Project "Honcho" - The '87 MJ

[Zenobian_84]

"Viewer beware, you're in for a scare!"  :brows: 

 

Okay, so not really, but at the very least, a somewhat cool project that's been ongoing for years now, now with added back story!

 

A pseudo restoration / customization on a cool classic known in the Jeep world as the "Comanche".

 

 

The modifications and designs on this Jeep stem wayyy back to when I was a wee-lad of 6 years old, and had watched the weather-disaster movie "Twister". For those of you who haven't viewed the movie, it's a lame attempt at a story driven movie, with the real heroes being the CGI (computer graphic imagery) Tornadoes, a 1995 Dodge Ram pickup, and (IIRC) a 1979 or early 80s Jeep "J10" truck. When I was a kid, I remember the distinctive yellow and blue J10 moreso than the Ram truck, and I knew I had to have one, or at the very least, something akin to it. 13 years later, I realized that dream and found an 1987 Jeep pickup for sale. Bought it, and have had good and bad times with it.

 

I have come to understand two truths since I've owned this truck.

 

The first being that if you are not mechanically sound before you own a Jeep, you will be after a few short months of working on it constantly and thoroughly.

 

The second is that there are others out there, just like you (yes you) who are doing the same thing; perhaps not at the same time, but they're busting tail to keep these trucks going for as long as humanly possible. One day, when the world is full of electric cars and weekend warrior baby Jeeps, there will hopefully still be an MJ out there, somewhere showing everyone what it's like to be the toughest four letter word on wheels.

 

---

:cheers: Hi all! Been a lurker on the site for around a month now and just got around to making an account, partially due to the fact that I now am the proud owner of.....

My '87 MJ SporTruck!

Anyway, I suppose I should give a little insight on how I came to own this truck. I happened upon it on craigslist in my local area (Right smack in the middle of Bithlo, FL; Lake County FL is where I'm situated) and went to go pick it up with a friend of mine for $800. Now, the day I brought it home, it was a disaster. Mounds of dirt and grime plagued the interior, not to mention that the bed of the truck was in serious need of power washing. But, I saw through all this and saw something great about this truck. So needless to say, after 3 hours of driving back through heavy traffic through downtown Orlando on I4, (during Saturday afternoon traffic no less), we somehow made it back to my house. Upon getting home, I checked the fluids in the truck and discovered several major problems.

The first being that the back break lines had no brake fluid inside the Master Cylinder, not to mention that the Master Cylinder needed replacing ASAP. The second being that the PO had NO air filter in the box :fs1: which blew me away to no end. Another problem was that there was a leak in the brake lines themselves, so I have to give all the credit to my friend for being able to drive the truck home in the shape that it was; but I digress. My intent and what I plan on doing with this truck is restoring it to as near factory conditions as I can. So for now, I leave you with some pictures! Enjoy all, and until next post, Keep rocking on.

Dad's 1986 Pontiac Parisienne in the background

Interior, in very good shape! (Especially after my lengthy cleanup)

One of the 2 spots of major rust. Underneath the carpet... :fs1:

2.5 I4, running like a champ (mostly) after a few tweaks and some replacements. (Has a brand new clutch and master cylinder, not to mention a few other new parts for the truck itself.)

[MancheKid86]

Welcome To Comanche Club

[Zenobian_84]

Just wanted to update on how everything is coming along with my repairs. So glad to have graduated high school. More time to dedicate to working on the truck, and working to make money! :wrench: :D

 

Repaired the scraggly rust as best I could that was around (and probably underneath to a degree) of the antennae post. Pretty easy rust removal, primer and finish painting. Those lines of primer I missed are going to annoy me, but it's better than the rust that used to be there.

 

Rust along these window trim pieces. Rust ran through the entire piece to the inside. Only fixed and primed/painted the outside though. I'll probably do the rest whenever I replace the weather stripping on the sides :wall: Oh joy.

 

Replaced the original 100w Pioneer speakers this morning with 180w Pioneers with built in tweeters. Lot better looking than the faded, torn old ones. Gotta clean up the spots of dust they have on the mesh pieces.

 

Thanks to BLHTAZ's writeup on how to replace the stock interior lights, I was able to knock that out of the way a few weeks back. Stellar look, and great price (around $8.00 for both lights).

 

Next on the to do list is replacing this POS radio. Thinking of swapping back to the stock radio since I have these...

 

 

1987 factory Cassette holders. I was pretty impressed when I first got them with the truck. The PO wanted to keep them, because he liked the look of them hanging on the fold downs. Just have to clean them up a bit.

