neohic

Always 12’ material with this thing.

Subfloor is done. Rubber pavers will go down for good once the roof is up. Started figuring that also. Got the first joist done for the template.

What the hell?! I was driving down to the shop after coming home and I haven’t put any fuel in since the gauge quit moving after the last fill. All the sudden the gauge pops up to just under a half. Fixed?

From someone who did a single stage paint job 15 years ago, I wish I’d gone with base/clear. It’s more expensive now but probably worth it.

Floor joists are done but I’ve got sleepers to add on top of them. Plan is to use rubber pavers (probably?) for the floor. Then to start on the roof.

Let’s start a deck. Why not? Not real big… 10’x8’. I’ve got leftover steel siding from my gables so this’ll get a blue roof over it.

Still need to pull the fuel sender to see what’s up with the fuel float. Did truck stuff today though. 12’ posts don’t travel so awesome, but the truck definitely has a big personality.

Careful… CJs are a slippery slope that tend to lead to other questionable decisions.

Same. I think I remember seeing it in Rob’s garage when he had it.

Time to get back to the transmission. It still has a rattle since I did the swap and I’m pretty sure I didn’t do it any favors using whiz-bang Royal Purple gear oil. Do your stuff, gooey magic sauce! It got a quart of Lucas and three quarts of 80/90 dinosaur juice. First impressions are pretty good. I’m also certain that these things belong to others things in the transmission. It’s quiet?… er?… maybe? Still need to make suspension decisions. Probably fix what’s there in the mean time.

Time to shed some winter weight. I didn’t take any in-process pictures but I’m sure you can connect the dots. It’s raincoat still fits too, so that’s good. Might need to get serious about a YJ spring swap too. All (important) fluids got changed today and I found three of the four shackle mounts have some level of cracks. The springs are clapped out along with every bushing being cracked and gone. Pretty sure the tires living at 20 psi is more suspension than the suspension is.

Sorry to hear, bro. Has the truck been driven and enjoyed over the past 11 years?

Circled back and did the makeup overtop the facelift from February. I kept the offcuts from the cement board siding and just cut strips for the trim. Next up for the house/yard is a small deck/platform/pergola type thing.

That’s wild! I guess I’ve never asked my buddy what they know of the history of the truck before.

Really?

1988 Comanche Sportruck 4.0 / BA10 / NP231 / Dana 30 / Dana 35 / 113” Wheelbase Build date: Illegible Current Location: Central Colorado Status: Sitting since 2015. I recently had it running with borrowed parts from another truck. Needs a good once over to be a decent driver. Notes: Rad little truck with a good family history. Looks like it was a bench seat truck originally but was swapped to MJ wingback buckets. LOTS of extra wires from previous “improvements”. Current owner: Good friend of mine.

Such a great looking truck! Been following this since the beginning and it’s awesome to see it all coming together. Well done!

Put fuel in the truck this morning only to see the gauge stay exactly where it was before filling. Always… something…

Same.

Hell yeah!!

Dang!!!

I worry about having a second truck and then not using this one at all. Another thing I worry about is getting up and down the hill too. Then leaving this truck exposed to the sun all the time is another is another concern. A couple years ago I clear coated the CJ with one of those wipe on kits and it’s already starting to peel on tops of the fenders. This thing has a single stage paint with no clear. The sun is just so harsh at the elevation I’m at. That was a huge plus for the potential trade for the other truck that it’s already a “maintenance free” exterior model.

What I really don’t need is another vehicle.

I’ve been thinking. The more I look at my SCCA parts, the more that I’d like to do something with them. After passing on trading a welder for another Comanche, it’s like these parts are just asking to go on a truck. I spent the afternoon scrubbing on the worse of the five wheels and it came up pretty good. There’s obviously corrosion from old wheel weights and the faces could use a coat of paint, but this one is leaps and bounds better than it was. What about winter and summer modes? I’ve got pretty much everything to make it happen, but what I think I’d do is get a second set of control arms and steering linkage so in the future going back and forth between the two suspension setups would be an easy day project. As for my front axle, a LONG time ago, I welded on a mini truss between the differential and the passenger side upper control arm… because I’m an idiot. I mean… did I think I was going to jump it or something?! That’d need to go, but I think I’d try to keep it as a 4x4 truck. What I’d do is swap in a 242 transfer case, probably a heavier front sway bar, and add a rear sway bar (which I’d like to do anyhow). So… where would ride height sit? … fairly low. I measured the center of the wheel to the fender flare from old measurements, and I think it’d look pretty rad. For reference, a 235/60 tire would be roughly… … there. Overall, the truck would sit about 8.5” lower than it currently does. To reference a very old thread (oof… 2011?!), the SCCA trucks didn’t have a super slammed stance. That truck had 215/75 (27.7”) tires on it. There would be about a 1.6” difference between a 215/75 and a 235/60. Almost a 5” difference between the 31s currently on it!… which gets me thinking about gearing. How much would I hate the 4.10s with a 26.1” tall tire and an automatic transmission? Not to say that a future manual swap wouldn’t be in the cards either. And the snowball continues. Anyhow… I pretty sure I’m just thinking out loud here. That you for listening to my TED talk.

If it were me, I’d weld everything together. Especially in a case like yours were there’s so much additional plating and material already, I wouldn’t worry about having too much rigidity. Any seams, I’d cover with a non hardening sealer.