior accessories, so I decided to upgrade my Scrambler with many of them.

The photo above shows the following TJ accessories:

  • Front bumper. This was fairly easy to mount, but did require some cutting of the bumper and fabrication of some spacers so the bumper could be secured to the CJ frame.

  • TJ Fog Lights. Unfortunately these couldn't be mounted in the stock holes on the bumper because the interfered with the winch, so I had to drill new holes several inches further out from the center of the bumper.

    I also mounted TJ mirrors to the door hinges, just as on the stock TJ. All that was required was drilling and tapping the hinges.

    I replaced the stock CJ side steps with TJ steps. The challenge here is that the CJ frame is narrower than the TJ frame, so the TJ step mounting brackets aren't long enough for the steps to reach out all the way from under the body. If you use the older style TJ steps, it is easy to extend the brackets with angle iron so they will be long enough.

    And finally, on the rear, a new trailer hitch, a TJ bumper and a TJ license plate holder. I fabricated the trailer hitch from a kit designed for RV's and campers. It mounts to the rear frame crossmember on 1/4" thick steel plates, and these plates also provide a mounting point for the TJ bumper - the outer holes on the TJ bumper are wider than the CJ's crossmember.

    Also visible in the photo above are the new European spec tail lights. These have separate amber turn signals and red brake signals. Being a three-circuit light the wiring isn't compatible with the stock wiring, so I made a change to run a separate brake circuit to the taillights. The separate brake circuit made it also easy to add a third brake light above the rear door (visible in the rear view photo on the top level page of this site), but also necessitated a converter to adapt the new three-circut wiring to the trailer wiring, which is US-spec two-circuit. The European spec lights do not include a license light or side markers, so I mixed the parts from some Wrangler lights with the European spec lights to come up with European spec lights with both license lights and side markers.

    I also added a mid-90's Cherokee roof rack to the top, this is visible in the first photo on the top level page of this site. I used the "short version" of the Cherokee rack. It was an excellent fit on the World Cab top.

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