neohic

How many of us have heard the comparison of Comanches and LEGOs? Everything fits on them... Parts are easily interchangeable... Don't like it? Change it. Point is that if you don't like something about your truck, it's easy enough to change it into what you really want. I remember as a kid getting the LEGO sets that look cool, and then getting another set that I wasn't all that interested in just to grab the good parts off of it to make my cool set even cooler. Sometimes it's drastic. Sometimes it's more than drastic! Sometimes it's subtle... fine details that take something good and make it great. Example?... YEAR/MODEL ● 1988 Pioneer ENGINE/PERFORMANCE ● Stock 4.0, Was rebuilt at around 150,000 miles by previous owner. Only had around 700 miles on rebuilt engine when I got it. DRIVE TRAIN ● AW4, 3:55 gears, Dana 35 rear, Dana 30 front with CAD COOLING ● Converted to open system ELECTRICAL/IGNITION ● Removed the C101 connector, did all the ground upgrades. SUSPENSION/STEERING ● Stock INTERIOR ● Gray, bench seat with headrests, new carpet, put a full instrument cluster in it. BRAKES ● Upgraded to a 95/96 brake booster and master . LIGHTING ● Stock EXTERIOR ● Previous owner repainted it himself white with blue lower trim. I redid the lower in black and added the Comanche Chief decals. WHEELS/TIRES ● Came with Jeep 5 spoke rims. I put on turbines and BF Goodrich AT 30x9.5x15 MISCELLANEOUS ● Has the full skid plate package, (front, transfer case, and gas tank). Has the tow hitch. I had the bed sprayed with Line-X bed liner. FULL BUILD THREAD Remember That One Time?... Tell Us Your Best MJ Story ● I only had the truck for about 2 weeks when I needed to go to Lowes and pick up some bags of cement. I just got back from having lunch with my wife and get back in my truck and turn the key and nothing happens. The engine will not turn over. Found that the starter was bad, so I had to take my XJ. My wife called my truck the Little Princess, since it did not want to do any work, just cruise around and have fun. CC is Awesome!... Why Do You Think So? ● I just love the way everyone helps each other out with any problem they might have. Very little drama if any. ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● Everybody loves a Chief, eh Fran?!.. even if it is a clone. Anybody ever give a girl a cubic zirconia? No shame in a fake!Those sexy stripes stretching all the way down those body lines only to exaggerate the Comanche's already fit figure... that's some good stuff right there. You took an already nice truck and turned it into something fantastic. Very nice, sir! Very nice. -Ben Click here to view the article

I would imagine it didn't have the original driver's seat either! :rotf:

All you need is two parking spaces and an engine hoist. Pretty sure they have those in New York. :laughin:

A subtle pin stripe along the lower body line goes a long way. Silver and gray hockey stick Pioneer strips would look amazing too. :thumbsup:

I think it's great! Needs more silver to even things out though. Perhaps the tailgate letters and a few other silver accents?

Got me there! :laughin:

I'm really not all that picky. With everything that's been done with the truck, by no means am I after "factory perfect". Square... I'm after a set of square lights. Thought about recycling a couple of the round lights I had mounted on the bar, but the only other round things on the truck are the wheels and tires. :shake:

Nope. I'm done with the glare off the roof. I'd like to find a nice set of lights to put back on the bumper though. Something along these lines... :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool:

Had a really nice day at the car show. Seems like EVERYONE has a story about their own or their friend's or that one time they did this or that in a Beetle. ... but that's not why we're here, are we? After the show we went straight home as there was absolutely no way I was going to let all those freshly painted parts wait another night. Granted, the front bumper is hanging on by about half its hardware because I couldn't stand to use the crusty bolts that I had on hand. Otherwise, I haven't been this crazy about this truck since it was put back together the first time around. THIS is the truck I should've built. Gentlemen... I... love... my... Comanche. Sure there's a bunch of things I would still like to do with it this year, but there isn't any reason I can't finally start my MJ season! In an attempt to keep me on track with those little things, here's a list... New front bumper hardware C101 delete Radiator swap Redo the exhaust so it routes around the spare tire under the bed instead of just hacked off before it Do away with the load sensing valve Mount some tow hooks under the front bumper... brackets already there

Changed the oil this morning. That was uneventful other than the fact that I've been meaning to change out the oil filter adapter for the last few years. That got done today. Not a real big deal... now I can run HO filters which really opens up a bunch of options should I ever want to run an oversized filter. That, and the threads on the original one were majorly screwed up since I got the truck. Hopefully it'll stop the eternal oil filter leak that the truck has had since I built the engine. Then all the little fiddly-bits got a fresh coat of satin black. Went back and forth a number of times whether or not to paint the bumpers black. I was thinking silver as the truck originally had silver to go along with the stripes, but I really didn't want chrome and I thought that the silver would be too close to that. Then I was thinking a darker gray but I didn't want to add a new color to the mix. Between mine, the wife, and then Rob, the majority voted for black. Had to give myself things to do to get my mind off of putting it all back together this afternoon. Wait... just wait for the paint to calm down and harden up before handling everything. :fool: Maybe tomorrow? Maybe not? We'll see what happens. There's the local car show that I took this and the camper to last year tomorrow and the Beetle will be joining me. ... need to be fair between the whole gang anyhow. 8)

