ghetdjc320

I'd also suggest taking out your dash and firewall padding. You'll likely find a ton of rust hiding under the seam sealer in the toe pans. Get yourself a spot weld cutter bit along with a sharp thin and sturdy chisel/scraper. Makes things a lot easier

Do we know if the finishes varied by manufacturing area? I’ve always seen machined spokes with a medium grey background but I know there were some that were all painted

Got a chance to meet up with a fellow Comanche builder today @Comanche SS First time I met anyone from the club. Great guy . We got a bit of a game plan for getting this project finished up though it will still take probably about another year. Will be nice to get this one completed though. here are some build updates: notch flares came in. Planning to focus on electrical and interior during the time I have left. The painless harness is great but requires a good bit of customizing and of course planning ahead for any extra accessories. I measured out for tire size and am planning on running metric 34’s (285/75/17) which have actual dimensions of 33.9” and 11.2 width on a 8” wheel. The notch flares really open up the leading and trailing edges of the rear wheel well in an MJ but don’t raise the opening by more than about an inch. Shouldn’t be necessary to separate the pinch weld/seam for the bed wheel wells.

The descriptions are consistent with the one I got also. That does appear to be the original packaging. Was kind of a crinkly thin plastic wrapper

I’ve never seen an Italian one either. All the ones I’ve ever seen were made in usa

Now that's a good restoration candidate! Power doors, D44, full skid package, manual, sports bar, cargo lamp etc.

The combination of both is perfection. The factory left those seems exposed on the bottom trapping water in the butt joint. The panel bond works perfect along with welding to get the sheer strength plus the sealing needed for that area. I’ve used the technique mentioned by @89MJ with great success. Using a copper backing (I use copper tubing hammered into a flat plate) to act as a heat sink and a backer to fill plug welds.

Most body shops i've seen wouldn't touch something structural. They'd probably cut out patches.

The actual spot welder doesn't cost much, though I don't know where you could find those big electrodes to fit all the joints. Anyone have a source?

It sure is great stuff. If jeep had used it back when they were building these Comanches and Cherokees we would have far fewer rust areas and leaks. It may be a good idea to run some sort of fastener all the way from the upper frame cap through the floor pan and into the lower frame support in the same area that the spot welds were done by the factory. I'm thinking rivets with a good rivet gun would work then maybe seam seal the back side with brushable seam sealer.

Your install looks great. Nice prep work . I would point out though, that panel bond is no substitute for spot welding. It’s meant to be used in conjunction with spot welding on structural areas. The Comanche cab essentially has 4 structural horizontal areas, the two rocker panel areas and the two floor braces which also support the bed frame. Using panel bond in conjunction with welding is an excellent technique which essentially seals the joint and prevents moisture from entering. As you pointed out, the original spot welds are very difficult to separate even 30 years later. Fused metal will be much stronger than a chemical bond in an accident. You don't want a "crumple" zone under your seating area . As per TDS below, spot welding through the uncured adhesive is a great technique that provides an awesome sealed bond. TDS: https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/738334O/3m-panel-bonding-adhesive-tds-08116.pdf

Thanks! I may end up keeping it here in long term storage, tightly sealed up for a later date. Just far too busy to get back to this and build it at the moment. Now I understand the whole “barn find” thing

Trust me, I don’t want to

Well, I’ve considered it thoroughly and my schedule is just not going to give me the time to finish this project. Regretfully, I’m considering passing the torch on to someone else who can finish it off. You guys have known me here for years so if someone in the club is interested just let me know. Headed back overseas in mid April. If you go through this thread you’ll see the level of work and quality of components that are on this thing. No expense was spared.

Engine is about ready to come back out. Hopefully tomorrow

Good to know, and I was wondering if he could build them without the logo. I’ll reach out to him today about that. Thanks

I’m dreading how much work those flares are going to be to fit I'm thinking about maybe going with the Ares bed armor to get a better mounting surface and open up the wheel well to its full potential

Mopar slotted wheels just arrived. These things are awesome. Also took a picture of the back side as I couldn’t find any pics of it online. For those who may be using adapters for these wheels, they should fit very well within the back of the flange

I have a Stanley one that works just fine for 3/16. Made in China too lol. After country of origin, try to find something made pre-covid. Manuafacturing, from what I’ve seen, took a huge fall in terms of quality during and post covid and that goes for US and foreign made. Just my .02

The crush sleeve should have already been set. Tighten the pinion nut to spec and see if you still have play. It shouldn’t have come loose but more importantly, don’t keep driving it if it’s loose. Tighten it then pull the cover to inspect the gears and oil but don’t over tighten and crush the crush sleeve further

From the specs above, it seems like the WJ and 92 XJ unit bearings share quite a bit in common.

Here are the general specs for the 2004 WJ, XJ (99.5+), 2007 JK, 1992 XJ, and 88 MJ unit bearings (in that order) Stands out right away that the JK unit bearing need 32 spline outers.

What’s interesting is that the WJ conversion using WJ knuckles still uses XJ/MJ unit bearings. Since the only thing changing is the knuckle, it would be logical that the 1/4” spacer is used to correct the knuckle and not the unit bearing. That would make it seem like a wj 5x5 pattern could be had simply by replacing the unit bearing with the WJ version but keeping the XJ knuckles. Someone just needs to get one and try it

Try tightening and see what happens.

So ultimately the question still remains. Perhaps we can put this to rest once and for all. Has anyone just installed WJ unit bearings on the XJ/MJ knuckle to accomplish the 5x5 bolt pattern? Not swapping on the WJ knuckles, steering or brakes, just the unit bearing. We know the spline count fits, we know it fits inside the XJ knuckle but the question is does it center the u joint when installed on that knuckle. Or is a spacer required to bump it out?