Silky's '87 Comanche

[Silky]

Hello All! Obligatory I'm new to the Club and I was raised a Jeep guy sentence. Anyhow, I have been looking for my own MJ for almost two years now... and finally I found one! I created this topic in order to record my build process, and to hopefully find some input on what to do and tricks on doing installs and whatnot. So far I've made two lists: One for necessary repairs to get done first in order for my Jeep to pass inspection, and a list of potential gradual modifications. It is a Red '87 Comanche SporTruck, with the short box, inline six, 231 transfer case, dana 30 front and 35 rear, and of course that POS Peugeot BA 10/5 

(* means completed)

 

Necessary Repairs include:

• Driver and possibly passenger floor pan repair
• Driver front marker light 
• Signal backfeed fix*
• Driver and passenger side mirrors*
• New coolant overflow tank*
• Fix roof rack holes (from previous owner)*
• Put in a Metric Speedometer (?)
• Valve Cover Gasket replacement*
• Possible Distributer O-ring replacement
• Heater Control valve replacement 
• Clean gunk off Transmission
• New Windshield*

Potential Mods include:

 

• New axles to replace the Dana 30 front and 35 rear (maybe 44s?)
• Transmission swap from BA 10/5 to an AX15 or an Automatic XJ tranny (not sure which one to do yet)
• Bumpers front and rear
• '33 or '35 inch tires 
• A couple inches of lift
• Interior overhaul (cracked dash, and piece below glovebox, bench seat is ripped)
• Stereo and Speakers
• New paint job and SporTruck Decals
• Closed system radiator to a double or triple core system with a cap
• Bedline the bed 

This is my basic outline! Stay Tuned !

 

Edited July 28, 2017 by Silky

[Silky]

So here's what I have been up to the last couple days :

 

I picked up some new (to me) mirrors for 10 bucks a piece, they were wired for electric mirrors but i just didn't hook them up! Fits like a glove !  :thumbsup:

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I also got a new windshield put in for a pretty good deal, surprisingly there wasn't any holes in the frame, the installers ground off the surface rust, and sealed it up!

 

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I also replaced the Coolant overflow tank, as it had a nasty crack in it

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Next to fix was the Valve cover gasket, as it left all that sludge on my transmission.. Unfortunately there was not even a gasket, just orange silicon someone had put in ! So I had to do a half hour to 45 minutes worth of scraping to get all the orange residue off, in order for my new Fel-Pro Gasket to seal up properly.

Before :

 

After:

 

Now for the new Gasket!

 

Now the leak seems to be fixed! (Yes I put the hoses back on the Valve cover )

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Next on the to-do list was to fix the Tail light blinker wiring... My problem was when I turned on my right blinker, I got back feed into my left tail light, making it appear as if my flashers were on. However, the left tail light was quite a bit dimmer. So I pulled the left tail light to see if the ground was connected properly, and it was. Pulled the right light, and discovered a shorted out bulb! While pulling the tail lights, I also discovered some not so proper wiring connecters... so that needed to be fixed too  :laughin: Once I connected the wires using some heat shrink butt connecters, and replaced the bulb, they worked great !

 

 

This was covered up with some duct tape..........

 

 

 

Perfect!

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And lastly.. this isn't a mechanical fix, but a cool addition nonetheless. I picked up a Jeep Keychain off Ebay with the old AMC logo! Thought it would make for a nice picture

 

[Swampy]

This jeep is coming together very nicely. I can't wait to see what you do with it because I have similar build and repair plans