:rotf:

Yeah... there really isn't all that much one can do to change it up with an XJ tank skid. I've never seen one with drainage holes though. I wanted those so I can rinse things out from time to time with little fuss. You know... rust control and all... :fs2:

What a day! What a day! What a day! My fingers are numb. My arms feel about three times longer. Tennis elbow has got nothing on me. I have a huge new found respect for those people who spent their living washing and detailing cars. There is no f'ing way anybody could pay me to do that for a living. Today was spent fixing sins from last fall along with so many little things that have bugged me since I first painted the truck. There's always been trash in the paint... and there still is. However, it's never looked this good even immediately after everything was put back together the first time! It's started with a long over due wash... ... then things got a little carried away. Never have I ever really taken the time to learn how to properly clean paint. I highly doubt I did anything close to "proper" as far as polishing and waxing, but I'm happy with the results. I did some reading around online about what to use for cleaning up single stage paint. I used all Meguiar's products. Starting with their Ultimate Compound, that quickly came to a screeching halt. This was way too aggressive for what needed to get done. The roof of the truck never really looked all that great, so i started there. I've really been avoiding this for a while just for the being terrified of burning through layers of paint... and after a quick use of the compound, I was terrified even more! After a little more reading around, I came to the conclusion that my paint was very dry. Single stage paint has no barrier to the elements to it happens quickly. That's fine... I now know that more care needs to be taken with it also. Would I have gone with a single stage paint given I could go back and redo things?... nope. But, here we are and hind sight is always 20/20, eh? I moved away from the compound and switched to using Meguiar's Ultimate Polish followed up with their Deep Crystal Carnauba Wax. The polish creeps into the paint like lotion does to skin. There was a couple coats of this all over the truck and it desperately needed it. Poor thing... after the first coat, the gloss came right back and then some! I started with the roof and then the tailgate. Ordered up some decals from Spence and got those yesterday. Thanks again, Spence! I know... I know... the taillights look awful. That'll get taken care of soon enough. I just can't believe I went for so long without putting some proper silver letters back there. As for the rest of the truck, the entire truck got a couple coats of polish, one coat of the wax, and then the hood and roof got another coat of wax for good measure. The results? You can clearly see the recycling can and other such junk sitting in my shop... There is miles of improvement from where I started this morning! Everything was done by hand. There was a huge learning curve for me today and I really wanted the control of doing it all without a buffer. As I already said, I'm very happy with the results regardless of the physical aftermath on me. Couple drinks, and I'll be right as rain... maybe. As for the truck... I would imagine that if I really spent the time with a clay bar and did everything all over again, I could have an even nicer finish. On the other hand, there's a bunch of little dings in the box that never really looked all that bad. Now that everything reflects off of it, they look bigger! The box was originally off of an '89 (I think?) and it was white, then it was primer gray, then it was red. Never did they really look all that bad being that I had and still have full intentions of using it as a truck. Ah well... it's still the same old truck. It's just a little more shiny now! Debating on whether or not to put the freebie decal from Spence on the truck or not. Thoughts? Now I have a big pile of stuff that needs a fresh coat of satin black before it goes back on.

Thanks! Spent a little bit of time looking at this today. Got a package from Amazon with a fancy new air cleaner. Measured it up and it should fit... probably. Also this happened...

Nice. I would rock the hell out of that. :rock on:

Wow... just wow...

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

:bowdown:

Been noticing a bunch of 2 door XJs lately on CL in MN for whatever reason. This one really looks special though... especially for MN! :eek: Not sure what's up with the "diesel" fuel type though. I assume typo. Anyhow... http://stcloud.craigslist.org/cto/5085153833.html 1996 jeep cherokee no rust - $2500 (st cloud) 1996 jeep cherokee condition: like new cylinders: 6 cylinders drive: 4wd fuel: diesel odometer: 88 paint color: white size: mid-size title status: clean transmission: automatic this is a 96 jeep cherokee a sd jeep with no rust, it is in ST Cloud. It will need engine work but it is cherry jeep with 88,000 mi I am back and ready to get the jeep out of the garage thanks Steve

Not sure what to think of that. Some of me likes some of it but... but I don't know about the rest of me... :hmm:

Ah... the luxuries in life, eh? :laughin:

... says the guy who has to pull a wiper off to open his hood completely? :idea:

Wheel size aside, I really like the look of a long box with a little lift on 31s. I'd say yours is the yard stick on that, Don. :thumbsup:

Not a pain to get to at all. Thus... Tried to plan ahead on that one instead of the "that'll do" approach of all the other projects on this thing.