So I have wanted a Comanche for a while now, and after talking to Shawn at Inland Jeep he mentioned he had a 86 longbed Comanche he was selling. Long story short, the jeep is now torn apart in my shop. Some of you might know me from the Cherokee forums, I own DirtBound Offroad and we make Bumpers, Armor, Accessories for the XJ's.
During the last month the MJ has been torn down and put into casters to make it easy to move around the shop, the front end has been converted to the new fenders, header panel and hood.
The plan for the build is to go with a SOA in the rear and a 5.5" coil in the front with a prototype 3 link. The front bumper is going to be our Manta Ray Winch Bumper, with a Warn Zeon 8s (that is coming off my JK), I plan to design a rear bumper possibly with a tire carrier, sliders and armor.
Here is what the MJ looked like when it rolled off the trailer.
How it sits today
The passenger side floor was rotted though, so we replaced it with a donor floor pan from another junked MJ. I also swapped the E Brake assembly part of the tunnel and the dash bracket on the driver side, the rest of the dash mounts we welded tabs and used rivet nuts.
The driver side has a few small pin holes on the floor, so I primed it with rust inhibitor and will be riveting down patch panels over the existing floor pan. We will then undercoat the bottom to seal it good.
I plan to install a XJ tank in the rear and wanted to have it sit up against the bottom of the bed so I cut the crossmember out and started to replace it with the new "frame", I still have to draw up the gussets to weld on.
For the rear axle I wanted a D44, it just so happens I found the axle but it came with a entire running truck for $1200 after DMV fees and smog repairs. So the D35 will be going in this one as it is a street queen 2WD.