'88 MJ Restification (lots of pictures):

[xComancheKidx]

truck looks great keep up the good work...what suspension mods do you have planned?

[JeffK]

truck looks great keep up the good work...what suspension mods do you have planned?

 

Thanks. For the rear I've got a '99 8.25 I'm going to do the SOA on and use the stock leafs. On the front I'm going with a 4 1/2 inch springs, Adjustable UCAs, Fixed LCAs and a control Arm Drop kit. Not sure on the brands yet, I looked at Rocky Road Outfitters, but I've read a few bad things about them. After being beat to death in my XJ for the past 2 years, I am going to step up and buy are good quality shocks. Bilstein or OME not sure yet.

[ivan onlysix]

good job the manche looks diferent and more new for inside :cheers:

[reson46]

truck looks great keep up the good work...what suspension mods do you have planned?

 

Thanks. For the rear I've got a '99 8.25 I'm going to do the SOA on and use the stock leafs. On the front I'm going with a 4 1/2 inch spring, Adjustable UCAs, Fixed LCAs and a control Arm Drop kit. Not sure on the brands yet, I looked at Rocky Road Outfitters, but I've read a few bad things about them. After being beat to death in my XJ for the past 2 years, I am going to step up and buy are good quality shocks. Bilstein or OME not sure yet.

 

Why even consider Rocky Road? There are plenty of other respectable manufacturers that make better quality products for reasonable prices. :hmm:

 

Willy

[JeffK]

truck looks great keep up the good work...what suspension mods do you have planned?

 

Thanks. For the rear I've got a '99 8.25 I'm going to do the SOA on and use the stock leafs. On the front I'm going with a 4 1/2 inch spring, Adjustable UCAs, Fixed LCAs and a control Arm Drop kit. Not sure on the brands yet, I looked at Rocky Road Outfitters, but I've read a few bad things about them. After being beat to death in my XJ for the past 2 years, I am going to step up and buy are good quality shocks. Bilstein or OME not sure yet.

 

Why even consider Rocky Road? There are plenty of other respectable manufacturers that make better quality products for reasonable prices. :hmm:

 

Willy

 

I've never dealt with them, I just liked the way their LCA drop kits looked. I've read a lot more bad then good about them and I also read their kits have fitment issues. I called this afternoon and they couldn't answer any of my questions. Not very impressive. I'd also classify Rusty's, Quadratec, Rough Country and 4 wheel parts the same way.

[JeffK]

JY score. I picked up some door panels today. Need a some work, and a lot of cleaning. I've never seen any like these before, and I think they open up some new possibilities for buckets and carpet colors:

 

 

The dash in the XJ they came out of was the same gray as mine and the lower panel, that has the ashtray, was black. The lower panel was broken, but I grabbed the ashtray, figured if I wanted to follow suit I could paint my lower portion and pop the ashtray in. The panels and the ash tray were $28:

 

 

That's about all I got done today, went Mt. biking this afternoon with some guys from work and they hauled my sorry behind around for 15 miles and I'm whopped.

 

:cheers: Jeff

[JeffK]

Well I've managed to screw up my shoulder last week, but I still accomplished a few things. Sunday I snagged a tilt column from the JY, and later that afternoon I started on my door panels. The door panel itself was in really good shape, but the cardboard has had it:

 

 

I separated the vinyl panel from the old cardboard backing:

 

 

I visited a local auto upholstery shop, and they recommended I use 1/8" tempered hardboard. They had it at Home Depot for about $3.50 for a 2' X 4' sheet:

 

[JeffK]

I separated the plastic strip from the top of the old cardboard. The staples Jeep uses use are a PITA to remove:

 

 

I clamped one of the old cardboard panels to the top of my 2 sheets of hardboard and cut/drilled all of the panels together:

 

 

After I got both panels cut, I Gorilla glued the plastic pieces back on top of the panels:

 

 

Clamped and weighted down:

 

 

I decided to wait until I got the cover back on before I cut out for the speaker and armrest holes. Otherwise they are now ready for the cover:

 

[JeffK]

I used 3M '80' spray adhesive to hold the edges and then stapled it down. Arrow has a fairly new stapler, the JT21. It's light duty, but perfect for jobs like this, plus it's $14.95 with staples. I used the supplied 1/4" or 6mm staples, perfect lenght:

 

 

Finished. Back of the panel, a big improvement over the cardboard. The plastic door panel clips twist right in without any problems. I couldn't resist putting my stamp on it:

 

 

Front view with everything clean, installed and mocked up:

 

 

Better look:

 

 

Not perfect, but a lot better than before:

 

 

I posted up a few more details and pics in the DIY section listed under 84-96 Cherokee/Comanche Door Panel Resto if anyone wants more details.

