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  The Mopar JK-8 Kit turns the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited four-door into a ute. Quite like this Jeep Wrangler JK-8 Independence.

FEELING a bit handy this weekend and don't have much lying around except a spanner set and a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited?

Maybe this can help. It's only available in the US - at the moment - but the ute kit for the Unlimited could come to Australia. Failing that, you could always ring FedEx.

The Mopar JK-8 Kit costs $US5499 and with a bit of home handywork - or someone perhaps more professional - turns the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited four-door into a ute.

The kit is available for ordering through Mopar at US Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram dealerships. In the US, the dealer can do the conversion. Here, you may have to clean out the shed and do it yourself.

Major components of the Mopar JK-8 kit include 1.25m x 1.1m steel bed, inner and outer bedsides, sport bar extensions, Freedom panel assemblies, fibreglass hardtop with sliding rear window and two fixed side windows, and a fibreglass bulkhead. The top can be removed.

The kit is shipped in the US states in JK-8 and Mopar-stamped wooden crate (2.1m x 1.56m x 750mm) and even the instructions are included. Which you'll probably read after you've finished and when you start wondering why the doors don't open.

Mopar first revealed its JK-8 kit at this year's Moab Jeep Safari. The kit takes cues from the popular Jeep Scrambler CJ-8 from the 1980s and the more recent military-spec ute.

Here's how to do it: Take apart the Wrangler. Each rear door is removed, then the rear bumper assembly, hard top and panels followed by the rear portion of the interior, which includes seats and carpeting.

Exterior trim parts are removed and preserved; inner and outer body panels are removed by drilling out the spot welds, which allows the panels to fall away and avoids having to cut into the sheet metal. The rear sport bar is cut away and removed along with B-pillars.

Reassembly into a two-door pickup truck begins with installation of the B-pillars, cross member, floor-pan assembly (truck bed), and the inner and outer quarter panels (welding is involved in assembly).

Next to be installed is the bulkhead reinforcement assembly and sport bar extensions, and finally the installation of the fiberglass bulkhead itself.

The kit, with components delivered in undercoat, is then prepped for paint. Windows are installed to the hard top, which is then installed on the vehicle. Exterior trim parts are then reinstalled.

Want one? Tell your Jeep dealer and, while you're there, quote the kit's part number - 77070049.