First Restoration Project

[NewJeeper]

Wow!! I haven't seen a whole lot of black comanches, and this one looks awesome! I looked through the thread, you've done a lot of work on this truck. How much have you put into this project? Fantastic job for it being your first restoration!

 

I agree with above, black tow hooks would look great.

[knever3]

Wow!! I haven't seen a whole lot of black comanches, and this one looks awesome! I looked through the thread, you've done a lot of work on this truck. How much have you put into this project? Fantastic job for it being your first restoration!

 

I agree with above, black tow hooks would look great.

 

 

I have pondered the thought of getting black tow hooks, Autozone has them for $10 a piece so they aren't to hard to replace. I would have gone black but the chrome is kind of growing on me. I can't believe I just said that!!! :doh:

 

As for price, I don't want to know the real number, but if you must the time spent working on it with my girlfriend... PRICELESS!!

 

Soon enough it will be nice out again to go for a drive with her. :driving:

[NewJeeper]

Girlfriend's a mechanic too, eh? That's awesome. The chrome ones look good. Understand about not wanting to know the real price. Yeah, priceless is right. You may or may not remember all the work you did, but you'll remember the times together. (although it's hard to forget having to pull stuff back out multiple times because it didn't fit, or making it fit with a litttle... persuasion. :fs1: )

 

The truck looks good, man, you guys should be proud of yourselves.

[knever3]

Got a big little project done that has been bothering me for a while.

 

I installed the JEEP emblem on the front grill. I got them from a fellow member from here and am so grateful. :bowdown:

 

So here goes, I looked at the job and contrary to other opinions I decided to try it my way. I removed the five 10mm nuts holding the header support brace to the body and the 11mm nuts screwed into the header panel. The 2' steel L bracket comes off. Once I took that off my fingers could slip in between.

 

 

 

 

I then took the 1/8" spring nuts I got from the parts store and slid them over a snap on pick to open the hole up so they would fit the emblem pins. There are 4 total. I used a pair of pliers to slide the nuts onto and off the pick.

 

 

After the nuts were opened slightly I put the first letter into the holes in the header panel and with two fingers pressed the nut onto the letter stud. I used the pick to seat the nut while pressing on the letter from the front. It turned out perfect, nice and tight. I repeated these steps 3 more times. I did not drop one nut and that's something to be proud of! I had a whole bag so I wasn't stressed anyway. Here are some pics of the results. :cheers:

 

 

 

 

And here is a pic without the letters, now it has an idenity!!

 

[knever3]

I thought I would post a pic of my mysterious girlfriend that loves to help me with my Jeep project. I got permission from her finally to post a pic so here it is. I'll let you guess where we were at the time. Can't wait for another ride together and camping this summer!! :driving:

 

[sinkrun]

SO she does exist and I am guessing Cabelas?

[knever3]

SO she does exist and I am guessing Cabelas?

 

 

Very good, first guess gets it!!!

 

I have a few things to run around to get tomorrow. I will pull some power door lock solenoids out of a Cherokee to add power locks. I will use a alarm system to remote open the locks. I have to buy some speaker wire for the speakers in the doors too.

[buxmj]

I am so impressed with the work you did from start to finish. Although I wouldn't pick black living in Florida, I would definitely have it up north. Great work!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AdamBlack]

SO she does exist and I am guessing Cabelas?

 

OMG!! And here I thought u were makin' her up... :brows: She's cute! Definately a keeper! R u gonna keeper? cuz if not, I'll taker!! Works on trucks, knows a good toolbox...and good lookin? Hold on to that one. She obviously has a great personalty, because thats a given for jeep owners!!! :chillin:

 

JEEP emblem looks good, dude.

[knever3]

Well I got something new for the Jeep, I needed a ax-15 4wd trans and I found one. I got a great price on it so I just went ahead and picked it up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a few questions though.

 

1. I need a new hard line to the master cylinder, can I re-use the ms I have from my ba-10/5?

2. Should I look around for a external slave bell housing or is the one here fine?

3. The CPS on the new ax-15 is broken, can I use the one from my ba-10/5?

4. What should I replace before installing? Example seals etc.

[knever3]

I was looking through my photobucket acount and was tired of waiting for the next picture to load. Photobucket is nice but why is it so slow? So I remember I used to use Picassa and thought I would try to post using this. Well what a suprise when I found a few pictures I forgot about. So here's a few that I misplaced over the years.

 

My truck when I got it home, next to my wrecked '98 XJ which is the reason I thought I would buy a beater truck in the first place. Look at where that thinking got me!!

 

 

 

 

I have a LOT of projects going on right now but I have so much to do on the Comanche.

[knever3]

Ok, so here's the scoop on the long awaited project. I decided to take a week off of work to work on the Comanche. The first week of August I need to do these things.

 

Switch over from 2wd to 4wd, front axle already installed.

Remove NEW hell creek rear leafs and have them powder coated or painted since the paint they come with SUCKS!! :shake:

Install door speakers, radio, headliner, and power lock actuators with remote keyless entry.

Possibly install A/C from donor. I don't know if it's worth the hassle? :hmm:

That's the big list anyway, we'll see how much I get done when I actually have time to work on it.

:wrench:

[knever3]

I had a couple days off to work on the trucks. My friend Jerami came over after work to help me tear the Cherokee down. We got a good start and I picked up the day after. We got the trans/transfer case and crossmember, driveshafts, pedal assembly, cruise, A/C, heater box, radiator and front end disassembled. We also removed the rear axle on the Comanche to get the leafs repainted. They should be done today or tomorrow, I can't wait to see how they turned out. I need to stop to Fastenall to get new thru-bolts since the ones that came on them were fine thread and after soaking them with kroil the nut took the threads right off the bolt.

