boxyjeep

Stopped by the body shop again today. The bed, tailgate, hood, and other small parts are fully painted and the cab has one more coat before it wraps up. After that will be getting new 97+ windshield with one-piece gasket installed and then I bring it home. I'll be re-installing all the door trim and other plastic parts, as well as bumpers and decals. Couldn't believe how good the bed looked after where it came from. Cab and rear frame. Cab is partially painted and is getting one more coat of paint. Hood, tailgate, and a couple other parts getting some sun :-) Hopefully have this thing fully assembled and back on the road in the new few weeks.

Honestly better off doing the complete swap. You can use the TJ gauge surround for aftermarket gauges and keep Renix, but you will end up splicing a ton for light controls, HVAC, etc. and in the end be better off just doing a direct swap.

Made another trip to the body shop to see how things were going. Almost done with about 2 weeks until I can pick it up... I'm very happy with how the color is coming out. Super excited for it to be done.

"Repo". Don't understand who would take a loan out on one of these things...

Down to $1900!

"Jeep Comanche" on one side. "Comanche Laredo" on the other.

Thanks--this is helpful. Will do some more research on urethane.

Anyone attempted creating a set of these? I'm doing a 97+ conversion on my truck and would really like the rear flares to match the front. Obviously, XJ flares won't fit as MJ rear fender opening is much larger. I'm contemplating getting two sets of rear flares and molding them together to fit the MJ rear fender opening. Has anyone else attempted this? I'd like to keep the stock flares if I can. I'm only going to be running 33's, so Notch custom flares are a bit overkill.

Added in my build thread and current status.

Very nice! I'm definitely a bit partial to those wheels.

Finally some progress from the body shop. They had me stop by and check everything out. They've made some good headway getting the body primed and patched up. They did a test spray of the color on the header panel. Definitely looks a bit more maroon in the pictures than in person (looks very true to Chrysler Flame Red PR4 in person).

I did this before. Pull out the column, remove steering wheel, clean and paint the plastic surfaces and adjust the tilt as you do. Don’t try to disassemble—it isn’t worth it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I did. Pulled it out and used black plastic paint. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

JCR has gone downhill for sure. I bought a full set of bumpers and sliders in late 2019 and they took forever to ship. Once I got the stuff, there were a bunch of missed welds and other issues. They eventually sent me a set of replacement sliders and a small discount, but it took hounding them forever. Honestly, it's really tough to find good aftermarket MJ parts these days. To add--the JCR sliders do not fit well. They don't line up well with the pinch seam and I decided to not even run them since I would rather not hack up my truck...

Got mine from Rockauto -- part number 4F1413. Looks a lot different but gets the job done.

Definitely was a bigger fan of the green color, and your original build was an inspiration for me to buy a Comanche in the first place. Still looks great though--how often are you driving/wheeling it these days?

Thanks Pete. I'm hopeful that it will be mostly done in the new few months. Once the body is in good shape, I'm planning to throw in ~5" SOA-based lift that I've been hanging onto for awhile.

That’s a high pinion for sure. Your first pics were deceiving. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that looks like a low pinion axle, not from a 98 (which was high pinion from the factory). You may want to return or swap it out if you can. LP D30 is one of the worst axles out there.

Need everything but the actual antenna mast -- bracket, trim, escutcheon, etc to attach to the fender of 97+. Shipped to 06437.

You can probably see a theme by now, but it was again time to move. We had bought a place out on the east coast and had the truck picked up to be shipped in early January 2021. We made our way across the country driving our '20 JL and finally got settled in to our new home. The truck arrived a few weeks later and had no issues getting registered out here in CT (no smog!). That being said, I still didn't want to drive it in the snow/salt, since the frame and undercarriage were in near-mint condition. You can start to see some surface rust on the primed bumpers. I'll be getting those cleaned-up and painted soon. Now that I was out here and settled, I made the decision to get the truck painted. I found someone selling a mint tailgate in Long Island for way too much, but decided I needed it since mine was slightly bent and the handle was tight during operation. This was the last panel that was needed to get the body painted. This was probably the most mint tailgate I've ever seen. It came off a 91 or 92 base on the 4.0L HO badge. It cost me $600 and 4 hours of driving. Next, I found a decent auto body shop nearby and got the truck prepped for paint by pulling off all the plastic, trim, weather stripping, etc. At this point (August 2021), the truck has been in the body shop for ~4 weeks. Hopefully I get it back soon. Will be going with Chrysler Flame Red PR4 (same that could be found on late-model XJ's).

I found a nice dashboard out of a 96 Cherokee at a junkyard. I will say that the best pick-n-pulls along the west coast were definitely in the San Jose area. SoCal and WA state would rarely get XJ's in stock, so I was super lucky to find such a nice dashboard in good condition. Unfortunately, the bad thing was the color. I disassembled the dashboard and got everything painted to match the other panels with the vinyl dye that I've come to love. Overall it came out pretty good. I had to swap over the VIN plate and scratched a few areas of the dash during re-install in the truck, but the interior now looked almost fully complete (minus some wiring and other small bits (like the horn button). I also took the opportunity to install a 97+ e-brake. I also got the wiring loom for the engine cleaned up and looking really clean, with a 97+ injector loom cover and black bolts on the valve cover. At this point, the truck was in decent shape. I had diagnosed an electrical gremlin causing it to periodically stall (the knock sensor wiring had come in contact with the exhaust manifold, causing it to melt and stall intermittently while driving).

At this point, the truck was running, but the dash was still out and the body was a mix of colors. I replaced the hood with a straight one I got from a junkyard and also got the JCR bumpers installed. Unfortunately, it had been a year since moving up to northern CA and it was time to move again. I loaded the truck up on the back of a U-Haul and we made our way up to the Pacific Northwest (southern WA state): Arrived at our new (rainy) home. I had sold the original bumpers and TJ Ravine wheels and installed a set of JK Rubicon take-off's with adapters. Everything on the exterior was mostly "complete" at this point, but there were a lot of interior items to button up.

Now it was time to start getting the interior buttoned back up. I had replaced the carpet, headliner, and painted all the interior panels, but still had the old blue rear panel. I decided to make my own panel with some extra matching carpet I ordered and 1/8" luan plywood. Cut to shape: Rear brackets installed: Carpeting glued and clamped: Front side after drying: Before installation. While I had the B-pillar trim out of the truck, I installed some 6.5" JBL speakers. I had installed a cheap set of 4x6 when I first got the truck. Those were garbage and had to go. Installation complete:

At this point, things were coming along pretty well. I installed a Mishimoto aluminum radiator, 97+ washer fluid reservoir, and aux power steering cooler. You may be asking why I kept the Renix manifolds, EGR, and other parts. Since this truck was in CA, I wanted to pass smog without issue. Washer fluid reservoir installed. Radiator and wiring coming along nicely: Fenders and front clip installed. Starting to look pretty clean. Still need to loom the wiring. You can see the 97+ PDC, overflow bottle/bracket, small vacuum canister, and Renix intake. LED lights installed: