neohic

:bowdown:

What a marathon this weekend turned into. :shake: Spending time with friends... working on the Jeep... road trip... By definition, this all works out to the perfect weekend. However, here's what actually happened... We left Friday morning just about on time to meet up with another guy for the first leg of the drive. The plan was to drive up to Gilbert a bit of an indirect way but with the possibility of meeting up with another Jeep along the way. Well, we made it to our first stop off the interstate along with a giant white cloud. My first thought after seeing a dump truck along the side of the road was, "Hu! I bet that guy has some real issues!" Very soon after, I realized that the giant white cloud of smoke was actually coming from the underside of my Jeep. Bummer... fortunately, we were planning on stopping at my parent's place which was conveniently just over a mile away. I crawl under it... not good. Everything is drippy and burning on the exhaust! Goofy thing about it was that we couldn't tell what it was right away! Oil? Maybe... it's kind of brownish. Tranny fluid? Maybe... it doesn't smell like oil. There wasn't any loss of power from the engine or slipping from the transmission, but a decision needed to be made regardless. Diagnose, fix, and continue on or throw in the towel and call the weekend a fail? Everything cooled for a bit and was kinda-sorta wiped clean to address the situation. Transmission... and it's bad. Fluid wasn't even on the stick as it was hemorrhaging from inside the bellhousing. Not good... very not good. Time for an impromptu transmission swap. :fs2: My dad was finishing some interior doors at the time and he just hung about a garage stall's worth. Perfect timing, I guess. Pulled the trans... found a trans... got fluid and a filter... installed the trans... tested the trans (briefly)... cannonball it north about 200 miles. Sounds fun, right? Again... that whole "by definition" thing. This put us six hours late getting to camp. We rolled into camp around 10:00 at night then had a real fun time setting up tents. All this came down to the fact that this weekend was supposed to be all about wheeling and that's exactly what we planned to do. Finally had the chance to go out on the trails with Austin. We've only been taking about it for a few years now. :yes: Couldn't help but feel left out following two MJs on the trail. Really felt like I wasn't one of the cool kids for a while there. Not even a couple hours into the day, we ran into more trouble. The guy in the Jurassic Park XJ got high centered real bad. I made a couple of attempts at the same ledge but the difference between myself and him was that he trailers his Jeep everywhere. His dad came up from behind to try and give him a gentle tug off the rocks... ... and then some more unfortunate events occurred. One custom crossmember, coming up! He ended up being able to limp it back to camp but that was the end of his weekend as a driver. That meant that my family truckster of a station wagon was fully loaded for the remainder of the day. That's not to say that the rest of the day was without issues. They were minor, but issues none the less. Note to self... get leaf spring clamps to keep them from twisting around and hitting the inside of the tires. :doh: I'm sure there will be more pictures soon. Again, "by definition" it was a good weekend... and it mostly was. I'll take a bad weekend of wheeling over a week of work any time! We were happy enough, the Jeep was still running and able to get us home, and we're already planning for the next round. ... seems happy enough to be back home with his buddy the shed, anyhow. :laughin:

:thumbsup:

I don't think I ever properly looked over the body on this thing before. BONDO?! What kind of jalopy did you trade me, Austin?! :fs2: :rotf: Anyhow, ready for another round of rocks. Gilbert bound Friday morning. The old sliders up on the roof are being gifted to a fellow XJ Jeeper. They're still very usable, but it'll take some work with a grinder to make them nice again. Otherwise, the mounts are nice yet and the rest of them can just be used as a template. Regardless, very happy to have them gone and proper tube rockers in place. Oh... note to self, with the newly added height in the rear, always put the high lift on the roof AFTER it's out of the garage. :doh: Tools are loaded, gear is yet to be packed, yet I'm already mentally more than ready to go. :banana:

Wow. Hell of a truck for the price. Nice find!

Almost finished today. It's done enough to put it down the road and back though and the vibes are all but gone. Everything got hit with some zinc enriched primer. Sealer and paint to follow tomorrow.

Forget what I said about two tone being maximum '80s... that's painfully '80s. Think you could do something similar on Don's truck? You know... just for fun. :D Same stripes only dark gray. Curious minds need to know.

