Moosieus

I'd say I've learned two key takeaways from all of this: The best (not necessarily the most convenient) extractor for a stripped bolt is a welder. This induction heater is well worth its cost for restoration and general use. I've been especially adverse to using an open torch to free these fasteners, for fear of damaging my interior wire harnesses and factory e-coat. The asphalt undercoating also sponges up petroleum products and is soaked with motor oil, so I regard that as a fire hazard as well. Compared to a torch, induction heating works on fasteners from the inside-out, gets heat into the threads faster, keeps it far more localized, and removes the combustion risks of an open flame. It's a genuinely useful piece of kit I cannot recommend enough.

So far my greatest challenge has been removing corroded fasteners while not callously causing competent combustibles to confligrate into certain catastrophe. The worst of this (so far) has been my driver side seat belt (torx) bolt. The tight space and rust on the bolt head left me spare for options. I first managed to weld a tack up and weld a bolt into the rounded out torx head. The first attempt broke on the welds, but left me with more workable surface area. The second attempt resulted in this. I welded, it helded, but the parent bolt ended up shearing ;_; For the third attempt, I cut away the failed bolt, welded on a nut to the now more accreted surface area, and borrowed my pal's "Solary Induction Heater", pictured below. Third time's the charm, right? With the nut welded on, metered use of the induction heater, and a long-@$$ breaker bar, I managed to get THIS RAT B****** OUT! Here it is compared to the passenger side!

I haven't had any updates to share in a hot minute - been busy upgrading my skills and workspace to make my restoration go right. I've some perhaps interesting data points to share though! With the old carpet removed I've only come to reinforce my theory: the rot progressed from the inside out, likely due to wet carpet retaining moisture against the interior floor. I say that because the underside is stunningly clean. Daisy's underside body is remarkably free of rust and corrosion. Some undercoating was done in the past, which I suspect to be asphalt/bitumen based b/c it dissolves poorly in alcohol and well in mineral spirits. Here's the passenger side rear frame rail for reference. There's not much left of the coating in this area, but it seems to have done well. The underside of the bed while dirty, couldn't look much better for a ~35 year old truck. This makes me believe she was largely spared of winter driving, which would track with the 2x4 open diff config. Here's the passenger side floor, which is DRAMATICALLY in better shape than the driver side (but still getting fully repaired). Here's what the underside looks like for reference with this undercoating removed. More to follow in a moment.

Sweet, thank you for the ref!

I’m currently working on restoring my driver side floor with the necessary components from Key Parts, build thread for reference. Does anyone have a canonical procedure on how to disassemble the rear flange on the longitudinal floor supports? Pictured below with the Key Parts replacement for reference. Everything else in the teardown process is relatively customary — removing seam sealer, cutting spot welds, etc. This overlap is the only thing giving me serious pause. There’s a fastener in this hole for reference. To dump my thoughts: I’m hoping any spot welds are forward of the square-tube, such that I don’t need to pull apart the rear wall of the truck. Hopefully the bolt pictured above is the only other thing I need to remove.

Been a minute since I posted an update on the world’s slowest Comanche restoration! Over the winter, through the holidays, weddings, work related things and etc, I took apart my interior, and… The floor pans are done. I suspect this was a result of rain leaking through the rear window, and soaking into the carpet for who knows how long. I’ve been all over this truck and nothing looks remotely this bad, even in spots one would expect to see lots of corrosion. I had lots of discussion with folks I know. Some recommended structural adhesives to glue in new floor pans, but I couldn’t quite get over my doubts about that. Ultimately I decided to learn me some GMAW for great good First practice beads on my own machine: I feel as though I have a lot to learn before I can get the floor pans redone properly, and I have lots of practice projects lined up exactly for that. All in all, I owe it to old Daisy. I feel extremely fortunate to have secured such a rare breed of MJ, and a survivor at that. So nothing short of my best work will do.

Lights in action:

Another day, another late night entry. Bumper off, broke every speed nut, ordered new speed nuts, cleaned every fastener religiously and applied anti-seize. Got bumper back on straight with a jack, jack stands, and a bit of ingenuity. Oh yeah, I also put the fog lights on. That being the whole point of the exercise. I need to get some proper photos taken, but these will do for now. Front profile with the Baja Designs S2 SAE pods on: Some new boot goofin': The dog would like to extend her unbridled love to all of Comanche Club: Quick photo while I was adjusting the fog lights.

Baja Designs S2 SAE Pods in selective yellow. Will get a pic of them on when I'm able to do so.

Front profile for reference - got some Baja Designs fog lights to replace the factory ROL housings.

Too late to take nice photos outside, but we're back in business! Had to get new brake cables, old ones were seized. Took it for a spin out tonight and bedded in the ceramic shoes. Stopping distance no longer feels like "eventually". Onto the fog lamps next...

Gotcha, tyvm!

Started in earnest on fixing up the axle seal and brakes today, having taking sweet time to educate myself. How today started: How it ended: Pending review by friends, family, and forums I did err against swapping the brake cylinders. I sided on "leave well enough and working alone" on account of my newness.

Oh yeah, it took me entirely too long to deduce that this is was indeed gear oil and not brake fluid as I'd initially thought. Thing is, I know the smell of gear oil. I even thought to myself "ugh, this brake fluid smells like complete butt, reminds me of gear oil". A bit of internet research later and TIL the rear axle shafts ALSO have gear oil in them, not just the differential. Such is the nature of my cross-sectional experience

Prior to today, the brakes were... bad. I assumed it was a combination of bald '08 tires plus worn brake pads/shoes perhaps. The symptoms were as follows: Some shuddering that was ebb and flow, come and go. A general stopping distance of "eventually". On the way home from a day trip a few weeks ago I got caught in a downpour on an interstate, in infamous Maryland traffic. I made it home safely, but the utmost ginger application of the brakes would lock and skid. Some folks I know kinda just waived off the latter as an "old truck" thing. I was simply too accustomed to fancy-@$$ electro-missile modernity and braking late... Which had me feeling a certain amount of uncertain. Like man alive, I know this thing won't stop for grade schoolers of its own volition, but a wet road shouldn't feel like total ice. Fast forward to Friday, I picked up the wheels and was driving home. At one point I felt a strong I'm-going-to-need-a-tow-truck shuddering from the right rear. It stopped as quickly as it started though, and I wrote it off as just a patch of rough road. I noticed some fluid near the right rear tire when I got home though. Thought I'd perhaps ran through some engine oil - think I have a small leak from the oil filter adapter O-ring (known to be problematic). I was very, very wrong: In case your smell-o-vision's on the fritz, that's not brake fluid, it's gear oil, F***! Unrelated, through my Googlefu I've come to learn that the height sensing valve was "deleted" and the line capped at the rear: At the same time, they kept the stock MJ distribution block: So priority is as follows for now: Fix the right rear axle seal. Fix the rear drum - clean and install new hardware. Not sure if brake cleaner can salvage the shoes and drums though... I reckon I should refurbish the driver side rear drum to match. I don't intuitively understand the consequences of no-rear-proportioning-valve. Probably no bueno, and I gotta discern the best recourse there. Seems like the topic's been beat to death, perhaps without reaching a great consensus. All said and done, I'm starting to feel more "like a truck person" on account of having very real truck problems now. I'm learning so much!