'88 Eliminator... Feb. 2009 - May 2025

[neohic]

1 hour ago, 89 MJ said:

That is one good looking pickup. 

Thanks!

 

I was reminded today that I need to pull the seats back out. A friend of mine is shop neighbors with an upholstery shop. The backs are fine, but the seat bottoms need some attention. 

[watchamakalit]

10 hours ago, neohic said:

Thanks!

 

I was reminded today that I need to pull the seats back out. A friend of mine is shop neighbors with an upholstery shop. The backs are fine, but the seat bottoms need some attention. 

A little time with the polisher can make that hood look way better, even with the clear coat fade.......

 

I hit mine with a 800, then 1000 grit wet sand and some heavy compound and it made a world of difference just at that stage.

[neohic]

1 hour ago, watchamakalit said:

A little time with the polisher can make that hood look way better, even with the clear coat fade.......

Clear coat?  That’s a single stage paint I did in 2010. 

[watchamakalit]

11 minutes ago, neohic said:

Clear coat?  That’s a single stage paint I did in 2010. 

My mistake. The second picture looked like it had failing clear coat on the hood.

 

Edit:  after a second look I was seeing the cloud reflection in the beautiful shiny paint. Amazing looking truck!!

[neohic]

On 3/23/2025 at 7:45 AM, watchamakalit said:

My mistake. The second picture looked like it had failing clear coat on the hood.

 

Edit:  after a second look I was seeing the cloud reflection in the beautiful shiny paint. Amazing looking truck!!

… it photographs well. Having a car cover on it for five years screwed up the roof, and water doesn’t even bead anymore over the rest of the truck. I appreciate it though! This thing always needs something. 

[neohic]

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 236/60 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. 

[fiatslug87]

Multitasking: doing twice that you should half as well as you could.

 

You need a dedicated 2wd SCCA truck.

[neohic]

19 minutes ago, fiatslug87 said:

Multitasking: doing twice that you should half as well as you could.

 

You need a dedicated 2wd SCCA truck.

What I really don’t need is another vehicle. 

[89 MJ]

1 hour ago, neohic said:

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.

But would you want to swap it back and forth twice a year? I know I wouldn’t, but that could be just me. 
I also worry that you’d lose some of the usefulness of it being a truck. Street tires might struggle making it up your hill, you’ll have to be more careful going in and out of driveways, that sort of stuff. Another truck wouldn’t exactly fix those problems though either, other than keeping this one a little easier to use. I think a turbo 4cyl MJ would be sweet with these parts on it. 

[fiatslug87]

3 hours ago, neohic said:

What I really don’t need is another vehicle. 

I really didn’t need a WilderNest camper but it worked out GREAT! 

[neohic]

13 hours ago, 89 MJ said:

… I also worry that you’d lose some of the usefulness of it being a truck. Street tires might struggle making it up your hill, you’ll have to be more careful going in and out of driveways, that sort of stuff. Another truck wouldn’t exactly fix those problems though either, other than keeping this one a little easier to use…

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.

[89 MJ]

I see. It really is a tough decision to make.