'86 Comanche Long bed, Slow build...

[Root Moose]

Hey, use a late model washer reservoir that goes inside the driver's side fender. Nothing cluttering up the engine bay then. I just went the other way removing the in fender reservoir because the the Chinese clone ARB snorkel I installed occupied the inside fender space.

 

[gehrcke]

Still waiting for the latest update on this project on here.

 

[1stDeuce]

Gutted the interior a month ago to change it to gray and found some rust on the driver's side floor. Decided to cut it out and patch it instead of covering it up again.



The passenger's side looks great, so no work there.


Not sure I'm going to put the hat section back in. It's junk, not available, and the new floor pan is pretty thick...
Took a while to cut all the old nasty rusty floor out, and I may have accidentally cut through one of the rear brake lines... I only need one anyway, but now have to fix that sooner than later.



And finally got the pan cut and bent to the right size... I'd just use some 18ga sheetmetal if I did this again... The "stamped" floor pan from C2C (And everyone else) is brake bent, not stamped, and doesn't really fit well anyway.
Lots of spot welds and stitching to do... I'm about 1/10 of the way around it now... Difficult to weld without burning through some of the thinner rusty areas that I thought were OK...


And that's where we're at...
Chris

 

[gehrcke]

I can't believe that you actually bought a replacement floor section and just did toss some sheet metal in there. You MUST be trying to do this thing right(ish) since it's going to be your wife's DD. I'm kind of impressed...... Glad to see that you didn't light it on fire like your DW was worried about.

It'll definitely look much better with a gray interior vs the burgundy that was in it. Are you going to put buckets in it or a bench seat again? A bed rack like the somona had to hold the RTT?

Glad to see that the project is still moving along. Keep up the good work.

Work harder, work faster!!

 

[1stDeuce]

Uh, actually I did light it up for a bit, twice... First when I burned through the brake line with the plasma cutter (oops) and then later I lit the the rubber firewall insulator pad with sparks. That thin rubber burns pretty well! And fire extinguishers make a huge mess...

Got the floor all welded in now. Just gotta level out all the spotwelds a bit and shoot it with some paint and seam sealer.

 

[1stDeuce]

Well, time for some more updates. This is going really slow, but it's moving along. So I was sealing some stuff on the roof of my camper not long after welding down the floorpan and realized that the "self leveling" sealant that I was using would be perfect for seam sealing the floor... And it was!



After a little time for the primer to cure, I rolled the entire cab floor with some Rustoleum bedliner stuff that I had laying around. Figured it would help seal any small rust areas I didn't get to, and make for a durable surface. Came out looking pretty good. (note that this is NOT my favorite bedliner... But it works good for stuff like this.)


I also started painting my collection of interior parts. Got a new dash and HVAC from the junkyard, since the original dash was cracked. Changing the interior from red to gray too. Should look much less '80's when it's finished. Here's the "new" dash and a few smaller pieces after a nice coat of paint.


And here's the pile of stuff I still need to turn gray. That's a lot of scrubbing/prepping/painting!!


I'm to the point where the interior is gutted, so I figured it would be the best time to get the windshield out and changed. Had a local place pull it out, which they warned me was going to be messy... Actually, it came out in one piece!! I spent some time cutting all the old sealant off the body, and then wire wheeling the rest off, and taking care of the rust too. But one thing leads to another, and I realized that if I'm going to do a color change, now is the time to paint it.

So off with the doors... I'm heading to the JY this afternoon to get two doors from a '97 XJ that have manual windows. That solves the problem of the original doors having four holes from the the original mirrors. They also come with gray door panels, which is excellent!! Plus, no more mirror blocked by the vent wings!
The driver's door hinges were loose, so I cut the pins and drove them out for new ones. Won't make them 100% better, but better than they were!

So this is where I'm at. I'm going to slide the bed back so I can paint the back of the cab. And I'm painting it all without doors, so I'll hopefully be able to paint everything, and then just assemble it and not really have much white left. I figure I'll fog the underside of the hood and inside the fenders with a rattle can first, and hopefully it'll look like it was always sand colored!

 

[kojackJKU]

That truck is awesome. Good job. My Bro had one back in 91 with the 2.8. Although it was a slow as a turd, we had a blast. 2wd, lifted and just a riot to drive around in.

 

[1stDeuce]

I told you it was going to be slow...