 

Other than the above mentioned, no new real developments, other than learning the ins and outs of driving a 4 speed. More to come soon.

[buxmj]

Welcome to the club, fellow central floridian. Impressive you made it out of Bithlo alive. Some Orlandoans refer to it as the nightmare before Christmas (look at a map of east Orlando and you'll get the joke). I have been crazy busy but hope to meet you and many of the other area mj'ers sometime soon. Good luck with your build and there are some great people on here who give great advice.

Buck.

[Zenobian_84]

Welcome to the club, fellow central floridian. Impressive you made it out of Bithlo alive. Some Orlandoans refer to it as the nightmare before Christmas (look at a map of east Orlando and you'll get the joke). I have been crazy busy but hope to meet you and many of the other area mj'ers sometime soon. Good luck with your build and there are some great people on here who give great advice.

Buck.

 

Thanks Buck. Would like to meet some of you central floridian MJ'ers one of these days. Feels good knowing I'm not the only Comanche owner around central FL. :cheers:

[Zenobian_84]

Greetings all. Just wanted to post a few quick pictures I didn't get a chance to post when I made the thread (due to running around for work purposes.) Please excuse the differing qualities. That's what you get for only having a :mad: phone to take pictures with.

 

First of all, starting with an obvious picture, the rear axel. A Dana 35 in pretty decent shape (from what it looks like to me) for being 24 years old.

 

The floor rust that goes through the driver's side to the bottom. Going to be pulling the carpet up and seeing how bad everything really is once I get more money. The good thing is the new brake line (backwards L shape) that I replaced. Apparently the floor rotted out and rotted onto the line, causing sever corrosion (leading to the brake mishap mentioned in the beginning of the thread.) :(

 

Rust inside the wheel well of the driver's side. Not sure how bad this really is, but it's worth taking a look at, once again, when I get more money and some spare time. (Have to drive some family members to the airport all weekend, then probably work all through next week). Gotta love that minimum wage job :roll:

 

 

Shots of underneath the bed. Surprisingly it's very rust free, and as we all know, that is always a very good thing :thumbsup:

------

Well, that's it I suppose. Until I get more time to fiddle with the truck, or more money (hopefully the latter) to put towards getting new goodies, keep on jeepin' everyone.

[Drahcir495]

Woo woo - another Florida Comanche. Welcome to the club. Looks good!

[Zenobian_84]

Long time no see. Been working pretty much the entirety of this month. Looking forward to this weekend, and my $350 paycheck coming in Friday. :eek: :thumbsup: Then it's off to the junkyards and the auto shops with a couple of friends of mine.

 

Just thought I'd post a few pics with some updates for the truck. Nothing really fancy, but some decent progress non-the-less.

 

 

 

My dad helping me clean the truck this past weekend at the dealership where he works. I've only cleaned it one time since I've gotten it, and I can't stand it! When I had my last car (a POS Pontiac Sunfire), I cleaned that car once every two weeks. I'm not saying I'm a clean freak, but I like being able to show off my MJ whenever I go over to friends houses.

 

 

Just a picture of me cleaning the seats, and what I used to clean them. That "Glisten X" is a great cleaning agent for leather seats, and I highly recommend it for any car detailers out there, or any one looking for a good leather cleaner. When I finished cleaning everything that was inside the cab (seat, dash, etc) the interior came out looking as close to original as I've ever seen. I am so glad my dad's a detailer ;)

 

 

A picture of everything getting washed. Soap suds a plenty, with my rags on the door sides to prevent water from seeping in. Hopefully I can fix that problem this weekend :fs1:

 

My girlfriend and I at the store picking up some things. Truck is still looking pretty good after 3 days, (not to mention the good looking girl inside :D who you can't see due to the glare. Crappy phone is crappy :doh: )

------

Anyways, hopefully I can get over to a few junkyards this weekend. Going to try and get as many parts as $ will allow, and as many as my truck's bed can hold :rotfl2: Might even try to pick up some spare parts to sell on here, so if anyone out there is looking for something in particular, I might be able to snag it for you. :thumbsup:

[cody4359]

gotta love that rust :wrench:

[Zenobian_84]

gotta love that rust :wrench:

Ha, yeah :brows: Tell me about it :fs2:

[Zenobian_84]

Been a while, some happenings have occurred (quit my dead end job that was getting me nowhere :hmm: ) but I'm still finding time to work on the truck. Got a few things picked up and worked on.

 

Started working on fixing my door panels. As you can see, they're in pretty grungy shape. Everything was pretty moldy as well. It didn't spread to the leather though, thank god.

 

Everything down to the bare minimum...

 

After looking through anotherjeff's thread, I have to agree with him. Getting these staples off the plastic top piece and the cardboard backing is a serious PITA. :fs1:

 

Although these little buggers might be even harder to get out. For whatever reason, they just wouldn't twist out. :headpop:

 

The diagram/outline of the passenger door panel. First in pencil, then in in sharpie. Not too hard here.

 

At my friend's huge house with garage with half mock up. After cutting the panel out and the holes for the armrest, window crank, and speaker; and I gorilla glued the plastic piece back on and clamped it. Speaker hole was iffy because I thought I had lost the diagram that was for cutting a speaker hole for the Pioneer's I bought. Unfortunately, it was simply under my bed, so I had to make due at the time. :doh: Won't when I do the driver's side though...

 

Everything stapled down and put back together. Didn't get a picture of it inside the truck when I got everything put back together. It looks and feels better, and more solid. Now I just have to install the speaker on the passenger side, along with doing the driver's side panel.

[Zenobian_84]

More updates, nothing really amazing though. :shake:

 

 

 

This past weekend, I finished the driver's door panel restoration. This was even more of a PITA than the passenger side. Half the cardboard backing was seriously messed up, and it was falling apart pretty badly. Accomplished all that Sunday, and got around to finishing installing the speakers this afternoon. I can finally listen to some god d*mn music when I'm driving around!

 

So, to celebrate this fact, I went out and bought some tunes.

That's right, Joe Satriani. Hell yeah.

[Zenobian_84]

Greetings comrades, it is I; back with more updates.

 

This past week I was able to score a sweet AMC era gauge cluster from Blue88Comanche. This thing is sweeeet.

 

 

More pictures of the cluster.

 

 

 

Probably going to be setting up this thing in the truck within the next few days, so hopefully I'll do a writeup on that or some such. Another big problem I've been having is seriously rough idling problems, which I narrowed down to possibly a few things...

 

1. O2 sensor?

2. MAP sensor?

3. CCV blockage and valve gum-up?

 

I decided to take the valve cover off the truck and peer inside the depths of my 2.5..... you can imagine my face when I saw this.

 

 

Pretty spotless valves and no gum-up whatsoever. What I did find though was 24 years of blockage in the CCV valve, and my jury rigged blowby air inlet hosing.

 

 

Took the CCV lines off and the air inlet hose adapter (which I nearly mangled to shreds trying to get the damn thing out :fs1: ) And my dad decided to help me clean everything up. I swear, my dad enjoys working on this truck almost (maybe even more...? :hmm: ) than I do. :rotf: This was a picture of the cleaning area for valve covers and general parts at the dealership where he works.

 

 

While I had everything apart, I decided to replace the valve cover gasket with a new one I got for $10. Worked like a charm and sealed quite nicely. I noticed my idling got better due to the clean CCV line doing it's job (correctly) and I fixed my air inlet hosing with better parts than what I rigged up last time. I didn't get a picture of how everything looks now, but I'll snap one tomorrow and post it up. :cheers:

 

Still going to keep the MAP and O2 sensor in the back of my mind. I have a strange feeling those are probably next to go. :doh:

[buxmj]

X2 on the Joe Satriani

[Zenobian_84]

Finally decided on what I want to do with the truck. I've been really iffy ever since I got it on whether or not I want to mod it out, or keep it looking stock. Before I get into all that though, a quick picture of a near pristine 2.5 :rotf:

 

 

A big improvement from this

 

 

Anyway, after watching Twister for what seems like the 50th time :shake: it pretty much hit me. :doh: Ever since I was a little kid, it's been my favorite movie for a lot of reasons; but one of them happened to be because of this...

 

 

The super cool 1979 J10 that Helen Hunt drives in the movie. I'm not even sure why this I didn't think of doing this earlier. Irregardless though, I think it would be a pretty cool thing to see, because not only does anyone hardly see J10's or MJ's on the road anymore, but an homage to both the movie truck, and the MJ would be pretty cool! Well... to me at least. ;) Hopefully, I can get working on this soon. Lastly, I'll leave with a comparison for you guys to decide if this would be a pretty cool idea or not.

 

[Comanche County]

Good work man, keep it up!

[Zenobian_84]

Today I headed off to my local junkyards about 20 mins. away from where I live (with a "helper" in tow no less :shake: )

 

 

First I hit up the local Fruitland Park junkyard and dug around a bit. Found a 97 XJ that I pulled a Sony CD radio from. The girl charged me $25 for it, and at the time, I thought it was pretty fair.

