rudycoop

I really like your steering wheel. How difficult was it to do the stitching?

Today was one hell of a challenge. Help was limited. Mostly a couple of hounds watching over me: I got my steering column in and the firewall all buttoned up. It was a bit of a pain(fog/driving light switch is coming): The next step was installing the gas tank and making sure the filler neck fits snug with no funny business. I had the Comanche, XJ, and a Dakota neck/hoses. None of it just simply worked. The Dakota is larger on the vent and the fill. I cut down the metal pipe and used it to extend the vent of the XJ hose and it worked perfectly. I used the '92 Dakota metal pipe for the tank end and then cut a piece of the XJ hose just long enough to cover the MJ filler neck. It acted as a shim. Then I put the larger hose over that and clamped it down. It worked great. It was a bit of head scratching, but it all worked out nicely. It is very stock looking. The vent/fuel lines and electric are all ready to go: In the dark last night I installed the suspension and did some more work to the engine. I installed the 99+ intake, new exhaust manifold, cap/rotor, champion copper plugs, water pump/pipe, and the o-rings in the oil filter housing. She's ready to run for another 200k. It should be in and running tomorrow. It's been exactly 3 weeks to the day since I have broken ground on the project. It's been 10 full long hard days of work.

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If you mean Northern California yes, but I am pretty sure you mean North Carolina so no sorry man.

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Thanks man! I am having a knee reconstruction on Nov 18th. I am wrenching away every minute of my free time to get this thing as close to being running by then. I was extremely lucky to find two white 97 donors in a weeks time for next to nothing.

I next tackled the steering mount. I decided to take the time to drill out the spot welds on the mount in the XJ. I then cut the bottom half of it off under the lip with an angle grinder: After a simple measurement and a hole drilled I bolted it in w/ a bolt a tested it. It worked great! I encourage everyone to do this for support and because you also inherit the dash mounting stud on the bracket. I was going to weld it in, but there were so many holes in it, that I just bolted it in after drilling a few more holes in the firewall. I know a lot of guys aren't keen with a welder or don't have access to one, so this should be helpful if this is you: Then I drilled some holes in the sidewall for the side of the bracket to fit. Use similar long bolts like the cherokee had. It mounted very nicely in there. Things quickly start coming together. From there I cracked open the HVAC unit and went over it very thoroughly. I installed new heater core and AC evap core. You are insane if you use the old stuff. This is the perfect time to replace these parts. My heater core had a pinhole leak in it and was actually leaking down into the floor. I hadn't even noticed previously: I only had to drill one hole to fit the HVAC unit and I cut up some old matting to cover the opening area where the evap n heater core hoses come out. It worked awesome. I wish I took a pic of that. I will get one up soon. I brought over all the firewall matting from the xj. I installed the TCM bracket and mocked in the shifters. I also got the fuse box installed. I had to drill a bunch of hole in the firewall for misc. items, but I had some good hole saws and it was a breeze: Pretty much everything in under the hood: Next up is the dash, doors, engine, and front end. I also ordered my Dakota tank.

Continued progress on the truck this weekend. I made the executive decision to go with an AW4. It will make this project so much more simple. My life pretty much consists of constantly hating on automatic transmissions, but ehhhh I guess I will live. I got mostly all of the underhood stuff done and also the dash mostly prepped. I decided to trace a template to cut the steering hole and I am going to fill it in with a weld and a piece of metal once I have it all in place. This just seemed very easy to deal with and the brake booster lines right up so it was easy:

Found a bunch of gas tanks in the boneyard, but they puncture all of them! I didn't want to mess with trying to fix a punctured plastic tank, but I did manage to make it out of there with the vent tube and some neon injectors: I also picked up another donor for 450 bucks. Runs and drives fine just has a little rust: I now have an overwhelming amount of spare parts to deal with. PM me if anyone needs any parts. This new donor has a CLEAN tan interior, which is no use to me.

To top it all off, I found another donor for 450. This is going to be a problem. I can't stop buying Jeeps. It's another white 97 XJ w 150k. New suspension, tires, front clip, and transfer case rebuild. leaky radiator fried the head gasket. Guy dropped thousands into it and it blew up almost instantly after. I am considering swapping this newly refreshed 4.0 in there and stroking the bad one w the profits I make off the new one. I can also pick anything else I like off it since it's white. What does everyone think about that idea? Is the stroker that badass?!

I did most of the work to the motor today. I installed new timing gears, chains and seals. I also did the rear main seal, oil pump, and pan gasket. Then I did the valve cover gasket and grommets. I pulled off the old intake and exhaust manifold. I got a 99+ intake and a new exhaust manifold to install: I also replaced these worn out motor mounts:

Thanks for the faith! I will be cruising trails and dirt a lot. Nothing too heavy. The fact that it came with a new clutch kit sold me. It's all sitting there staring at me. Real excited!

Day two started by getting out the XJ dash, seats, and ALL of it's wiring: You guys have no idea how excited I am for cruise control! I have had so many jeep without it: We also cleaned up the engine bay on the Comanche. It was NASTY!: This is my gf's stepdad officially bolting up the first donor parts to the Comanche: Continued to sort everything out and get the motor onto the stand. I tested compression and after 224k miles she still pumps 150 lbs across the board! I got a TON of new parts to throw at that old engine. She ran good before, but is going to run great after. What a weekend, this is where I left off:

Good eye! The PO gets the credit. He did some cool stuff before he sold it over to me. MANY more pics to come. That's just Saturday!

Engine out: My beastly CL picker and motor w 224k miles: One hell of a days work. My gf's step dad power washed every single ting that we removed from the jeep:

What a weekend. I had an overwhelming amount of help and let's just say $#!& got done. Had hot sun in mid day and freezing fog in the mornings. I simply cannot believe all that we accomplished in two days. Almost did the job down here on the dirt, but thankfully my gf's family let me move the project up on level cemented land. Much better: Got the dash out and doors off pretty quickly. It came with nice 2 door XJ seats already mounted up in there: The front end and drive train came out like nothing: So much help made this such an awesome experience:

I am thinking now I am going with a 92 Dakota tank and 97+ sender. I want it to be stock and right. I located a tank for 50 bucks already so it seems like a no brainer. I will have the bed off and it should be simple. I still am considering the spare tire carrier. I just have to see it first. I will definitely take some pics and put them up. I am breaking ground on the project tomorrow. I have a good group of helpers. I can't wait!

Thanks guys. I've been reading for weeks. I am getting started this weekend. I am torn on fuel tanks. I think I am going to use the stock xj tank because I have a tire carrier for the truck. The guy I bought it from was very happy with the carrier. He fabricated it all himself. I haven't seen it yet, it's disassembled. I'm not in love with the carrier idea, but will definitely give it a shot. If not I can just keep a spare in the bed so people can steal it in the city here.

First let me say hello to everyone. I have been lurking on this forum for ages. I have done many Jeep builds and endless flips. Been about 18 years of wrenching on these things. Like all of you I just can't get enough! I found an 88 4.0 4x4 5 spd Comanche all ripped apart for $400. It already has nice grey 2 door 97-01 xj seats installed. It's rust free. The floors, bed and undercarriage look great. It came with the Peugeot 5 speed and whatever transfer case it had, and a whole ton of extra parts. It also has a comanche cap. The guy I got it from quit on the project. For a donor I just picked up a 97 XJ Sport 4x4 Auto w power everything, cruise control, & stock radio. 220k on it with no reverse. I was able to drive it home no problem. It just passed smog here in CA and runs perfect with no check engine lights. It has a new power steering pump, alternator, AC, and water pump. Just had the oil changed. My goal is to build a very stock looking truck with the full dash and front clip. I have done some crazy conversions in the past and am very excited for this project. I want it to get me around the city and run errands. Would be used off road sparingly. My question for you guys that have been there done that is, should I bother with the Peugeot and the high mile motor? I was thinking I can check it's compression numbers and if they are good, I can give it new pan and main seal gasket etc and run with it. Again, it runs very well. As for the Peugeot, I have a new clutch kit with it and it supposedly functions fine. On the other hand I can obtain an ax15 and be done with it. Just curious if I will need a new drive shaft and bell housing. I know I can search which I will. Any notes, tid bits, cool findings etc are all very welcomed and appreciated. I will definitely be posting pics of my entire build.