Convertible jimny pick up conversion

Hi all my jimny of off for some major restoration in the next day or two and depending what comes back after investigations all being good she will be welded up back to good health but in the meantime I have been thinking of turning it into a mini pick up truck.. it is a 2003 02 convertible and was thinking of removing the back roof and posibally cutting part of the back away keeping the rear door and making a new bulkhead.. has anyone got any experience with this and what work was involved any tips would be greatly appreciated 

thanks

The quick answer is that if you want it....make it. 

I suspect that's a fair bit more work than he had in mind - BUT - it will certainly give him some ideas, and especially some idea of the potential show stoppers.

To get that much tray space, the frame has to be extended and uprated rear springs are going to be required if any sort of load is going to be carried in the tray. Additional load will require additional braking and if the original Jimny doesn't have ABS, there will potentially be brake proportioning issues, the last thing you want is the rear brakes locking up mid turn, you'll be swapping ends, as my wife likes to say," quick, fast and in a hurry"

Unloaded pickups have a way of being "tail happy", and this time, I'm not talking about braking, rear suspension stiff enough to handle a reasonable load, when unloaded can be quite harsh and the lack of weight on the rear tires makes for a very interesting experience accelerating through a turn in the wet.

Please note, the above is not specific to Jimny conversions, it applies to pretty much all light pickup trucks.

I have no idea where the thread starter is and so no idea of what the motor vehicle regulations are like, it would probably be a good idea to get familiar with those before starting.

In my corner of the world (South America), I could probably cut up a Jimny like that and the licensing authorities & insurance companies wouldn't care a hoot, but in most developed countries it might be frowned upon.

Last but not least, I'm pretty sure there's at least one firm in the UK that does this so, if that's where he is, it can be done.

To be honest that’s quite extreme compared to what I was thinking as mine is a soft top I was thinking along the lines of removing the rear roof rutting the little diagonal pillars and welding a plate over the top so I still have the rear door if that makes sense I don’t think it will make much difference with weight over the back axel as I’m taking out the seats but the new tray should compensate the weight loss not going to be carrying weight in it just fancy giving it a. It of a custom look

Several people on here have made a 'tray back' conversion, this would be a good thread to look through

www.bigjimny.com/index.php/forum/18-buil...mny-trayback?start=0

Cutting the pillars seems like a lot of work for nothing. I would just put a fast back roof on it similar to the pics below. Still allows you to use the tail gate and doesn't alter the car.