 

After helping my friend nab some stuff from 80's Monte Carlos for his 86 Grand Prix... I stumbled across this.

 

 

A flashy red MJ, buried under grass and various other parts! :eek: :( :fs1: So... doing my "civil duty" not only to myself, but to everyone on the site here, I snapped some pictures.

 

I6, in pretty good shape no less. Other than a few things missing, the engine was fairly intact and seemed to be all there.

 

The VIN number. I have a few pictures of this and have sent them to Automan (Rob) so he can run the numbers and add to the registry.

 

I didn't get any pictures of the interior though, although I saw it. It had aftermarket gray shag carpeting and a custom roof (reminds me of the old J10 roofs) It was either a 4/5 speed, and most everything was still inside. (except for the dash bezel, and radio). It had gray interior and manual windows. Door panels on the driver's side were in fair shape but the passenger's were ratty, (due to the window being down) There was also a fairly large hornets next inside which limited my searching and scrounging for stuff.

 

As you can see from the first picture, There was a LOT of stuff piled on top of the bed. I counted 2 bed liners in relatively good shape (one on top of the truck) and the other was installed on the truck. It could have been the legendary "Comanche" bedliner I have been searching for :eek: but I couldn't see it because of the mass amount of junk piled inside. I would have also like to have nabbed the rims because they were a matching set, and matched my own exactly.... :( :( :(

 

Needless to say, I left that junkyard with a grim attitude. I did manage to grab a straight "Comanche" emblem from the passenger's side of the MJ. I was also going to grab the taillights but I didn't have my Torx bit screwdriver :fs1: :fs1:

 

So I tried my hand at another junkyard down the road though with high hopes (after stopping at a Taco Bell to rehydrate and eat) 105 Degree FL heat in a junkyard? :grrrr: The next one yielded better results.

I was able to pull not only a passenger side rearview mirror for $20 in great shape, but I got this beauty for another $20. A perfect match for my Cassette tape holders I have in the truck :thumbsup: And I took back the other radio and got my $25 back.

 

After wheeling and dealing, me and my friend left, and went back to my house, where I got a sweet 2.5 Litre badge for my tailgate.

 

After installing the side view mirror, I believe I'll call it a day for now. Gotta have more work for another time you know.

[Zenobian_84]

Been working on and off on the truck. Frustrations coming to a head, but still.... :headpop: I think everyone's been here before.

 

 

My 94 XJ radio wiring madness. This is such a PITA because the PO cut so many wires from the stock harness wiring. :headpop:

 

 

And then there's this below the cluster

 

Other than that, I've been making the MJ earn its keep (moving a friend of mine's girlfriend into his house) not to mention there's a lot of rust starting to pop up in places. So I guess this week is now going to be dubbed Rust Prevention week. :ack:

[Zenobian_84]

Got a few side projects now, so working on the truck has come to almost a crawl. It also doesn't help that it's 105 almost every day with over 50% humidity to boot. :headpop:

 

Irregardless, here's progress!

 

Painted the gauge bezel flat black, and gave the yellowing backside the 'ol pearly white treatment.

 

 

Fiddling around with the bulb connectors. The last XJ / MJ this cluster was in had Command-Trac or some such. PT 4WD and FT 4WD aren't important to me since I have no 4WD linkage. :nuts: :(

 

 

Still surprises me how long these bulbs will last. Anyway, I'll update again when real progress is made. Til then, stay cool (yeah right).

[AMC-MJ]

Not sure if you fixed your rough idle, i had one myself replaced lots of parts which made a little better each time . . .

 

:wrench: Its these

1. O2.

2. Map sensor.

3. TPS -Throttle position sensor.

replace them :wrench:

 

:thumbsup: Trust me ;)

 

:bowdown: My MJ is also a shortbed 2WD "SporTruck" AMC-2.5 / AX-4 4spd / D35 3.73 ratio, Rips 0-75mph then starts to fade off and its got 201K-Miles on it

 

Mike

[Zenobian_84]

Not sure if you fixed your rough idle, i had one myself replaced lots of parts which made a little better each time . . .

