i have seen some wild ones myself. my neighbors cousine back home has a 69 elcamino lifted,ive seen a lifted mustang,pinto,vega,chevelle and a hearse. out of all of them i liked the elcamino and hearse the most,they looked great,ran greeat and was cleanly done.
as far as the xj goes yes i own one and yes i agree with fread much easier and cheaper to modify. granted i wheeeled mine at stock height for awile before i moved to nj then it became the suv it was ment to be,taking it on fishing trips,picking up lawn supplies and so on. It moved me to nj,lasted (and still going strong) 4 years since i bought it with only about 500 in parts into it(biggest was the tank ,sending unit,and pump). the unibody is a bit on the weak side,they tend to crack at the steering box,and a bit longer.sure they make a kit to strenghten the frame,another to fix the steering box area,sawzallz to make fender holes bigger.but those are things you dont have to deal with on a wrangler.