TheJeepNut

Takin' a stab.... I'd like to replace this piece as I rip the seats apart for rebuild/recover. Here is a pic of the good one. The "knob" on the other seat's socket is broken leaving only a little sharp lever exposed that would slice new leather or skin real easily. Blood on white leather seems an unwanted combo, though it fits the overall Red/White/Black color theme well. Not used too many years I suppose so I expect it'll be tough to find.

and so it begins... streetcomanches.zohosites.com I've not been what you'd call an active poster, but just not much time with all that is going on in our world. I'll try to keep the site updated often with pics and such.

Wow, talk about timing... I just put the pieces of both of mine in a bag tonight... PM me with pmt. details. Thanks!

Can you elaborate on the tail lights? These are off a 97XJ? Look to be a pretty close match for the MJ cutouts.

A burglar broke into a house one night. As he flicked his light around, looking for valuables, suddenly a voice in the dark said, 'Jesus knows you're here.' He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze. After a while, hearing nothing more, he shook his head and continued. But just as he was pulling the stereo out to disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard... 'Jesus is watching you.' Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot. 'Did you say that?' he hissed at the parrot. 'Yep', the parrot confessed, then squawked, 'I'm just trying to warn you that he is watching you.' The burglar relaxed. 'You're gonna warn me, huh? And just who are you?' 'Moses,' replied the bird. 'Moses?' the burglar laughed. 'What kind of people would name a bird Moses?' 'The kind of people that would name a Rottweiler Jesus.'

Ahhh then there it is. Kearny Mesa AMC/Jeep/Renault was located at 8118 Clairemont Mesa back in the '80s. Guess where Mossy Nissan is located... And then there are the Jeep Racing posters that are here on the site with guess who at the wheel... A couple more tibits that lend credence to the info that the owner passed along. However, from Wikipedia, "The base price of the two-wheel drive model was $7,049..." And the dealership got $18k+ from this guy for the Street Comanche brand new...? Yeah, it would be more $$ but x2.5? Insane. Hey that brings up another question that we'll never have the answer to.... I wonder how much money the Archer team made on each of those conversions? No wonder I hate car dealerships....blah blah blah about if the guy was stupid enough.... Karma has a way of catching up to people.... maybe that's why at 8118 Clairemont Mesa Blvd they now sell Nissans instead of Jeeps. meh... Japanese, Italian... what difference does it make anyway. I'm sure Penske could care less. At $1.36BILLION in net worth, he's quite comfortable and those dealerships are only assets in his ledger. But just because you CAN rip somebody off doesn't mean it's a good thing to do. I hope the owner just keeps it and continues to enjoy it. At $15k I think that's a given. ;) But I've been wrong before. Also found this link that was kind of interesting. http://www.pricehub.com/price/jeep/comanche--2 They show a range of trucks and prices WITH VINS! Anyone see YOURS in the list? :eek: Also showing an MJ with a flatbed on the back.... project anyone?

Ben Of The North, you missed it.... I've gotten an email from a gent who has purchased #25 from the previous owner in OK. Of course I've invited him to the clubsite and suggested a build site here. Apparently it's worse for the wear since the pic on my Registry site in 2004 and needs a bit of sprucing up and general maintenance. Just wanted to keep the group in the loop. My next 12hr shift starts in 7.5 hrs so.... I'm out. Hope everyone has a nice weekend, according to their interests. And after reading some of the recent posts, that all the firefighters are protected and successful in their work, where ever they may be working.

Ok I talked to the owner of #51 tonight. Very nice guy. Original owner! The ad is in error, he confirmed it is a 1987 as we knew, and he knows that as well. When I asked him about the dash plaque and my theory he said he bought the truck brand new (for about $18k!) in Kearny Mesa. He wasn't sure if it was a Penske group dealer, but says the dealership is still there. I found later that Rancho Chrysler Jeep is in the Kearny Mesa district. (Balboa Ave.) There was also some story about the dash plate. If I understood correctly it may have been missing from the dealership. He seemed to think the original plates were actually gold plated and something about the plate came up missing and had to be replaced... He's Latino and I'm not good with accents, so may not be relating it exactly right, but it was something to that effect. I do not think those plates are actually gold plated, but what do I know... Interestingly ALSO nearby is a Penske auto group company at 4910 Kearny Mesa Rd. But it appears to be some kind of broker. http://www.penskesandiego.com/our-specials.aspx Seems to sell everything BUT MoPars. Maybe they've changed since the 80s?... Maybe 1998xjome could visit Rancho and see if he can find out any "history" on the dealership as it relates to the mid-80's. I may call them up at some point and see if I can find the oldest guy on the property to talk to. The owner had to cut the conversation short, Friday night obligations, and I readily admitted from the get-go that I wasn't a buyer, just interested as a historian. Didn't get to ask him about the VIN to see if he'd give it up Also found another interesting link digging around for the dealership though: http://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/155/381.html Devlin v. Kearny Mesa Amc/Jeep/Renault, Inc. (1984) It doesn't report the address of the defendant, but the scam they worked on these poor folks certainly would lend one to believe they were a typically unscrupulous dealership. Far too common. But it DOES make one wonder what other kinds of ripoffs they did to others. I suppose any kind one can think of. Perhaps this dealership BECAME Rancho following the loss in THAT lawsuit. Anyway he loves this truck and has asked a high price, he's aware. Just to see if there is any interest. I think he's wrong about the value of it, but he honestly doesn't care if it sells or not. He is not in any hurry to get rid of it. It's only got 60+k miles on it. He drives it to the beach and down to Mexico once in a while and gets a LOT of attention obviously every time he brings it out. Said he's seen one or two others around San Diego & surrrounds. But having talked to him and with the images of the truck, it seems a legit Street. I asked him about #50 or #52 and he did have a story. Something to do with someone else (family) that he went to the dealer with. The relative was wanting to buy a black Street they had there, but somehow it didn't work out. But that's when he saw this red one and bought it himself. I believe he said the black truck was #17. I've seen a black one and at least 1 white one as well as a red one in "northern" California when I lived in Santa Cruz county. I saw a white one more than once, in different areas of Silicon Valley & hills above, but couldn't be sure it was the same truck or another one. Never was in a position to try and catch up to any of them to chat. I was REALLY glad to hear that he had no intention of selling it to anyone who would break it up. He had someone call about it and said something about big tires and lifting and the owner told him he wouldn't sell to him. Gotta like that! I believe he'll have the truck for a while at that price, but gave him my email and told him that if he would send me an email, I'd send him some links to the registry site and the club site. And to PLEASE let me know if he ever sells it... he said he would. He seems really to be really proud of it and keeps it garaged. It may be one of the most pristine ORIGINAL examples still left. Even mine's not dealerfloor original. (DANG it.. I forgot to ask him about the seats. Anyone else think those look like leathers out of a ZJ? He didn't seem to know the poster from the Buick list (whom I have also talked to via Email) at all. When I mentioned his name, he said he didn't know him. That poster must know someone else in this gentleman's family, not him specifically. I'll be thanking him too for his post which turned all this on. My weekend to work... 0800-2000 Saturday AND Sunday.... so gotta bail out. A great weekend to all!

Agreed, they've GOT to be done right. But a "done right" should last just fine I would think. I think Golen has probably sorted out issues they had early on. But there is a local builder that I've discovered so I'm doing some background on his work. It's good to have lived in the same place most of my life. Makes it easier to find out "what's what" with local services. I just heard too much bad about Titan to trust them. And Lee Hurley is just too proud of his work for me to afford. He's an undisputed master of the craft, but I just can't afford him. If the local guy turns out to be someone I know or can verify the rep of, I'll use him. Otherwise I'll probably resort to a Golen. I'll have to read up on Hornbrods experience. Been out of the forums for quite a while. All this life keeps getting in the way of my piddling....

I am. Mainly just because the pieces all really fit. The fact that it has MANUAL windows, no power door locks, mine was even a radio delete, no air all fit the scenario for these trucks. These were supposedly all VERY base model trucks in terms of what ChryCo sent out the door. I can't remember if John Archer told me this or where else I might have gotten it, but the thing that made the Street Comanche "special" as far as Chrysler was concerned, was that you could not order the 5speed 4.0l with the bucket seats, etc and a short bed. For a dealership to get a manual 5speed WITH the 6cyl truck it was only available with the long bed OTHER than for these special orders for Archer. But part of the missing story is that we don't really know if: dealers contacted Archer to say "do this and this, but not this on 4 street comanches and send them to us". OR if the Archers made it known in the dealership community that these were available and ordered the base truck from ChryCo themselves and built it to a basic spec, then shipped them to dealers on request.... OR if ChryCo just sent a few a month to Archer... OR if the dealers ordered from ChryCo then had delivered to Archer.... What IS clear is that they are not all identical. Mine has stainless etched panels on the sides that say Comanche and it has a Webasto sunroof. So dealerships obviously made changes to the trucks in many cases to suit their whims. We don't really know the details there. But with those wheels, the ground effects, the manual windows, the grille, 6cyl, 5speed, short bed, and the Penske / Unser history, it seems like the real deal to me. As for the question of it being an '88, seems simple to sort out. What's the VIN? :) Does seem odd that the State of California would have titled an 87 truck as an 88.... but I'm no DMV expert. Gonna try to get some time to call the owner this week. Maybe I can get him to cough up the VIN. If it is an '88, then we've learned something. I should maybe try to find the original owner of mine. Some guy in San Gabriel was the original owner. I'm #2.... Would be cool if someone knew a DMV person that could help us sort out if it's at all possible to find out via a title search who the ORIGINAL title holder was. Though I do know that in some places, the dealership doesn't even show up when you look back at all the documents. But it seems like SOMEone should be able to help us get to the original dealership that sold the truck. I don't know if mine came originally from Don-A-Vee Jeep or was just traded in there.

I DO get the puritan approach to something as rare to come across as the Street Comanches. I think mine will stay "mostly" as it came but I'm sorry some things just need improvement after nearly 30 years.... I've already scrapped those stupid Centerlines. I'm also considering some other alterations (or adulterations, as your opinion flows) such as a built 8.8 w/ disc's on the rear and a snow white/red and graphite interior theme. Blacks on the exterior I'm thinking strongly of trying to do a "black chrome" finish on. Exterior paint... maybe Colorado Red with some gold candy on top just for a sheen... I hate the flat back "broke kid in high school" look of all the trim on her at the moment. (no offense to broke kids in high school, lol. I was one of those once...) But I don't think that polished stainless is what I'm looking for on the exterior either. The grille in mine is that round tube grille. Black Chrome would look GOOD on that once it's sandblasted and prepped. Thinking of shaved door handles / remote entry as well... I'm sitting on stock that's what I plan to use to fund the ressurection of #24. Push the Dow for me guys... if the Dow goes over 20k, it sells by default and the broker will let me know. Otherwise I'll have to push the button manually at whatever price it's at sometime in the next couple of months. A guy on the AMC list sent me a note the other day. Novak is building a "new" AX-15 with all the newest bells and whistles installed. It should tolerate the stroker that's going in fairly well and solves problems that I was chewing on re: an M5 out of a Colorado. But with the stroker pushing up close to 300hp, there HAVE to be some upgrades in the drivetrain, or why bother with the horsepower? Purity is virtuous. But I'm lookin' to raise a little ruckus! I'm just old, not dead....yet...<wink>

Hi all. It's been a while since I was on the forums but have been in touch with a couple of you by Email. Had a couple of thoughts about #51.... Someone mentioned the wheels somewhere... the wheels are the original Centerline Racing split rim wheels just like the original ones that came on my truck from Don-A-Vee. They suck. I "cornered" a lot in the hills above Boulder Creek on my way to Palo Alto regularly. Lord! that truck was sticky. But the consequence of high lateral forces was that those damned Centerlines wouldn't keep air. I pulled the wheels and sealed the seams more than once, but they always leaked down. Glad to be rid of them. The dash plaque... sad.... caution, my opinion follows: IF all the plates WERE originally mounted by the Archer Brothers during modification (and I'm not sure we know that) then we could assume that they would have all been exactly the same. But Archer COULD have made plates to dealership spec, although I can't imagine THEM letting something like the misspelling slide. Just doesn't sound like something a team that's used to tight tolerances and quality control in everything they do would let get by them. OR the dealerhip either replaced the originally mounted Archer plate or when they made their plate locally, decided they could capitalize on the Unser name and in their zeal to feed their egos and line their pockets, didn't bother to ensure the thing was correct before slapping Unser's name on the dash proudly. OR the PO replaced the originally mounted plate customized to their liking but failed at spelling and/or proofreading in the formative years of their life.... But I don't thinkg the PO replaced it. The original post I found on the Buick form was a 3rd party person relating a story he'd heard from an acquaintence some time previous about this "Al Unser" street comanche. So this story that HE heard was probably... I'm guessing around 8-10yr old info. If the current owner was trying to fleece someone with a faked or modified plate, we wouldn't have this snippet of history that's 10yrs old. I'm thinking that the original owner bought it that way. And WHY after all these years, has no one has corrected it. They're really just engraved plates, easily reproduced. The only reason I could see that the PO WOULDn't replace it is that it came to him from the dealership that way and he wanted to leave it original. And considering the use of Al Unser's name.... I don't see the Archer Brothers, Walter Voss, or Chrysler using Al Unser's name without some paperwork involved. So what are we left with as options or motivations for this gold plated anomoly? Option #1 - carelessness by a professional racing team. Option #2 - greed by a car dealer Option #3 - personal pride I'm leaning toward it being a screwed up dealer installed plate. As for the Unser name.... easy to explain in that scenario. Roger Penske has or had dealerships forever all over California.... guess who used to be a star Penske driver back in the 80's?... And Penske likely had rights to the Al Unser name as the race team owner... Remember that line above?...capitalize on the Unser name and in their zeal to feed their egos and line their pockets... Always follow the money. Perhaps all the plates were dealer installed? Only one of the Archer Racing team folks could ever tell us. I personally couldn't tolerate the misspelling and would have it replaced with identical lettering but correctly spelled at the VERY least. Unlike money, the misspelling on THIS plate isn't going to make this MJ worth stupid money THAT's for sure. Only people can do that. Sure hope you can track down #50 & #52 Chris! And thanks for the follow up on #51!

Remi did you ever get a cost estimate or anything on the conversion before you left So Cal? I gotta check that site out. I kind like the idea of coverting although for other reasons I don't. I just love the idea of instantaneous screaming torque and such... lol

Dirteatr717 I know it's been a while. I can't get on the site very often. Just too many other things going on. But curious if you ever get the word on this one? Sure looks like the real deal to me. That grille is just like mine. I'd love to know what number it was.

Interesting to see the Wagoneer front end.... considering that or a variation on the resurrection of #24....

Nuthin' wrong w/ a good strong bumper, but you have to consider that the energy that encounters the indestructible bumper has to be accounted for. Generally that would translate into a bent up frame / mounting point. In fact I bought an SJ Wagoneer that had a beautiful, tough, dual tube bumper on the back of it. But she'd taken a big hit from a Caddy at speed. The bumper turned out to be in pretty good shape, but the frame was all buckled under the waggie BIG time... sold the bumper, junked the truck.

All my food is precooked at White Castle so there's no sticking and no mess. Well.... not in the kitchen anyway... :rolleyes:

This might explain why your contact was ... ah.... distracted by "suits"... http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/12/walter-p-chrysler-museum-to-close-to-public-chrysler-buys-collection-to-preserve-heritage/

Wow, Ben I'm so jealous! You've walked on hallowed ground!!! :bowdown: and ... welll, you got the Tshirt.a cap to prove it. :thumbsup: I've read this thread through a couple of times and the ideas / questions just keep coming.... I'm trying to read my notes from various conversations and research. I'll gather my thoughts and define the questions... :papers: I'm delirious right now... Would anyone care to throw out ideas for a non-journalism major that wonders how to find out if there are biographies or documentation outside the internet for Walter Voss or the Archer team as a team? I've spent many hours doing homework and just am not finding out much.... If I can get a little time next week, I'm going to the library to see if they can help me dig up some stuff. I've got some Mopar peformance stuff. and some old documents... jiminy... I'm trying to start the Street Comache build and then THIS comes along to consume my time... :shake: way to go Ben.... :laughin:

Can't believe I hadn't seen this thread before. For some odd reason a few of the pictures show here in the thread but most do not. There are lots of links but all the ones I've clicked on so far are 404. I'd be happy to donate to the charity of your choice for a disc of pics....

Wow! If you see it again it would be great to know what # it was... maybe get an email from the owner? or give him streetcomanches@gmail.com Anything! I would sure appreciate knowing more...

This could give you some food for thought: http://www.jeeps-offroad.com/showthread.php?t=4740

Happy to answer what I can for you.. I still haven't had time to put together the "Whats a Street Comanche" link on my site... I suck. The story isn't all that complicated actually. More sad and maddening than complicated. But time is always an issue for me it seems... I do lots more than maintain that site... :brows: but I poke around in here from time to time. I'll eventually start the build thread for #24 on here. So ask away! And do let me know if you find out what# the Oakdale 'manche is.... I don't see anything in my notes about Oakdale... We need to recruit him for the list and add him to the registry. You can assure him I don't post personal info on there. Just want to keep track of the trucks as much as possible. Oh and as of 6 or 8 weeks ago, #25 was still available and for sale in OK.... lemme know if you're interested. Last time I talked to the owner, he was firm on $2500 and it's a keeper (84k miles).

The R154 is a good idea. Should be fairly strong and reasonable to swap in. Not too many other options really without spending additional moolah. More homework...jeez... Thanks!

Thanks all! Surely I can find something closer than Temecula! I could drive out to get it but if I did I'd probably just stay there. Kinda regret ever moving back here from Santa Cruz... But maybe a Ford 8.8 is the way to go. Should be plentiful and with maybe a trac-loc already installed...disc brakes... how can I go wrong? Probably won't find a D44 setup like that already. Though I'll probably have to be lucky to find an 8.8 w/ trac-loc and 3.55/3.7ish gears too... Will do some more homework on that. Thanks!