Fan Created Rides: Jurassic Park - Jeep 18


We had a great response from our first Fan Created Rides piece, Jason Rawley's ECTO-1X. Shortly after the story ran I was contacted by a number of people to do stories about their cars. One of the first to contact was Kevin Henry of the Denver Ghostbusters. Kevin is also a member of a movie car replica group called Colorado Movie Cars. Kevin sent me pictures of his ECTO-2K Dodge Magnum and his Jurassic Park Jeep. Since our first FCR was about a Ghostbusters themed ride, I decided to feature Kevin's Jurassic Park Jeep. If you're not familiar with the Jeeps from Jurassic park. Then check out last week's post about about the Jurassic Park Jeeps. Let's move on to Kevin's story.

Kevin first came up with the idea for creating this ride shortly after building his first Ghostbusters movie car. He wanted a movie car that was 4-wheel drive and had an open top. Then it was born! A practical off-road vehicle, but yet a movie car replica for the masses! A Jeep Wrangler from Jurassic Park! Kevin quickly searched the internet over for a Jeep from the correct time period. His search ended when he found a white 1990 Jeep Wrangler near by for $4000.

Kevin planned his conversion by looking over the pieces needed to turn his base Jeep into a Jurassic Park Jeep. But first he needed to upgrade his 1990 Jeep Wrangler to a 1992 Jeep Wrangler Sahara. To do this, he needed to find the correct roll-cage, wheels, side steps, seats and front fog lights. Many of the parts came from local junkyards in the Denver area. Then the work began.

Days were spent sanding. Kevin said the previous owner must have had a crash or rollover. The Jeep was riddled with bad body work. Him and his crew worked through the mess and redid the body work. Most of the body was taken to bare metal, primed and painted. Kevin debated colors between gray and slight champagne color. He settled on gray. He says he's very happy with the results. Next came the stripes.

Kevin masked off the stripes with newspaper and masking tape. Then did a pass or two with red paint. The interior got a full treatment as well. The carpet was pulled and the floor and interior walls are treated with Rhino Liner. Kevin can clean out this dino-runner anytime with a garden hose. Great tip for Jeep owners! Next came the wheels. The wheels were replaced with the correct factory wheels with BFGoodrich AT Tires. However to get them to JP Jeep specs, he sanded and sprayed the wheels red as well. Just like the ones in the movie. After paint came decals. Kevin ordered decals for the side doors, fenders and hood. All the graphics are placed in the same locations as the movie Jeep. Factory 4.0 Liter decals were also applied.

Kevin started putting the pieces back on the Jeep. Then came the first opportunity to show off the Jeep. Kevin scrambled to get the rest of the Jeep together for Nan Desu Kan Am, Anime Convention. The day of the convention Kevin and friends finished the Jeep including props! He pieced together some cases that resemble the emergency kit props from the movie. The Jeep was near completion and went on display. Near completion? Looks good to me. Kevin said it needed a few more pieces to be complete. He later added the winch, side steps, and light bar.

Since that first show, Kevin has shown the vehicle in countless other shows and events. But that doesn't mean this Jeep isn't just a show piece! Kevin takes it off road regularly. From the pictures you can tell he's not afraid to take this Jeep through mud, snow or high water! Hey what's the point of having Jeep and not using it? Kevin says from behind most people don't realize it's not a regular Jeep. It's when they see it from the sides or front, that they get the full effect. Kevin has a few more plans for the Jeep. Including adding extra speakers to blast out dinosaur noises. I'm sure wherever he goes, a JP fan some where notices.

As for advice, Kevin recommends utilizing online resources like the Jurassic Jeep Forums and other great Jeep sites. This is not the last Fan Created Ride we'll see from Kevin and his friends. We're looking forward to covering other FCRs from Colorado Movie Cars as well. However we're open to suggestions on any Fan Created Rides. If you have or know someone who has a tv/movie car, drop us a line via our contact page. Till next time, keep those dinosaurs at bay!

  4

Categories: Fan Created Rides, Jurassic Park

Tags: 1990, 1992, 4x4, jeep

Jurassic Park - 1992 Jeep Wrangler Sahara


Jurassic Park - Jeep 18

If you had dinosaur ranch on a remote island what vehicle would you use to get around? The Jeep Wrangler was Universal's answer as to the vehicle of choice for Jurassic Park's staff transportation. You know, the Jeep is perfect for getting up and down through terrain, transporting stolen embryos and running from dinosaurs. At least that was the case for the Wranglers in the film.

Base Jeep

The base vehicle for Jurassic Park Jeeps were 1992 Jeep Wranglers (YJ). The Jeeps were the "Sahara" trim level which included a few exterior extras such as alloyed wheels, colored fender flares, step board and front bumper mounted fog lamps. Interior options were special trail-cloth seats and removable doors with pockets. All 1992 Saharas came with the 4.0 liter 6 cylinder standard.* All the Jeeps used in the film appear to have manual transmissions. However automatic transmissions magically appear from time to time (kinda like how the General Lee switches back and forth through the Dukes of Hazzard series).*

Jeep 18

Jurassic Park Jeep

What makes the JP Jeeps special? Well let's start with the paint scheme and graphics. The paint scheme consists of a Sand Beige Poly background with two red diagonal stripes through the body.* Each Jeep is numbered on hood, on the side and on front/back license plates.* There is also a id tag hanging from the rear-view mirror. The park logo is on the doors. The windshield frame is red with light bar hoop on top. However from my research only Jeep number 12 features lights on the light bar (maybe removable?). Don't shoot me down with hate mail if I'm wrong. The rear tail lights lights have additional amber lights on the top. The wheels are alloy, however they're painted red to match the stripes. All of the JP Jeeps are equip with winches and ride on BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A tires.

Jeep 29: Very little screen time for this Jeep.

Jeep 10: Note the missing top. Used in the scene where they escape from the T-Rex. Later used to escape to the chopper.

Jeep 12: Used to by Dennis Nedry in attempt to escape the ranch with stolen embryos.

Jeep 12: Can Dennis not drive? Note the Lightbar.

Jeep 12: Final scene for Jeep 12, Dennis is killed by a Dilophosaurus.

Final Thoughts

Above is a clip from our favorite scene from the movie. In this scene the visitors are being chased by the a T-Rex. For comic relief the camera pans to the side rear view mirror. On the mirror you can see a warning label that says "Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear." The T-Rex in the mirror is looking a little too close for comfort. I still crack up when I see this scene. The Jurassic Park Jeeps are pretty neat. I think it would be a fairly easy movie car to clone. However it may not be one of the easier base vehicles to find. But they're around. If you're interested in creating one of your own, the guys at JurassicParkJeep.com forums maybe able to help ya out. It looks like a great community. Till next time, drive safe and watch out for dinos! Don't forget to register and chat with us in the forums!

* Updated: 03/05/2010 with some great info from the guys at JurassicParkJeep.com

Reference: IMDB, Wikipedia (Jeep Wranglers), IMCDB (Internet Movie Car Database), JurassicParkJeep.com

  3

Categories: 1992 Jeep Wrangler, Jurassic Park

Tags: 1992, 4x4, gray, jeep, light-bar, red

   

Tags
2017 cartoon gta trailer 164 1933 1937 1953 1955 1957 1959 1961 1963 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1972 1973 1975 1976 1977 1979 1982 1983 1984 1985 1989 1990 1992 1994 1998 1999 2000 2005 2008 2010 2011 2012 2012-deviantart 2013 2014 2020 3d-printing 4x4 60s a-team actor ad amanda-seyfried ambulance amc american app art aston auction back-to-the-future bandit barenaked-ladies Barrett Jackson batman black blog blue blueray blues bmw board boat bob bridge brown bttf buggy buick cadillac camaro candid camera car car-show cars-2 cars cartoon channel charger chevrolet chrysler classic cobra college concept convertible corvette country coupe creations cruise cuda custom dark delorean design diecast digital discovery-channel dmc documentary dodge domain doughnut dukes-of-hazzard dvd ebay ecto ecto-1 event facebook famous ferrari film fink firefox ford forums funny game garage general-lee ghostbusters gm gmc gold golf gran-torino gray green gta gtx history holidays homer hot-wheels hotrod house flipper hover hulu introduction jeep jump jumps justin-timberlake kevin kevin-morgan kitt lee1 lego light-bar list lotus luxury maker manx mercury mini-post mitsubishi mods monster movie multi-color muscle music mustange netflix news-cast oldsmobile optimus orange parody party pc pickup pink pixar plymouth pontiac poster primer promo ps3 public question quiz rat red road roth season sexy shelby show silver simpsons smokey Smokey and the Bandit social speed sport sports-car star station steel steve-urkel stunt sweepstakes-2 t-shirts tornio town toyota trailer trans-am transformers-2 trip truck tv v8 vacation van varsity video video game volkswagen vw wagon wheels white xbox-360 yellow youtube