 

:wrench: Its these

1. O2.

2. Map sensor.

3. TPS -Throttle position sensor.

replace them :wrench:

 

:thumbsup: Trust me ;)

 

:bowdown: My MJ is also a shortbed 2WD "SporTruck" AMC-2.5 / AX-4 4spd / D35 3.73 ratio, Rips 0-75mph then starts to fade off and its got 201K-Miles on it

 

Mike

 

Thanks for the info Mike; and I still have some slightly rough Idling. Next up on the replacement list is either the O2 or Map Sensor. Have a pretty strong feeling that the O2 sensor is about to kick, because my MPG just isn't what it should be. :fs1: If only I was fabulously wealthy, I'd have this truck looking pristine already :rotf:

 

Also, just curious. You have any pictures of that 390 AMX? :drool: I got bit by the AMC bug it seems and would seriously love to find one of those and restore it.

[AMC-MJ]

:bowdown: The AMX-390 isn't much to look at been parked since 1976, i've owned it since i was 14yrs old :eek: It's what started my AMC & AM-J craze :nuts: Car was my fathers he ordered it winter 68' picked it up spring 69' drove it til 76' then parked it :fs1:

 

:D Its a 390-Hipo / T10 4spd / AMC-20x3.91 configured car and lived a hard 75K-Mile 7yr life :yes:

 

I could PM ya 4 some what current shots as NOT to disrupt yourthread here ? if ya want ?

Mike

[Zenobian_84]

:bowdown: The AMX-390 isn't much to look at been parked since 1976, i've owned it since i was 14yrs old :eek: It's what started my AMC & AM-J craze :nuts: Car was my fathers he ordered it winter 68' picked it up spring 69' drove it til 76' then parked it :fs1:

 

:D Its a 390-Hipo / T10 4spd / AMC-20x3.91 configured car and lived a hard 75K-Mile 7yr life :yes:

 

I could PM ya 4 some what current shots as NOT to disrupt yourthread here ? if ya want ?

Mike

 

:drool: :yes: That would be very cool of you. :bowdown:

[AMC-MJ]

Ok I'll PM ya some shot's :wrench:

 

Mike

[Zenobian_84]

Back with more "Comanche Madness". Ooooohhhh Yeaaahhhhh!

 

(RIP Macho Man. :( )

 

Anyway, another insightful, albeit slow, update.

 

This past Sunday, working in the blazing FL heat and humidity on the truck. Was a hot day, and I managed to get 2 things done at once. Swap out the temp sender and get even more of a tan. :yes: Also, it was so hot that my "Comanche" emblem fell right off the truck! :eek: You can see it dangling in the picture. I didn't even notice until later that afternoon :mad:

 

 

Before all that though I took the liberty of disassembling my dummy light cluster, except for the gas and speedometer gauges. Can't seem to reach my hand back there to take out the cable, so I'm going to have to take apart the kneeboard. Unless I decide to get under the truck and un-wrench the cable from the transmission housing. :doh:

 

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of pictures here, since most of my day was spent sweating my :mad: off.

 

Not to mention my dad had the bright idea of "Son, It'd be a lot easier to take the oil sender out if you took out the Alternator." Knowing better, I said no, but somehow ended up going along with it. We dang near got the thing out after TWO EXTRA HOURS of cursing and swearing and going on a prayer. My dad is a pretty good wrencher, but when he used to have a 91 XJ, I don't think he ever did any sort of mechanical work on it. Needless to say, I decide to put everything back together, so that's pretty much why I didn't get the oil sender out. But I did go get me a 1 x 1/16 impact wrench to take it out, since out of all the tools I own, I don't have an open ended wrench that can get it out.... :wall:

 

And it's also why I still have my entire cluster apart, warning light for my temp going through the roof, and no more progress done. Until today that is.

 

Gave this fading beauty a shot of flat black to bring it back to life. Looks pretty good, but I'll have to see if it'll last, since I didn't put any primer on it first. :hmm:

 

 

Started the long overdue process of rust removal on my bed. Good lord does this thing need a paintjob! :eek: And no, I'm not using a sander of any kind because I don't have one. That should change by beginning of next week though. Might go pick myself up a palm sander from Lowe's or some such. Would a palm sander be good enough to get surface rust off; because that's basically all everything is on the bed... :hmm:

 

.

 

Going to use the sander I will eventually get on these. Don't they sell these as rubber replacements or something? Just curious, as I doubt I'd be able to find some good metal ones, should mine head to the big junkyard in the sky.

 

 

Another positive for today. Picked myself up a good toolbox for my multitude of tools. Sure does beat the hell out of carrying a full set of sockets, screwdrivers, rags, PB Blaster, and anything else I usually take out to the junkyards. :rotfl2: Not to mention it holds my badges I'm waiting to put back on the truck.