D. Mega '80s swoosh stripes in the same dark gray as option C. :drool: Hmm... that'll make it easier to sleep tonight... :drool:

Ugh... I'll put just about anything carpentry related on my list of "couldn't pay me enough to do it professionally" type jobs. Carpentry, bodywork, automotive painting, really really good lawn care... nope... it'd have to be able to get away with charging a completely out of line figure to do any of those for someone else. :shake:

Oh, how lowering my crossmember can get out of hand much like most of my projects. :shake: What were those sliders protecting, anyhow? Hopefully finish tomorrow.

Noted. The selector valve goes from shower to straight up when not in use. I found that with the valve at a half way point, the tube up to the shower head opens allowing everything to drain out through the bottom faucet. Honestly, I'm really hoping to not be in this house in the next three to five years anyhow. :peek:

:popcorn:

Yup! Still playing around with dialing in the new rear leafs and angles. I've got a bit of vibrations when I let off the gas though. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I need to drop my trans crossmember to easily make all my angles happy. Fortunately, I'm using this as an excuse to make up some frame stiffeners to create the drop instead of just throwing a spacers between the frame and the crossmember. The frame looks pretty sad so the stiffeners are a step in the right direction anyhow. Then to add to the snowball and being I need to remove the current sliders to plate the frame, I'll be cutting out what's left of the factory rockers to replace with 2"x6" tube. Should be able to get things done... probably. :laughin:

Very cool to see another example of this kind of project being done. Looks great so far! Good idea with plating and reinforcing while things are apart now. :thumbsup:

... but this has been the type of project that one just can't dilly-dally about with. Got it down to the bare studs Friday morning after one last shower, and then it was an all out marathon to get it done. My parents gave me a hand over last weekend to get the drywall up and mudded. They stayed in a hotel in town so everybody could still get a shower while they were in town. After Sunday though... there were a couple days where things got late and desperate for getting everything at least operational again. Plumbing was done enough to take a bath (which was very awkward for someone 6' tall in a 4'6" tub) late Tuesday evening while everything was totally water related was completely done Wednesday afternoon. Since then it's been fussy little details and finishing touches. By no means do I consider myself a carpenter much less a finish carpenter. It all photographs well enough but there were a lot of reluctant trips back and forth to the garage for fine tuning wood work. Why is it that I have zero issues spending as much time as needed to fit a piece of tubing to another to end up with a few thousandths of play while I have no patience for wood? Anyhow... all in all, it's nice to not rely on a shower curtain stapled to the wall anymore to keep the moisture out of the poorly applied tiles from 1964.

I don't know, Don. You planning on tearing the whole thing apart for a repaint? This just doesn't seem up to your standards.

Very nice with everything, Wade! I like the simplicity of everything. Did you plate the frame any before putting the new mounts on?

I see you got your rear springs figured? Looks real good, Wade. :thumbsup:

We all have those dirty little secrets, eh? I think it's a common thought in all of our heads to own a lowered, street bound Comanche. I mean, think about it... so many of us enjoy our MJs on the trail on occasion, why not enjoy a sweet little road racer on occasion instead? This month, I really love this one. This month is all for... YEAR/MODEL ● 1992 Comanche Eliminator – 348,000 miles on the odometer ENGINE/PERFORMANCE ● 4.0L H.O. out of a ’98 with a ’99 intake manifold, Dynomax exhaust DRIVETRAIN ● AX-15, front beam, rear Dana 35 – I have a 44 with 3.73’s, a trac-loc and Explorer disc brakes waiting to be swapped in COOLING ● Factory plus a late model e-fan swap ELECTRICAL/IGNITION ● Factory SUSPENSION/STEERING ● ZJ rear springs for the front giving 2”s of drop, 2” lowering blocks plus XJ shackles to even out the rear. Upgraded swaybar in the front and would like to do the Chevy Blazer swaybar mod in the rear INTERIOR ● Factory, I added a cup holder at one point but it broke. It’s hard to drink coffee with a 5 speed. LED bulbs in the kick panels and B pillars and an Ebay shift knob BRAKES ● ’96 brake booster/master cylinder swap, rear discs coming LIGHTING ● Hella E Code lenses and bulbs and a 12ga wiring harness, factory fogs. EXTERIOR ● Original Colorado Red paint, eventually would like to repaint it and add back the factory Eliminator body stickers. Bed has some sort of DIY bed liner that is slowly disappearing WHEELS/TIRES ● TJ Rubicon wheels wrapped in Yokohama 235’s MISCELLANEOUS ● Still rocking the factory cassette deck, the heads need cleaning FULL BUILD THREAD HERE Remember That One Time?... Tell Us Your Best MJ Story ● I started getting interested in cars when there were still a fair amount of Comanche’s on the road and always thought they were a cool truck. I was an XJ owner for a long time and love the platform. Eventually decided to pull the trigger and after about a year of searching and envying my buddies MJ’s I landed this one and have loved owning and driving it. Every so often people comment on it in a parking lot which is always nice or say I didn't know Jeep made a pickup. CC is Awesome!... Why Do You Think So? ● Comanche Club is a great community with a wealth of technical knowledge. I never cease to be amazed at the quality of work that individuals are putting into building and restoring these trucks. I thought I knew a lot about the XJ/MJ coming into CC, but I have learned a lot since joining and gotten a lot of inspiration for my own build. ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● Way to go, Scott! Perfect year... perfect color... perfect stance... dare I say it?... perfect truck! I can speak the same words as many of us here by saying that someday I'll have a hot rod Comanche of my own. Until then, it's trucks like yours that keep that interest going. Real good lookin' MJ, Scott. Real nice! -Ben This post has been promoted to an article

I like writing even though I usually don't use proper sentences. Fragments and sometimes not even words but the noises that I'm thinking in my head. (Yup... that's not a full sentence either.) Think of writing something like vows like how you would speak them out loud... because that's what's going to happen. When I wrote mine, I just started writing down fun little memories that Robyn and I have shared over the years and then started connecting the dots to form a complete thought that includes past, present, and future reminders. What are some things that she does different from everyone else? Be specific... it'll let her know that it's the details in life that you're paying attention to even if it's day-to-day examples. Here's mine... still remember word-for-word from eight years ago. I still remember the first time I said "I love you". There was no moon that night, but the stars would just glitter in your eyes. ... and I remember the starts being the brightest I've ever seen. But it wasn't the sky that would make the world shine that night. It was the girl that was sitting next to me. It was the girl that would give me a total loss of words. It was the girl that was holding my hand. And now I hold your hand today, and I look into your eyes again... but it's not the stars I see. Today I see tomorrow, and the next day, and... and surprising you with french toast in the morning, and going to the park, and feeding the ducks... even though the signs say not to, and... and kissing you every night just before you fall asleep. And every time I say those three little words it means more than the last. So today... I love you, Robyn, more than ever. But not more than I will tomorrow. The wedding was in my parent's back yard. Little bit of a breeze that day too. Still, not a dry eye in the crowd. Mission accomplished. As far as the "Jeep, dirt, mud, rock, wrenching, and all around gear head related stuff", there's no reason you can't work any of that into the wedding itself. Our unity candle was my rose-bud torch (fueled with propane for a nice, big, sooty flame and lit with his and hers flint strikers!), and the get away car was my Beetle... but that's only because my Eliminator was in a few thousand pieces at that point. Weddings are awesome ESPECIALLY when they're your own! Make it awesome. :thumbsup:

Wow... imagine them both sitting in your garage! :laughin: http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/cto/5145919339.html

I just... uh... well?... :hmm: http://rmn.craigslist.org/cto/5143888223.html

Love to but can't. Starting Thursday whenever my dumpster shows up, I'll be gutting a bathroom. It'll be a marathon to get as far as I can this weekend. :(

Pros: Excellent traction as you know that power is going to both rear tires all the time and it sounds like you're in an episode of CHiPS. Cons: You will hate every corner you will ever have to make on dry pavement, rear tires will wear faster, and everybody will look at you because it'll sound like you're in an episode of CHiPS.

THE AIR CONDITIONING WORKS!!!! :banana: ... not that it makes a huge difference when the tube doors are on. :shake: Still, nice having one more thing that didn't work working again. The factory air box got removed too. Tons of space for... something. One thing that found a home there was the PA speaker from my Eliminator. Did it need it? Nope. It was sitting unused though. The rear window got more sticker power too to make sure that proper representation has been made. :D