Mudrig150

Well, I know this is not the update anyone wanted to hear, but I guess it was inevitable: the Comanche went to scrap today. Frame was so thin that it was buckling under the weight of itself, even if it was welded with frame stiffeners it would surely just find the next weakest link and crack there. Everywhere on the frame was splitting apart. After 38 years of neglect I decided to put it out of its misery.

Went out and got one.

Tempted to order one, but no idea what color my interior is. Know it's gray, but not sure if it's smoke gray or light gray. The build sheet says charcoal but it definitely isnt.

Forgot to post this, but I had a small victory. Got the doors off with no broken bolts and no damage to the doors, and also found some parts I was missing for my power steering pump. Next course of action is mass rivet removal to get the window mechanisms out and swapped, though that's gonna be a little annoying considering the power got knocked out to the shed...

Yet another little annoyance with this truck... I have one gray door panel that's been torn up to get to the door speaker without taking the panel off, and one red one. Probably gonna see if anyone wants to trade the red one for a pair of gray ones, or maybe just sell the red one and buy a pair of gray ones. I started pulling the doors off the parts Jeep because the door shells and locks on my doors are completely shot. Only got 4 bolts out, and of course the last 2 on the driver's door stripped.

1988 Pioneer 2.5 carbureted (Swapped to 4.0) BA-10 5 speed manual (Swapped to AW4) 2wd, Dana 35 rear with 4.10 gears (Swapped to NP231 with Dana 30 front and 8.25 rear) Sterling silver with red decals (Currently black) 6 foot bed Options: Sliding rear window, fog lights (missing), towing hooks (missing) No further info, build sticker on door blank from being painted over Owned by me, awaiting restoration

Probably will just torch them out when I get to the rust repair. I think what I'm gonna do for now is work on the doors, the shells are shot and the lock cylinders are broke, so I think I'm gonna swap the internals and windows from the MJ doors to the doors off the parts XJ, which is gonna be super fun.

Frame is gonna be my biggest hurdle. Definitely gonna be getting full frame stiffeners the whole length of the truck. Really need to get the bed off to figure out where to go from here, but all the bolts are rounded off.

Bit of progress has been made, but not a lot. D30 is in, and tailgate is hooked up properly and latching with a set of used tailgate brackets. Still need to get the axle fully bolted up but it's not of major concern for now. Unfortunately but also fortunately, I ended up buying myself a sweetheart of an XJ that is gonna be great for getting back and forth to work until the MJ is finished, and it should be super nice for figuring out where connectors and other things go or are put together, especially considering that the parts XJ was half torn apart already when I got it. At this point, the MJ project is on hold until key parts releases the floor pans for it, and until it cools down enough for me to finish cutting all the bodywork out of the parts XJ that I need for both vehicles (mainly the rear quarters and trans tunnel).

Been pretty busy with work lately, but I've been slowly making progress and gathering parts. D30 is out from under the parts jeep and ready to go under it. While I'm under the MJ with the front axle off, I'm gonna start working on the frame work, though it's gonna be a bit annoying working around the engine.

I've got things that need tackling more that my money is gonna be going into...

Gonna swap just the rear in for now and leave the 2WD front under the MJ until I can get the front Dana 30 rebuilt from the XJ, and run 3.73 front and rear.

Don't have a junkyard around here, and the one junkyard we did have didn't have any KJs... I know the XJ axle isn't bolt in, I know I have to modify the spring perches, but I'd rather modify an axle I already have than spend $800 on a rusty junkyard axle from craigslist or marketplace. The ratio in the truck currently should be 4.10, and if my calculations were right the XJ has 3.73 gears. I don't need a crawler axle, I just need something to daily the truck, as the current axle is very... grindy. It's near death, that's for sure.

CENTRIC KIT499D Drum Kit Rear; w/o Anti-lock Brakes; 9" Rear Drum It seems right, my rear axle seems to have the that size drums and doesn't have antilock brakes...

Are these the correct brakes? It doesn't specify if it's for an 8.25 or a Dana 35.

Now that I have some money rolling in I'm gonna start working on the mechanical aspects of my truck. The first thing I wanna tackle is swapping the 8.25 out of my 91 XJ into my 88, as the 35 in the MJ is completely shot. The problem is, the 8.25 is shot too, but only in terms of seals. It needs all new brakes and seals, as the drums are horrendously worn, the brakes don't even work, and the wheel cylinders and axle seals dump out fluid. I am gonna be ordering new floor pans and starting with chopping up the parts Jeep to get some donor bits of frame rails and the trans tunnel, and I am also gonna be grabbing some other stuff. Where is a good place to get brakes and seals, and what all goes into an axle swap between an XJ and MJ other than the spring perches? I am seeing a distinct lack of specification about which axle a lot of the parts go to, generally just saying they go to Jeeps...

Close enough is all I need. I just need it better than it is, as you can see the frame flex on the driver's side when you bounce the suspension behind the front leaf spring mount, and the front link mount seems to already be deforming the frame rail at the front, where the XJ rail is solid. I don't need it road drivable, just farm drivable for now, as I want to use it.

I've been contemplating what to do on my truck for a while now, considering the condition of its floor and frame (or rather, the lack thereof). And I got to thinking... The frame rails seem to be the same width between my XJ and my MJ, and the only difference is the height of the rails, which doesn't really matter to me, as the sides of the rails aren't the issue, just the bottom corners. So, I've decided to see if I can chop the frame rails and some other various pieces of steel out of the XJ body to transfer over to my truck. I mean, it's not like I can make it any worse than it already is. The XJ is basically worthless otherwise as it's got some questionable modifications, pretty much no good parts left on it, and a ton of rust in the back from fertilizer sitting in it. That would make my life a lot of easier, as the rust on the XJ's floor aren't nearly as bad. My plan is to cut out as much as possible, then piece together what I can to get the truck's frame back to an acceptable state, then finally have someone cut out some brackets to remake the cab braces as they're completely rusted off of the floor. My truck's frame on the driver's side, it's actually worse than it looks, the hole is actually about 3"x3" after poking at it, and it's getting scarily close to making the crossmember fall off: Passenger side a tiny bit better, but not by much. Vs the XJ frame: Eventually I do plan on bracing the whole frame but right now I need to put my money into more important things like getting this truck actually driving.

I put some more stuff back in the truck, and then sat there wondering what to do, so I decided to pull the fiberglass off the fenders to reveal just how bad the fenders were. Already knew they were cut, so I wasn't expecting much. Driver's side was one sheet of fiberglass with paint on it, and the passenger side was about 15 pounds of bondo. Honestly, I feel better knowing that the isn't as bad as I thought it was. (there's so much missing because they cut out the fender to get rid of the rust, then slathered it in bondo instead of fixing it properly, so it's rusted more.) The only rust on the bed is on the fenders, the bed sides are clean, so I don't know why the bondo goes like a full 18 inches in front of the rust. I need to get patch panels eventually, but that's not exactly an urgent concern. I'll throw some paint on the rust to keep it from spreading.

Most of the MJs around here are about the same if not worse, this one is just being honest and actually showing its rust. Nobody around here cares to fix it right and almost every one I've seen has had the old rivet patch job done to hide the rust while it spreads out of control underneath.

It's a shame, there isn't even much that's in a shape that most would consider usable or much that people would even want. It would probably just be engine, the taillights, and rear window getting sold then the rest getting scrapped. If it ends in scrapping then it'll be joining the large amount I've seen in salvage and scrap yards over the years, because no one around here likes them.

Yeah. It needs a lot of frame repair.

The whole frame is about as rough as this except above and behind the rear tires.

I need to replace the frame on my 88... It's gonna take so much repairing and it's so thin that I don't feel like it would survive for long road driving. It's not going crazy offroading, it's just gonna be doing normal driving and occasionally pulling garden tractors on trailers. I was gonna do either 2x4 or 3x6 box tube, but that's gonna be in a while. Anyone have experience with full frame replacement?

I know the axle is definitely NOT a posi, as the truck has literally no options except the rear window.