 

Here are a few pics of the progress thus far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[knever3]

Here are a few pictures of the leaf springs I had mentioned. The paint that comes on them is a joke. After about 1000 miles driven and only a couple days have ever seen rain never snow here is what the springs look like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here's what they looked when I installed them:

 

 

 

 

Now come on, if you know something is going to be outside like a suspension component maybe you should put the money on some more paint. Shame on them, Now the end customer (me in this case) must take the time and money to make it right as Mike Holmes would say. I'll post pics when they come back from blast/epoxy primer and paint.

[knever3]

I have had some progress with the project this week. The whole interior is out, the entire wire harness is out, the newly painted leaf springs and JKS shackles are in and I replaced the leaking valve cover gasket.

 

Here are some pics of the progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[knever3]

Pretty soon...

[knever3]

Whew, my fiance showed up yesterday and brought her camera. I bought a Nikon point and shoot one and the flash quality is terrible, with her Nikon D5000 the pictures are so crisp and clear. These are taken at the lowest quality setting too. Puts their other product to shame, unless I just got a bad one. :hmm:

 

So more work today, I got the leaf springs back on, they make the truck sit 1/2" lower than before. I have the Hell Creek 3" leafs and now I have the JKS shackles installed. I removed the fourth leaf and for once when you jump on the rear bumper the truck actually moves!! That should ride better.

 

Ok, here goes the quality pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tomorrow's Project.

 

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[Darren]

Looks good so far.

 

But I gotta say, for 1/3 the price of that dynomat you could have bought a 8.25 or 8.8.

[knever3]

Well after 7 days of hard work on both the Comanche and the donor Cherokee I've fell short of my lofty goal. I really gave it a go but with constant interruptions running for hours to get parts on a daily basis the project will carry into next week. I didn't expect to power wash EVERYTHING that came from the XJ, the dirt in the south is like concrete.

 

I am taking my time on most things trying not to rush slapping it together and that is my crutch. I will be much happier in the end.

 

The progress update:

 

First thing this morning since I couldn't sleep anyway was to measure the driveshaft length. I will be keeping my 2wd driveshaft, I took 3 shafts to Joint Clutch to have the u-joints replaced and the rear shaft shortned and balanced. After realizing that the output shaft was different I'm glad I had three spare shafts around. Well I'm not the only one to miss a deadline, the company said they would try to get it back to me today. No sweat since I'm not really ready for it anyway.

 

 

 

Old trans, ba-10/5

 

 

 

Before install of the new trans

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I almost forgot to install this!!

 

 

Remnants of the old brackets

 

 

 

In with the Novak shifter cable,

 

 

 

 

 

After that was done I started with some engine work, I swapped throttle bodies because the auto one had the bracket for cruise and the sensor is different. Here's some pics of the two.

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to install the shifters and the cruise to get most of the in and out stuff done.

 

 

 

 

 

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I hope you all enjoy seeing the progress since I worked my whole week of vacation. All for a good cause.

[Comanche County]

Good work man, thanks for all the pics! :wrench:

[Rymanrph]

I always thought mine would end up looking like yours. Well, it kinda did for a while, but then I painted it. That's quite a project you got going on. Good luck finishing it.

[Comanche County]

 

This sir, is a thing of beauty....its the thing poets in Paris wrote about in 1825, its like ripened cognac from 1765, its something Alexander the Great would conquer continents for, this door panel is the thing Hawaiian kings named volcanoes for, Michael J. Fox went back to the future for an interior like this and Michael Jackson "Beat It" for this, Muhammad Ali finally admitted, "No, this is the Greatest"!, Ronald Reagan tore down a wall to have this, Abe Lincoln wrote a proclamation about it, Einstein theorized about it, and I, my friend, wish I had a nice black interior too. This is the best door panel I've ever seen!

[JENSSEN]

 

This sir, is a thing of beauty....its the thing poets in Paris wrote about in 1825, its like ripened cognac from 1765, its something Alexander the Great would conquer continents for, this door panel is the thing Hawaiian kings named volcanoes for, Michael J. Fox went back to the future for an interior like this and Michael Jackson "Beat It" for this, Muhammad Ali finally admitted, "No, this is the Greatest"!, Ronald Reagan tore down a wall to have this, Abe Lincoln wrote a proclamation about it, Einstein theorized about it, and I, my friend, wish I had a nice black interior too. This is the best door panel I've ever seen!

 

What He said! Super jelous of the black interior!!!

[knever3]

Ok, update plan for working on the truck got on the back burner. I had a bedroom I was working on this past week. I did however get my driveshafts back so here they are. I had them replace all joints with spicers, balanced and painted. They switched the yolk and cut down my 2wd driveshaft to the length I requested. I am happy with them. I had gotten a new set of JKS adjustable control arms that turned out to be JK ones. :fs1: It's partially my fault and some of the websites. They had the same pictures for the JK ones as the XJ ones, and their description said the same thing for all. Lesson learned, and I paid to send them back today.

 

[knever3]

Update:

 

Now that the bedroom house project went well and my wife is nestled in it's time to revisit the Comanche. I took next week off to finish the project. I have the engine harness in so I need to put some more flex loom on it and tidy it up. The whole interior needs to be put in so there is a TON of work to do and because I am a stickler for all the details it will take some time.

 

Things to do:

Finish engine harness.

Install Cherokee power door lock actuators in doors.

Install Diamond Audio components in doors.

Install Keyless Entry to actuate said door locks.

Install head liner and pre-wire for associated lighting and rear view lighted mirror.

Install new JKS adjustable lower control arms.

Adjust Novak shift linkage to transfer case.

 

 

 

Wish me luck! :wrench: