'86 Comanche Long bed, Slow build...

[1stDeuce]

See if you can spot the difference in these before and after pictures:





I was going to put a 3-spoke Jeep steering wheel on it, but I remember getting whacked by a spoke once and it hurt. And I like this one better. It's 3/8" larger in dia and is about 3/8" "deeper" in profile. Should be fine for the little lady, but might be a little tight for me. It's got tilt steering, so I'll be able to cope.

 

[1stDeuce]

Progress...

Well, I've been slowly plugging away most evenings. I ordered a radio and speakers and got that all installed, including making rear speaker mounts, since this truck originally only had door speakers.





I also ordered a headliner re-cover kit and did the headliner. The backer was pretty rough, but I was able to save it with a bit of glue and some blue paper towels. Turned out pretty nice, though I messed up and trimmed the back of the headliner instead of wrapping it around to the back side. I thought there was trim to cover it, and there isn't... It's ok, since you can't really see it anyway through the dark tint of the back slider.



I went shopping for seat belts, but there's only one Comanche that I know of in local junkyards, and it's belts were pretty rough. I tried painting a section, but that makes the belts stiff, and you can see red through the gray paint if you flex it some. So I ordered seatbelt webing in gray and heavy nylon blended thread, and I'll re-belt my current retractors and hardware. None of the sewed sections will show, so I'll just sew about 2x more area than the factory belts had and I'm sure it'll be as strong, or likely stronger, since it won't be 30 years old.

While I wait for that stuff to show up, I decided to tackle the front timing cover or water pump leak, and I'll replace the timing chain while I am in there.



Is this timing chain a little loose??


Parts are on the way, and should quiet the front of the motor down significantly. I can't detect any slop in the rods, and it seems to have good compression, so hopefully it just needs a chain and it'll be good for another 100k.

Finally, I needed to do something about the red seat... I took it to a local upholstery shop and they quoted me $450 to re-do it in gray, but this is a budget truck, so I ordered a seat cover from GT Covers for half that. I'll paint the small areas of the red seat that show, and put the cover on and it will hopefully look and last just fine.



I got digital camo to break up the interior a little, and it matches the sand color of the truck, so it should look pretty good.

Once I get the seat belts sewn, I can install them, and then the rest of the interior trim can go back in, and then the seat. With the engine back together, I'll go fetch the box from it's hanging place. I bought an a-frame gantry off CL so I can lift to box off in the shop and go to work painting it.

THEN I can build a back bumper and a bed rack to hold the RTT that's been patiently waiting to go on the truck...
And then we can go camping with it!!!!

 

[Kingsize24]

Wow! Awesome build. Can't wait for the next updates honestly. And you've gotta' do something about that Chevrolet on the horn pad. :clapsmile

 

[1stDeuce]

Wow! Awesome build. Can't wait for the next updates honestly. And you've gotta' do something about that Chevrolet on the horn pad. :clapsmile

Thanks for the kudos!! I looked for a Jeep steering wheel, but I couldn't find one I liked, so I figured having a Chevy engine, it could have a Chevy steering wheel.
Should have pictures of the box getting ready for paint by the end of the week...

 

[Big mike]

Wow so far I dig this truck, somewhat envious !!! It's going to look and perform great.
Nice work
Mike

 

[1stDeuce]

Well, time to do some sewing... Webbing and thread for the seatbelts finally came in, so here's my work!
Old belts:



And here's the new webbing after some sewing. This is the first one I did, and the first sewing I've done since I was in the 6th grade, so the sewing pattern is a little wild.


My Singer 15-91 is maxed out at 92 thread, while normal seat belt thread is a size or two larger so I just did a lot more stitching to make up for it. I'm absolutely certain that this is stronger than the 30 year old original webbing. I thought about sewing the certification label on, but there aren't any inspections here in the west, so I didn't see the point.

I still need to get gray covers for the male part of the buckle, and all-metal (not red) buckles for the buckle side of the belts. Junkyard trip this afternoon...

