Throwback Thursday: 1971 Jeepster Commando

By Wes Whitworth 2 Min Read

Throwback Thursday: A Jeepster Commando on a JK Wrangler chassis

Welcome to Throwback Thursday on Unsealed4x4, but not as you know it. In this edition we’re looking at a 1971 Jeepster Commando body that’s been married up to a JK Wrangler chassis. Sounds rather interesting, right? That is, right up until you throw an LQ-4 6.0-litre small-block Chev under the bonnet, and spend nearly 2000 man-hours building the thing!

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Dave Schlossberg of Synergy Manufacturing (a pretty nuts Jeep workshop in the US) wanted to build something that’d stand out from the crowd and, as those familiar with Jeeps will realise, the Jeepster Commando is as rare as hen’s teeth in the wild, much less with this kind of ground-up rebuild. The crew built the Jeepster by marrying up the chassis of a JK Wrangler to the Jeepster Commando body, with the notable addition of the GM 6.0-litre V8, with a few bolt-ons like a racing cam and valve springs, a new set of heads and some rather neat headers.

Off the back of the 4L80e box is an Atlas II transfer case with a 3.8:1 ratio. From there is a set of upgraded tail shafts running down to strengthened Rubicon diff housings with bracing to match. The suspension is sorted with a set of Fox 2.5 shocks with compression adjustment, which gives the Jeepster Commando a full 300mm of travel. A set of ‘Smoothie Wheels’ were mated with Nitto 35×12.5R17 tyres to give the old girl a rather vintage, classic look.

But hey, you really don’t need to hear any more about this gorgeous old (new) darlin’ of a Jeep… have a gander at the video below!

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