If you’re familiar with Matt and Josh over at BleepinJeep, you already know that have a knack for building incredibly capable off-road rigs without spending a whole lot of dough.
And you’re probably well aware of their particular fondness for the Jeep Cherokee XJ platform too.
So when we heard they were bringing a fresh new XJ build to the 2024 SEMA Show, we weren’t the least bit surprised.
Turns out, we had the wrong XJ in mind.
Yup, that’s a 1985 Jaguar XJ6.
…Or at least, some of it.
Dubbed the “Holy Grail” project, the BleepinJeep folks created this rig for the 2024 edition of the onX Off-Road Build Challenge. And since they won it last year, it meant that the pressure was on to up their game.
Suffice it to say, transforming a posh British saloon into a rock crawling tow truck is a good way to do it.
So, what’d did BleepinJeep do to this XJ6?
Well, for starters, its finely-sculpted British body is now resting on the frame of a Dodge W250 truck. Better still, the Dodge’s original Cummins 12V stayed put to replace the Jag’s inline six.
Then, in keeping with their budget ethos, the guys purchased an old forlorn Toyota off-road rig and used it as a donor vehicle for a lot of the other good off-roady stuff—like, a pair of Dana 60 axles, fuel cell, battery box, Warn Winch, locking hubs, and beadlock wheels.
Oh, and if that wasn’t crazy enough, the guys fitted it with a custom fabricated bed and, spoiler alert, a tow truck boom/derrick.
Yowza.
We love this thing.
That’s all that stuff you can see. But what’s NOT visible are all the hours of fitment, fabrication, and frustration that comes with such a massive project like this.
As you’d guess, there’s a lot of “Measure Twice, Cut Once” at work, and the BleepinJeep guys spun some serious magic here.
The end result? This stunning off-roader that’s a little bit of everything—part British, part American; part luxury car, part wrecker.
And all packed into one “Holy Grail.”
Get a better look at this ride’s transformation in this massive video series from the folks over at BleepinJeep, starting with part one here:
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