MORE JEEP, MORE FUN
JL WRANGLER 6-DOOR
Mega X2 is a custom vehicle build shop out of Kanosh, Utah. They have been creating insane builds for over 30 years, specializing in six-door conversions on trucks and Jeeps. Steve Maxfield, the owner and builder, is an energetic guy who has a serious passion for making unique vehicles. Beyond that though, his real passion is seeing the smiles and community that surround these builds when they’re out being used.
This Mojito Green six-door Jeep Rubicon is the first of its kind on the new JL platform. Steve at Mega X2 brought it to life, with the help of Truck Guru and RBP, for its debut at the SEMA Show 2018. Needless to say, it attracted a lot of attention.
The Six-Door Jeep Idea
Steve’s six-door Jeep journey started back at the SEMA Show 2015. An Icelandic tour company approached him about building a six-seater Jeep tour vehicle, after seeing his six-door truck conversions. The MX2-JK6
was born. The build was based on a Jeep Wrangler JKU, and stretched to six-doors. The build featured three rows of bucket racing seat, air suspension, an LS motor swap and massive 44-inch tires.
There was a problem with this monster of a creation though; it ended up being way too much fun and capable. Steve just couldn’t part with his prototype, but does now offer a full line of custom MX2-JK6 vehicles to customers around the globe.
Mega X2 has found that their six-door creations out perform their shorter counterparts in many areas. The obvious area being people and gear-carrying capacity, as the
inside of these creations are truly cavernous. The second and third row fold flat seats make it quick and easy to alternate between people and gear-carrying priorities.
Why A Six-Door Jeep JL?
The Jeep Wrangler JK is a proven off-road vehicle at this point, and has proven to be a robust and modifiable platform. With JK production running for over a decade it was time for both Jeep and Mega X2 to upgrade technologies and production methods. The all-new Jeep Wrangler JL just hit the market for the ‘18 model year, and brings with it a whole host of advancements.
Steve and his team at Mega X2 are true gearheads, and had to challenge themselves with a build on this new platform. The MX2JL6 was born, and debuted at the SEMA Show 2018.
Built To Be Used
A friend of Steve’s, Developer Patrick Manning, talked him out of this first six-door JL before it was even finished. Patrick is building an outdoor lifestyle development in Santa Clara, Utah, called The Edge. Instead of Manning’s traditional developments around golf courses, The Edge is all about being outside and high adventure. Patrick will use the six-door JL for tours to the rugged and remote properties at The Edge, as well as have it available for offroad experiences and rentals. Meanwhile, Manning’s wife will use this massive Jeep to drop their kids off at soccer practice and for general daily driver duties. Steve will also be using the Jeep for promotional events for Mega X2. You can expect to see it at such
events as Easter Jeep Safari in Moab next year.
Six-Door Conversion
As you might expect, making a four-door Jeep Wrangler into a six-door vehicle isn’t an easy and straightforward endeavor. Cutting the Wrangler in half, extending the frame 31.75 inches and building a new center body section is just the beginning.
The wiring, brake lines, exhaust and rear driveshaft also need to be extended. A full custom stainless steel Borla exhaust lets the engine breath easy. A DriveLine Plus rear aluminum one-piece 5-inch diameter driveshaft gets the power to the rear wheels. Even the sidesteps had to be heavily modified to work with the longer and curved bodylines of the Jeep. RBP supplied two sets of their steps, and Mega X2 cut and welded them to match the new bodylines perfectly.
Probably the toughest part of the conversion to do right is the center body section. Getting the pillars, door angles and rooflines to all look and function like they came out of the Jeep factory is no small task. A pleasant surprise for Steve and his team was how easy to work on and lightweight the new aluminum doors are on the JL. Mega X2 even created a one-piece ‘Freedom Panel’ as the roof for the center row of seats. It features factory hardware and latches, and allows this Jeep to go topless easily.
Finding the parts for this JL conversion, to ensure everything looked, felt and performed like a Jeep should was extremely difficult. FCA is selling the Jeep JL faster than they can make them, which means all parts are going into producing new Wranglers, making them extremely hard to come by for a vehicle builder like Steve. His solution was to find and buy up a number of program vehicles, or Jeep test mules, that were headed for the crusher. This allowed Steve to get all the windows, doors, hardware, and so on—parts that he needed for the six-door conversion.
Exterior Design
This build isn’t just a four-door JL converted to a six-door JL. This build is a custom six-door Jeep Wrangler JL that features a full host of upgrades, both for looks and function. A prime example is the color-matched roof, to the oneyear only factory Mojito Green paint scheme.
“THIS BUILD ISN’T JUST A FOUR-DOOR JL CONVERTED TO A SIXDOOR JL. THIS BUILD IS A CUSTOM SIX-DOOR JEEP WRANGLER JL THAT FEATURES A FULL HOST OF UPGRADES, BOTH FOR LOOKS AND FUNCTION.”
The first thing you’ll probably notice are the massive aggressive 40-inch Interco tires wrapped around 20-inch RBP beadlock wheels. Steve says he chose the big wheels so that he doesn’t get too much flex out of the tire sidewall, as he regularly airs down to 8 PSI when off road. A BDS 6-inch Extreme Long Arm Lift, with Fox Performance Series shocks, allows those massive tires to fit under the Jeep. The lift and tires also help improve the break over angle of this extremely long Jeep.
A host of Rampage products complete the exterior looks, while Oracle Lighting makes everything pop. Steel front and rear bumpers from Rampage provide impact protection and recovery points, while Rampage fenders allow the massive tires to have maximum travel under the vehicle. Oracle headlight rings, wheel rings and underbody lights are color matched to the Mojito Green color scheme, and add a bit of bling to this already eye popping Jeep.
Finishing off the exterior looks are some functional off-road accessories. RBP shackles hang from the bumpers, and are color matched to the Jeep. A Warn Zeon 10-S Platinum winch is mounted up front, with a Factor 55 Prolink mounted for closed system winching. Dual BDS steering stabilizers not only look good, but help control the
massive tire and wheel combo.
Interior Design
Eight passengers can fit inside this custom Jeep. The factory style 60/40 split seating in the second and third rows make the interior easily configurable to your gear hauling needs. All seats have been recovered with a custom Roadwire diamond stitch leather interior.
Future Upgrades
While this Mojito six-door machine was ready for action at the SEMA Show, as seen in the pictures, it wasn’t completely finished. The only thing left to really button up is the addition of inner fender liners. This will help
protect sensitive electronics and wiring from trail debris. The thing Steve is most excited about adding soon is a RIPP Supercharger. More power, especially for a big heavily modified Jeep, is always a good thing.
More Six-Door Awesome
Steve and the team at Mega X2 are excited about building some more six-door JL Wranglers soon. The conversion on these Jeeps will run you around $55,000, which brings the total cost of the vehicle to around $110,000. Steve is already in talks with clients about building an even crazier six-door JL, which would feature the just announced Helliphant crate motor, which puts out 1,000 hp.