Been making progress, but it sure seems opposite. Hopefully this is the tipping point where I start re-assembling it!
After striking out locally I finally found a set of doors off a '97 Cherokee that had gray door panels, manual windows, and power mirrors, and picked them up on a work trip back to the Front Range of CO. Fitting them required door latch rework to go from single pin striker to newer u-bolt style striker.

Old single pin striker:


Welding in old striker holes and spot welds that were drilled out to remove the original backing plate.


Welds ground smooth and holes drilled for new striker. I'll use a single tapped plate on the back side to make adjustment possible once the trim is installed.


While I was working on the latches, my wife went at all the flat surfaces that had the clear coat coming off with 80 grit on the DA. She did a good job, but I don't think she wants to do it again...


After closer inspection the doors were a dented mess. I love the smell of filler, but HATE trying to get it level and flat. Here are the doors mid-filler process as I'm trying to figure out where all the dents are and get enough filler in them to level them out.




Since I wanted to paint the back of the cab too, I hooked it to the Jeep (No interior, so not driveable) and dragged it down to where my topper is stored on a rack. Hung the box from the rack using ratchet straps and then pulled the Comanche out from under. Pressure washed the whole frame to get rid of all the loose dirt and yuck. I'll clean up the outside of the rails and paint them too, since they show.


My wife had a mildly sprained ankle, so she took on supervisory duties...


At this point, the doors are fully primed and hung and aligned, and I'm not taking them back off! The rest of the front is spot primed. I'm not worried about priming the whole thing, it's not going to be a show truck, and I think the rustoleum will cover just fine.




After a bit more elbow work and sanding on the sides of the frame to remove the 30 year old undercoating, I sprayed the frame rails with rattle can sand just see what it would look like. It covered the old nasty frame just fine.


Since I'm now painting it with the doors on, I also sprayed the door hinge area so I could get good coverage there, and did the hood edges and inside too so I don't have to open the hood when I'm painting the outside.




And that's where it's at as of this morning. I did some spot putty filling over the last few days and sanded it all down yesterday. Today I am going to wet sand the whole thing with 320 and it'll be ready for paint. We're going up to Silverton to see the old truck show Saturday, but hopefully I'll get to spray it Sunday afternoon!!

 

[AZJim]

Looking good Chris, can't wait to see the finished Comanche !
Always wished they had done an extended cab of the MJ for a bit more leg room, and could have found a way to keep it in production till the end of the XJ's.

Jim

 

[unkamonkey]

If I may say it, good looking wife and Jeep. (did I say that in the proper order)? Nice work anyway.

 

[1stDeuce]

Looking better and better!!

Well, I've been busy lately working on this truck. I painted it two weekends ago, and then bugged out for a long weekend in the Ouray-Silverton area. I was tired of doing body work, and tired of feeling like it was never going to be good enough, so finally I just put paint in the gun and shot it.

If you recall, I'm shooting Rustoleum Gloss Sand because I'm not up for spending $500 in paint, and then feeling even more guilty about the body work that I don't want to do. I put on two coats, basically one quart at a time. (Front half of the truck only.) Reduced with 30% Acetone, and added 1/4 pint of Valspar Enamel Hardener per the instructions. Instead of using my nice auto body paint gun, I did it with my HF HVLP gun that I normally use for putting on thick primer and spraying rustoleum without much thinning. I didn't want so much overspray in the shop, and it worked excellent.

It turned out pretty decent. I got the paint a little thin on the driver's door, and there was some gunk in the gun that didn't mix (And I didn't strain the paint either, just dumped, stirred for 30 seconds, let it stand 30 minutes per the hardener instructions, and shot it...) so there's a littel splatter here and there. And some orange peel. I may put another coat on the driver's door when I do the box, just to have a little more to work with.

Ready to go!


And we're off!!








After two coats, we closed up the shop and lit out for the mountains!

Came back Wednesday and rolled it out to get some sun and see what it looked like. Good enough for us!!


Last weekend I swapped out the HVAC for one out of a '94 that didn't have some crazy A/C stuff going on. Spent part of the day saturday just figuring out the wiring and getting it all straightened out, then put the dash back in!!


As part of the dash re-install, I added a BlueSea USB charge port and a 12v accessory socket. I also disassembled and cleaned the instrument cluster before putting it back in.