 

[dsal_86yota]

Awesome rig. I love the jeep trucks. Have seen a few lifted and run on trails here in CO, they are great. Some people have thought they were cut up XJs lol. I missed out buying one when I was in college but I had my 86 yota pickup and 86 4runner at the time and moms drive way was getting full with my rigs, my dads XJ and her cars. Cant wait to see more of the work

 

[Mitch502]

I had a 88 MJ, and I painted it a similar color, although not professionally. I sold it because I didn't want to put the money back into it to get the comfort amenities that I wanted (AC/carpet/etc). I sold it, but it was a great truck. It had a HO form a 98 Cherokee in it . I'm sure you know, but Comanche Club has all the information you'd ever need.

Swap that old cluster out for a newer one and it looks a lot better in my opinion! IT's a direct swap. 97+ front end swap is worth the time/effort as well!
EDIT: My old Comanche http://comancheclub.com/topic/43285-project-katrina/

 

[1stDeuce]

I need to get some updates on here... We're still not driving it, but the interior is done. I'm working on getting the bed straightened and painted. Then I'll need to fix the brake line that I cut when I was working on the floor... Going to put an XJ prop valve on it. Then an oil change, plates, and insurance!!

Mitch502: I wanted a newer cluster, but my '86 uses a speedometer cable, and I didn't feel like dealing with converting it to an electronic unit to use a cluster newer than '87. If it turns out the cruise sensor I picked up won't work with the GM cruise module, I'll probably swap it all out and go electronic. The '97+ swap was my first plan, but the old school look of the original grille has grown on me, and I'll probably leave it.

 

[Mitch502]

My 88 used the cable, not electronic. I thought they changed that in 89 or 90?

Looks great, jeep it up!

 

[gehrcke]

Got that box all sanded and installed on the truck yet?

I'm waiting for the roof top tent install when you get that far.

 

[zetabird]

you can grab a better cluster out of a comparable year i cant remember when they changed the speedo cable but my 88 had the cheep cluster and i swapped in one out of an 89 xj with full gauges i had to change the water and oil pressure senders but it all works. other than that it looks good im going to keep an eye on this dont see many mjs on here. i hope to get around to throwing a thread on mine up soon

 

[zetabird]

nevermind i see you already have the full cluster lol

 

[1stDeuce]

I see I'm way behind in updates... Life gets in the way, I guess, and sitting here doing updates takes a back seat to just about everything else.

With the front of the truck pretty much done, I moved on to the box. It didn't look that bad in white, but when I started sanding, I found quite a bit of filler on the rails, and dents...


Spent a LOT of time welding in holes and pulling dents out of the rails by tacking on washers and tugging on them with a slide hammer. (Poor man's stud puller...)


Then a nice layer of filler over the whole rail, followed by blocking, then more filler, blocking, a little more... Ugh. I hate doing body work...




Tailgate got some welded washer treatment on the top edge, which was all bashed, and then some filler.



Getting close...




And finally just got sick of finding more flaws in my body work and shot it.



It's far from perfect, but looks way better than it did! I always find a few things I missed, but if we get tired of Rustoleum Sand, I'll fix them next time around when it isn't so overwhelming.

Cleaned up the tail lights and painted the faded gray/chrome with more rustoleum satin black.



Painted the rear flares with the same stuff. They had some cracking in the paint, and I tried to sand it out, but missed some. They look fine from 5' away, so I'm not worried.
Here's the bed all assembled and ready to go back on.



I ordered tailgate lettering and Comanche decals in black. That should finish off the look.
I also ordered a gallon of Monstaliner in "Pass the Bubbly", which is close enough to Rustoleum Sand that I think it'll look fine in the bed. I hammered a lot of dents out of the wheel wells and floor while it was off, so painting with anything shiny was going to look pretty bad.

Chris

 

[1stDeuce]

Before plopping the box back on the frame, I ripped off the MJ rear prop valve and associated plumbing. I'm putting an XJ prop valve on, so I kept the line that works with that prop, and stripped out the extra one, which fortunately was the one I accidentally cut when I was replacing the floor pan. WHEW!

Heading out now for some line wrenches, which I've put off owning for far too long. HF to the rescue!

It's getting there!! I'm sure more stuff will come up after we start driving it, but the only things I can think of still needing attention is one missing shock bushing on the rear and a bit of cutting/gluing on the vinyl floor to make room for my foot on the accelerator. (It never did regain it's formed shape, even after being in the truck for months now sitting in the sun...)

Chris