J9's Crapmanche.....

[KCsurfer420]

So ive been working on a 87 short bed MJ that I acquired about a year ago as a replacement body for my Comanche, so I thought I would share what I was doing to the truck and the story that goes with it. A build thread if you will....

 

After picking up the MJ as a roller with no motor in it my plans were to strip every thing off of my truck and transfer it over to a clean slate. My truck has been great to me but I haven’t been so great to the truck. don't get me wrong, I love my MJ but at the time I finished the truck I was called out to just south of Lake Tahoe Ca for work. Knowing I was going to be that close to the Rubicon I wasn’t going to just leave my MJ at home. well lets just say the Rubicon defiantly took its toll on my truck not to mention the 2 trips to Moab ut and all of the trails around Las Cruses NM.

 

This story changes pace during a trip to Moab, and during that trip I met a super sexy lady, we will call her J9. After a bit of hitting on her ive acquired her heart and let me say SHES super beautiful, has a good head on her shoulders, and besides that she’s a jeep girl with a set up xj. What more could a guy want? I invited her down for Christmas and this was her Christmas present.

 

So the plan now is a full 99 swap with all of the options offered. I bought a rolled 99 2door xj a while back and most of the parts will be donated from that one but I have acquired a bunch of other little things from some other XJs that I have parted out like a nice set of leather 6way power and heated seats.

 

But enough of my babbling now on to some pictures...

 

here's how it looked the day I drug it home... Originally it had a 2.5 and was 2 wheel drive.

 

 

Not bad for 250$ and its rust free.... I love living in the Desert south west...

[Jakesjeepmj1988]

i like your jeep fleat there, very nice

[KCsurfer420]

i like your jeep fleat there, very nice

 

Hey thanks,

 

Its an addiction that for me has been worse than crack, but at least its not as bad on the health. I’ve bought and sold a lot of XJ's in the past and a few MJ's. Since this was suppose to be a replacement body for my mj, I’ve begun the search for another short bed mj to replace my body with.

 

Now back to the crapmanche...

 

It didn’t take long for me to start gutting the inside of the truck and can I just say it was filthy. The Mj had been sitting in the back of an older guys house with out a motor for about 5 years and the sun sure did a number on the inside. I love the desert south west for the lack of rust on the MJ's and XJ's, but the sun sure takes its toll on all of the plastic parts and paint.

 

I don’t have many pictures of the tear down, I’m bad about snapping pictures, but J9 will be relocating down here some time soon so she’s going to be the photographer for this project.

 

After striping down the 99 Xj I had a trailer and bed full of parts

 

I rolled the comanche in to my shop and hung the 99 doors but at this point I still hadent installed the strikers. this is about the time i started on mock up for the dash and all of the other tidbits that are needed to get the fire wall modified for the swap.

 

If you have fallowed and of the other 99 swaps then you know what firewall mods need to be made to get the dash in, with that being said here's some of my mock up pictures ...

 

during mockup i had used the gasket from both the 87, and the 99 around where the heater core outlet. after much tought i changed that but ill get in to that a little later.

 

Ive had J9 start picking up some parts for this thing and I'm hopeing that she will chime in on things that she wants for the finishe product for this truck. This bild thread is to share some of the progress with her as she iss 500miles from me for the time being but thats soon to change....

 

More to come......