Let's see, over the coarse of the weekend I also painted the grill black (Rustoleum Semi-gloss) and put it all back in.


On Sunday, I put in a Low-E insulation kit, double thick in most of the passenger side footwell to help with exhaust heat.


And laid in the ACC Vinyl floor and started figuring it out. FYI, if you ever get a Vinyl floor from ACC, DO NOT lay it in the sun to warm it up and make it easier to work with. Put it in the truck cold, THEN put the truck in the sun if you must. I left mine in the sun and it's lost all it's molded shape, which is making it a bear to install. Live and learn...


Oh, I put the '97 door panels on too on Sunday. Whew!! (No pics.)

After letting it sit in the sun for a few days, I started trimming yesterday. I cut out nice holes for the trans and t-case shifters. Put the shifters back in, and then put the mini center console over them and discovered that I had cut the holes WAY too big, and they showed. A lot! So I spent about an hour gluing about 10 pieces of vinyl right back in where I had just cut them out. I found all the pieces and they fit really well. Superglue worked awesome, and to be honest, you can't really tell that I did it. Whew!

Center console is in, but the vinyl isn't up against it very tight.




I think I'll pull it back out and put the Juke padding just over the tunnel. That'll block a little more noise and heat, make the flooring fit better where it's loose, and make it tighter to the bottom of the console.

Yesterday after work I sanded and painted the front fender flares and painted them semi-gloss black with more Rustoleum.
Today at lunch I put the flares on, and got the bumper hung. I had tow hook brackets from a newer XJ, so I cut off the bumper brackets and just used my old ones. Lined it all up and tightened all the bolts after work.


I have some 1st gen S-10 tow hooks that I'm going to bolt on for a sweet snaggletooth look. They hold the strap better than XJ style hooks anyway, and since the Comanche weighs hundreds of pounds less than a comparable S10, I'm sure they're strong enough for what I'll do.

So that brings us up to date. Lots of work left to do... I'll try to make more frequent posts for all my fans!

 

[Bretthn]

This thing looks great! Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[1stDeuce]

I couldn't take having them but not having them installed. S10 tow hooks mounted. (Had to drill a new "Middle" hole, since the hole spacing on S-10's is far wider than the Jeep tow hook.)





I like them. I'm keeping it this way.

 

[mtbxj87]

It looks great! My xj looks identical cause the color

 

[1stDeuce]

A package arrived yesterday morning so I took a little time at lunch to get the next little project started...



I cut the old window out with some soapy water and a utility knife. Wasn't too bad, and the water made old urethane cut much easier.
I was a little worried about the CRL rear slider, since I'd seen people complain that it either had too much, or not enough curve to fit the back of the cab. A quick test fit showed it to be an almost perfect match the the slight curvature of the cab. It's actually curved on both sides, but the slider panels are flat glass, which doesn't seem to be an issue. Since this is really the only option for a rear slider, I put it in yesterday evening.

The window comes with 1/8" butyl tape and the instructions suggest using that plus three screws on each side. I had already planned to use urethane to glue it in like the original, and a test fit showed contact with the cab to be light in the middle anyway, so the butyl tape wouldn't have worked well anyway. (No way to use screws in the middle of the window, so it really needs to be bonded.) Since the window fit best resting right against the pinch flange, I put a 1/4" bead of urethane all the way around, and then tipped it up into place and clamped it. I also put one screw on each side, right in the middle, to pull it in a little tighter on the sides and hold it in place while the urethane cured. Worked like a charm! It looks great, and should stay put and be leak proof for a long time!!



Here you can see it's a little tighter in the middle where the screw is. The corners are seated against the pinch flange, as is the middle. Had I ground down the very light tig welds on the corners, it probably would have seated perfectly along the whole side. Or I could have left the screws just a little loose. No matter, good enough for me!!



I'm now not scared to put a new windshield in my Jeep to get rid of the cracked one. It's a good bit of work, but not $100 worth. And I have an extra tube of urethane. But I WILL be buying a better calk gun. Turns out the urethane is REALLY hard to pump with a standard gun. You need a higher ratio gun. My forearms and hands are killing me today. I had to use both hands to squeeze with every bit of strength that I had...

Now back to finishing the interior. More packages should be arriving later this week... Radio and speakers and a new steering wheel. And I've got some trimming to do on the vinyl flooring to finish that job as well!