 

Lesson learned: :fs1: Don't get 3M '80' on your hands, h*ll I'm still trying to get it off :fs1:

[JeffK]

It kind of annoys me to lean forward to grab the T-case shifter, so while I was goofing off at work last week I came up with an idea for the T-case shifter. I got out one of my spare T-case shifters and a Honda shifter My Honda buddy at work gave me. I lopped off about the top 3-4 inches of Honda shifter and about a half inch into the flat part of the Jeep T-case shifter. I used the Honda shifter cause the thread pitch is the same as the Jeep, 10mm X 1.5:

 

 

My friend Tom at work welded the two together and did a pretty nice job. The knob came from McMaster-Carr's website, $6 shipped. Here it is ready for paint:

 

 

Painted up and ready to install:

 

 

Installed:

 

 

With the freshly painted (Krylon Fusion Satin Black) mini console, that used to be red/burgundy. The coin tray in this one is bolted in from the bottom, and I took it out to clean/paint it. Might be a good place to mount a couple OTRATTW switches for auxiliary lights, power windows or whatever:

 

 

It's a useless mod, but it's more comfortable to me and I like it:

 

 

I could never get the XJ center console to stop creaking and groaning when I shifted so it's out. I'm using the mini console. I really haven't ruled out recovering the bench, I just gotta talk my wife out of the $300 to get it done the way I want.

 

:cheers: Jeff

[WahooSteeler]

wow, impressive work on the door panels, and one of a kind for sure.

[Wanderin]

wow, impressive work on the door panels, and one of a kind for sure.

 

x2 :thumbsup:

[JeffK]

wow, impressive work on the door panels, and one of a kind for sure.

 

x2 :thumbsup:

 

Thanks.

[JeffK]

I was browsing an interesting web site called "Basic Car Parts" one night after work, on this site you can fill a request for certain parts and they'll forward it to local salvage yards. I got an email from a yard in Lexington, and they said they had two Comanches and on had a 'usable' gray bench seat. I figured it was worth a shot. Comanche number one, this is the one with the 'useable' bench seat:

 

 

An outside view, note the fully functional custom rear glass :eek: :

 

 

What were they thinking? :nuts:

 

 

Comanche number two. Hard to tell, but before it was t-boned this was actually a pretty nice Jeep. The bench seat had been recovered, too bad its folded in half:

 

 

The only really good thing I seen there was a '98 with a fairly nice interior, complete with manual widows.

 

 

:cheers: Jeff

[Wanderin]

 

I'm diggin the shine on the bed though :eek:

[JeffK]

I'm diggin the shine on the bed though :eek:

 

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Nufinish I suspect...

[freakjeep93]

 

I'm diggin the shine on the bed though :eek:

oh yea i det whever hit him was to .......................... thats why they hit him............. :chillin: :cheers:

[oregonman]

nice truck man you did a lot of work looks good. but whats up with the news paper carpet.? :cheers:

[JeffK]

nice truck man you did a lot of work looks good. but whats up with the news paper carpet.? :cheers:

 

Thanks. The newspaper is fairly uninteresting story, I have a leak I can't find. I sprinkled baby powder all over the floor about 2 or 3 weeks ago, and it hasn't rained to amount to anything since. when I was working on the dash, I got tired of getting it all over me so I throwed some newspaper down. This weekend the baby powder and newspaper comes up cause I think I found the leak. I'm also installing power windows and my 'new' door panels.

[oregonman]

nice truck man you did a lot of work looks good. but whats up with the news paper carpet.? :cheers:

 

Thanks. The newspaper is fairly uninteresting story, I have a leak I can't find. I sprinkled baby powder all over the floor about 2 or 3 weeks ago, and it hasn't rained to amount to anything since. when I was working on the dash, I got tired of getting it all over me so I throwed some newspaper down. This weekend the baby powder and newspaper comes up cause I think I found the leak. I'm also installing power windows and my 'new' door panels.

 

 

sweet upgrade. my freaking window handles keep on breaking 22 year old hard plastic go figure. . takes me like 5 min to turn a handle with no spiny thing.... i think i might have a leak because my carpet is always wet on the drivers side. or maybe it just never dried out when some barred the truck up past the doors .i bought this truck off craiglist so god know where the trucks has been. but i have mud in the side panels of the doors........ well it be loud if i take my carpet out?

[bigalpha]

Are the tan bucket seats really that rare? I have some in mine.

[jtdesigns]

Dude... I'm going to bring my truck up to Winston one weekend and hang out with you!!! Nice work on the door panels and shifter! :thumbsup:

[JeffK]

nice truck man you did a lot of work looks good. but whats up with the news paper carpet.? :cheers:

 

Thanks. The newspaper is fairly uninteresting story, I have a leak I can't find. I sprinkled baby powder all over the floor about 2 or 3 weeks ago, and it hasn't rained to amount to anything since. when I was working on the dash, I got tired of getting it all over me so I throwed some newspaper down. This weekend the baby powder and newspaper comes up cause I think I found the leak. I'm also installing power windows and my 'new' door panels.

 

 

sweet upgrade. my freaking window handles keep on breaking 22 year old hard plastic go figure. . takes me like 5 min to turn a handle with no spiny thing.... i think i might have a leak because my carpet is always wet on the drivers side. or maybe it just never dried out when some barred the truck up past the doors .i bought this truck off craiglist so god know where the trucks has been. but i have mud in the side panels of the doors........ well it be loud if i take my carpet out?

 

Mines kinda loud. I plan on putting new carpet in, but without the backing or a least a different type.

[JeffK]

Are the tan bucket seats really that rare? I have some in mine.

 

Around here there is plenty of the mid 90's tan stuff, but the earlier 'spice' color is hard to find in any condition. The gray stuff is plentiful, so I just gave up on it.

[JeffK]

Dude... I'm going to bring my truck up to Winston one weekend and hang out with you!!! Nice work on the door panels and shifter! :thumbsup:

 

Sure we'll go junk yardin' :thumbsup: