The Jeep Wrangler rumor mill has run with a wide-open throttle ever since Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ sweater-clad chairman started work on the next-generation model.
Details are still scarce, but we know that the 2018 Wrangler sports plenty of aluminum parts and an oh-so-careful redesign. However, one Minnesota Jeep enthusiast believes he got his hands on a piece of the real thing, and from an unlikely source.
According to a poster on the American Expedition Vehicles forum, the unique hood he bought for his Jeep Wrangler Unlimited might be from a 2018 Wrangler.
The poster, redrockjk, claims he purchased the hood from a reputable recycler in the Detroit area, thinking it was a 2014 Hard Rock part. The hood features air vents and Rubicon graphics. After installation, the hood revealed itself to be two inches longer than stock, overhanging the grille like a furrowed brow.
In his words:
The guy there was very helpful with sending pics before the sale so I could see what I was getting and getting it freight shipped to me in 3 days. Got the hood unpacked and went to install today only to find out the hood I bought is almost 2 inches longer than my stock hood. There are no vin stickers or mopar stamped part numbers on this hood (which is not the norm for jeep/mopar) The place I purchased from is near Chelsea proving grounds and the guy there thinks there “might have been a mix up”.
One forum member suggested it could be a cheap Chinese aftermarket part, while others coaxed more information out of the confused owner. Another suggested selling it back to FCA, assuming it is from a prototype.
One of the things we do know about the 2018 Wrangler is its heavy use of aluminum to cut down on weight and improve fuel economy. Alcoa has been tapped to provide aluminum for the Wrangler’s doors and hood. The dimensions of that hood is unknown, and the forum poster doesn’t comment on the mystery hood’s weight.
After a slew of questions, the poster reiterated that the hood “came as you see it, painted, stickered and outfitted, out of Detroit from a recycler and that recycler told me there location is close to the Chelsea proving grounds and they receive vehicles to part out from FCA.”
Four days ago, the poster provided another update, and a telling one at that. The recycling yard asked to take it back.
“I wanted to save it but unfortunately I’m not made of money and have an expensive wall art that would only serve as a conversation piece,” said the poster. “I was told it’s going back to FCA.”
If the hood is indeed from a 2018 Wrangler, expect a longer nose when the redesigned off-roader debuts. The Wrangler’s grille, as well as its windshield, is expected to take on a more severe slant to improve aerodynamics. Other fuel-saving measures include an eight-speed automatic transmission and the likely addition of a turbocharged 2.0-liter “Hurricane” four-cylinder making about 300 horsepower.
[Images: forum.aev-conversions.com]
Reading this article I was glad to see their is someone who types like every forum post I have ever seen and is not very good at providing any information on there car or details on something they’re purchased.
I see what you did their. It hurt my eyes to.
Spell- and Grammar-check are tools that should not be overlooked. They’re there for a reason. (correct spelling intentional)
Zackman: another of my pet peeves. A poster’s idea and credibility is undermined by use of poor grammar and spelling
I doubt it. I assume the new Jeep is different enough that you can’t simply take the hood off a 2018 and bolt it on a 2016 with no issue.
I agree, but also notice that there /was/ an issue–the front hangs over.
I’d expect more of an issue than just that, though. Something more like the bolts are spaced differently.
I don’t know about that. Most CJ-7 parts will bold right onto my YJ Wrangler, and a few TJ parts can as well. They only change these things every 10+ years, and I’ll bet the changes won’t be as mind blowing as the rumor mill suggests.
From what I’ve read, the new Wrangler isn’t that much different and shares a lot of hard points with the current ones, so there may be parts that are swappable.
Interesting where OEM Jeep parts come from.
Why does it have the plastic nubs for the folding windshield to sit on?
They have been saying forever that they have a removed this feature in the new model.
Things just don’t line up with this… Unless it is an early prototype built on the old body. Maybe a grill / cooling test platform? Who knows.
Even cheap Chinese knockoff parts are a bit closer match than that (a two-inch overhang).
One possible reason that this could exist is that the vehicle it came off of was a power train mule that they modified to match the engine compartment length of the new vehicle.
So it could be that as a power train mule it wasn’t determined that it would be subject to the crusher, like an actual prototype normally would be. Only they forgot they had stretched the front end and didn’t take off those parts like they should have when they yanked the power train, before sending it to the junkyard.
Would they normally bother with stickers like above on a powertrain mule?
I wouldn’t think so but it is FCA.
On the other hand maybe they were placed there to make it easier to hide in plain sight or draw the eye away from those nostrils.
That makes sense. Really only Wrangler enthusiasts would ever notice a different Jeep. Show the average person one from 1980 and 2010, and they wouldn’t know which was newer.
I think Scoutdude wins this one. The fit at the back of the hood is too good for this to be a part from an all-new model.
Looks like an AEV hood. Maybe from one of their Hemi conversions.
AEV hoods have vents in the side.
I think it is this;
Mopar® 10th Anniversary Rubicon Hood with Functional Vents for 07-17
http://www.quadratec.com/products/12503_3000_07.htm
and he just doesn’t have it adjusted correctly.
Perhaps this:
http://www.quadratec.com/products/12503_0202_07.htm?gclid=CIvb14KI288CFUUehgodfhEJlg
I have a theory that the corporate universe is full of incompetent yes-men who are now running companies after the visionaries they sucked up to have retired.
This was probably some idiot’s bright idea to save the company money at the expense of potentially exposing part of an important program for FCA.
Look boss, I saved $500 just by “recycling” instead of crushing! Who’d buy a Jeep part from a junkyard, after all?
This does happen from time to time with pre-production components. Automakers will send out these components—or indeed entire cars—to either suppliers or aftermarket companies for development purposes, with strict non-disclosure agreements and instructions to either destroy or surrender the parts back to the respective automaker. However, occasionally, parts do wind up on the used market. I remember when someone found what turned out to be a sixth-gen Camaro headlamp assembly on eBay, several months prior to that car’s design reveal.
Absolutely. If they didn’t send out pre-production cars, we wouldn’t have had an Eagle Premier or a final generation Saab 9-5.
#Ebaygasm!
Highly unlikely that ANY pre-production part would find its way to the auto wrecker.
The guy got screwed with a ‘jobber” part.
You’d think that after all these years TTAC would finally hire a proofreader to oversee all these blog “journalists” who learned their A,B,C’s Twittering on their iPhone.
Humanity is doomed.
It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it, and your viewpoint—which may or may not be valid—is completely overshadowed by your rude and churlish presentation here. You could have said that in a much more polite manner.
Let that go for everyone else who has been critcizing the editorial standards of this site lately by being rude. It says more about you than the object of your ire when you are unable to present your viewpoint respectfully.
Lighten up, Francis.
Oh on a different note, what ever happened to Jimmy Hoffa?
He and Elvis started a travel agency specializing in the Bermuda Triangle.
I’m not on your lawn. I’m on the #*&$% sidewalk. Stop shouting at me!
I’d like to put a strike-though through everything in this post save the final sentence, which I give a hearty thumbs up toward in mutual misanthropy.