CapitalCityPioneer

I'm going to be updating the thread again this evening. But in the meantime, I need to buy oil for my ax15 and the np231 transfer case. Before I drop $120 on this Redline MT-90 75w-90 for $60 a gallon...... Is there something else I SHOULD be buying? I keep seeing stuff about using 10w-30, but I'm not sure. Thanks!

Rusty, the red truck is the one from this thread below. My bed is filled with body panels and internal junk in general, so there's no space to model it off!

An awesome gentleman from here in Maryland contacted me about a roll bar the other day. He gave me this crazy story that goes, to the best I can remember, something like this... He sold me the roll bar for a steal, and it came with 2 of the brackets------------ STOP! When I told Vakarian that he had some of the brackets from it, he told me people on the forums would kill me for them! I am so surprised, but I can totally see why. These ones have a lot of surface rust and people probably just chucked them, or destroyed them (or they got crushed in junkyards ) not realizing. So I had to trek this thing back to the truck, and mind you I drive my little 97 Integra GS-R. So off on a 60ish mile adventure I went haha! Let me tell you, my aerodynamics were the bomb.com. I had leaves blowing in the back out through the side windows HAHA! So we test fit it on Vakarian's Trailbreaker MJ, and boy does it look nice! Of course, his is a long bed and mine is a short bed, but it gets the point across well enough. The contours of the bar are perfectly matched to the contours of the MJ cab..... Very clean and nice.

It came out of an MJ! The leaf spring perches were mounted the perfect distance apart for mounting up.

UPDATE! So I've been slacking on updating the thread. Stuff has been happening FAST on the truck, and my life is just so busy outside of that.... but I digress! ON TO THE DETAILS! I found a lovely Dana44 rear axle on Facebook Marketplace roughly an hour away or so. Jumped on it, there were lots of comments on the post. I was the lucky buyer. Details: 4.56 geared Locker installed (unknown details on that currently, will update) Disc brake converted Truss beam welded Leaf Spring mount points are on the top side.... Roughly a 5" lift!? Now I need to compensate on the front! So after getting it back to Vakarian's garage, the first order of business was to remove the Dana35 that was in it. (note on this! Upon removing the d35, it appears to have a 1:1 gear ratio inside....... This seems very wrong, but I haven't torn it open yet to look) Now, upon looking at what needed to be done to install the axle, a couple of "issues" were seen: 1) the bolt that holds the center of the leaf springs together tight was too long to allow for the new axle to be installed, as that bolt would hit the axle! 2) Upon trying to test fit the axle, it was seen that the nut on the bottom of the leaf spring bolt previously mentioned was larger than the hole on the leaf spring bracket piece thing.... So some quick modification was required. Did a quick sharpie marking on the bolt to figure out the length it needed to be cut at, and took the grinder to it on both sides (pictured above before/after). Fits perfectly now! Finally got the bracket widened, after about 45 minutes of figuring out ways to widen the hole. This proved to be much more difficult than expected. Pictured is Vakarian widening the driver side hole, so I could take a picture/video. So after a lot of wiggling on the axle sitting on a floor jack, me under the truck and Vakarian handling the jack end, we FINALLY got it lined up correctly, and were able to throw the U-Bolts on and clamp it up. Next chance I get to go work on the truck, hopefully later this week, I need to grab washers for those nuts on the bolts, and cut the bolts down to an appropriate length (you can see in the picture that they are incredibly long haha!) Pictured is the final product, plus a little cheater picture with 35" tires BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! It turned out that I do NOT have a rear axle! Completely overlooked that at the beginning! So after a lot of searching, I found the general lengths required for the swb d44 equipped Comanche, at 42.25" length. So I searched and after a couple days found a 43" shaft for a steal price. Extremely lucky, need to change u-joint, but, eh, right! Should be coming in on Thursday. And, some more stuff, I ordered the power steering lines needed (including one for Vakarian's "Trailbreaker"), along with a new clutch fan. I will eventually put 2 electronic fans that are controllable (thanks for the idea, Vakarian). Stay tuned, there will be much more coming! Thanks for reading.

Thanks for the heads up! Did you put any preventative measures in for this incase it leaks again?

They are somewhat all there. Some little bits are missing, the PO told me to hit him up over missing pieces. Currently I know I'm missing the door handles haha. Yep, one side is converted for the tail light already. But I kind of prefer the Comanche so much more, sadly the things are impossible to find for a reasonable price! The entire inside and such is converted, power everything. ------------------------------------------------------------ So onto the good stuff! This is the first bit of the project. I can not thank Vakarian enough for all the help. The truck is currently at his house. Getting the truck onto the flatbed trailer... This was up a hill, and without a winch. So we chocked the trailer, disconnected from the truck... Getting the trailer ready We used straps to attach the axle to the truck, and pull it up. This was a fight, because the steering linkages were all gone, so the wheels wanted to go whatever way they could. After a lot of wheel kicking and yelling, and the truck ALMOST going over the front! The truck was successfully strapped down to the trailer and headed to Vakarian's house. The truck made the 60miles safely, but was embarrassed that it was at it's new temporary home! You can see Vakarian's "Trailbreaker" on the left, and his other Comanche Eliminator in the lean-to bay. (Link to his build thread! That truck is BEAUTIFUL- And finally, my very first Jeep, my glorious MJ (sorry Spiderman, she's mine!), Made it safely back to it's temporary home.

Hey forum-goers! Welcome to my build post. I recently bought my first jeep, truck, and project vehicle... And let me tell you I am very happy with it. The details will come after a short little intro. This picture --> is my first with the truck. I am from Washington, DC, and grew up around all the little ricer cars. My first (and still my daily) car was/is a 1997 Acura Integra GS-R. The little thing is awesome, crisp, smooth, and best of all, fast (just like a jeep!.... wait). For 18 year old me, I got a steal on it and I love(d) it. But part of me always wanted a jeep. My first car almost was a 1994 YJ. So close. Ever since then, 2-3 years later, I've wanted a jeep. This project started officially June 5, 2019, sitting in my college class and finding the Facebook Marketplace post for less than a mile from me a "1988 Jeep Comanche Regular Cab".... In the heart of Washington, DC. I mean, to get the truck out of the guys yard we were blocking traffic on a major commuter road! Insanely cool and convenient find. So, the details that you're waiting for, along with pictures, if I can figure out how that works... - Its a 1988 Jeep Comanche Pioneer short bed. - I believe it originally had the straight 6cyl 4.0l, but it now has a newer and rebuilt 6cyl 4.0l, unknown mileage (maybe around 140k?) - 4 wheel drive - 97+ converted. - Still unsure of many details, but this will be updated as I dig deeper and deeper into the project. These pictures are how I was introduced to the truck, taken the day I bought her. The truck is literally starting from ground zero. The frame is claimed to have 0 rust. I have not thoroughly inspected this yet, but so far it certainly seems that way. The guy I bought it from found it on a farm. It had been sitting in the barn, unused, for at least 10 years. You can see the farm use tags on it, and the rear bumper is bent down, so I certainly believe this is definitely the history of it. It came from the little town of Onancock, Virginia, according to the title. The previous owner (PO) had tore the ENTIRE truck apart piece to piece, and painted the interior of the engine bay and primed the outer panels, and even rhino lined the bottom. Currently most of the hard work has been completed in the engine bay, but I still need to once over everything. The engine distributor was replaced/converted to coil rail. These are all the details I can think of to start out with. Stay tuned for all the updates! I hope to update this as much as possible, with all the details I can, along with pictures and video!