The Start Of Something... 86' Comanche Custom

[ComancheHungry]

Hey bud great looking truck but i have to say you deffinately lucked out for 2 reasons the first bing obviously you have found an amazing truck but the second being you didnt end up with the mx-3 i picked one up from a buddy of mine who didnt know a thing about cars (funny cause we were in every auto class together and we worked at jiffy oube then merlin for a while together) but anyways he got it for $700 and then sold it to me for $300 because it needed a new alternator and a few a/c things because it didnt work i said fine. First time opening up the hood i found it just didnt have the 2nd serpentine belt on it so i picked up a new one and got it one there and the thing ran fine no problems but it was deffinately a pos. any amount of moisture on the road i would slide all over the place going from speeds 50-65 it would get the death wobble (which i found out was common) and overall things just sucked on it. It might have gone differently for you but who knows anyways the day i sold it the guy paid $1000 for it and as he was turning the corner driving away the engine blew and it was off my hands i was releaved it didnt happen to me anyways the guy didnt ask for his money back but i towed it to his place and last i heard he got a new engine in the and yadda yadda yadda bottom line you did good man!

[Minuit]

:drool: :drool: :bowdown: Wow, this thing is fantastic. I love me a black long bed. I'm thinking of possibly swapping my wheels out for Ravines in the future, they're my favorite of the stock wheels by far.

[TheDirtyJeep401]

Thanks guys

.

I am glad that I didn't get that MX-3, it was a cool looking car but did need a lot of work. I am glad that I ended up with the Comanche, it has become very useful and fun.

 

Ravines in my opinion are the best looking rims jeep has made, next in line would be Moabs, thought about putting them on my truck, but I love these ravines. They do look great.

 

They look sporty and I bet they would look good on your truck.

[TheDirtyJeep401]

Made a little bit of progress since the snow has finally melted and the temperature rose up some.

 

The back of my truck has REALLY been biting me, it just looks so ugly. 

 

Also decided to add some color. 

 

The Final result. 

 

 

[Minuit]

A touch of color helps everything :thumbsup:

[shelbyluvv]

She is getting prettier by the day. I am really liking this truck.

[earl*t]

Congratulations on "MJOTM" Young Jeeper!!!

[Minuit]

Sharing my late congratulations on MJOTM as well. This thing's really become something to be proud of and I'm sure there's nothing but progress ahead of you :cheers:

 

Also, congrats on the almost 1-year anniversary of your build!

[TheDirtyJeep401]

Boy did I have to do some digging to find this old thread. Nothing posted in over 3 years.

 

At this point a lot of things have changed. But not always for the better. I still have it. But with life and working and all the other things it takes to be an adult, things get put on the back burner. But that has already started to change.

 

Some know but many don't of what has happened to the truck. This is going to be the summary of what has happened in the past 3 years (can't believe it's been that long)

 

The last time I posted about this truck I was still a junior in high school. Driving the truck everyday to and from school. Just keeping up on regular maintinence. Senior year rolls around and I'm still driving it daily. Had a couple of problems ( front tires went bad, clutch master cylinder failed on my way home) but fixed them and kept driving it. End of senior year I was already enrolled in college. Starting in August of 15'. Drove it all summer like normal.

 

Then the disaster strikes.

 

It was the day before college, I had to drive to the campus (about 30 miles from my home) to go to freshman orientation. My girlfriend with me as she was going to the same college. Got to the campus, got everything set up, so the next day my first day of college would be like everyone else's first day. On the way back I followed one of my high school friends back home as he was also going to the same college. And that was when everything had changed.

 

I was about 3 car lengths away from my friend ahead of me, with about 3 cars ahead of him. Suddenly I see the brake lights come on, and the back end of a Tahoe raise up under hard braking. I thought I would get it to stop in time but I was wrong. At that split second I had 3 options that either way, would not end well. 1. I try to steer to the left lane praying that none is coming and come to a stop (in which someone was coming) 2. I slide right into the back of my friends Tahoe and hope for the best that we are okay. Or 3. Jump off the highway to the right, with a drop of about 8 ft down. In that slips second decision, I chose number 3. I locked the brakes up and somehow got the truck steered to the right. I ended up clipping my friends Tahoe on the passenger side (my drivers side) and lifting all 4 tires dukes of hazard style down to the ditch at about 55mph. Landing was hard. Got the truck stopped luckily since there was a tree line and a creek about 50 ft from where I stopped. I was in shock. The truck was still running and i got it shut off. The first thing I did was run out of my truck and crawl over it and pull my girlfriend out. She was in so much shock that she could get words out. I got her out of the truck and got away from it, not noing if the truck was going into flames. We crawled out of the ditch. My friend pull to the side of the road and running down the ditch to make sure we were okay along with another man who was in front of him. The people behind me that witnessed the whole thing stopped too. At the end of it we were okay. My girlfriend bruised her arm from it resting on the door, but other than that we were just really shaken up and shocked as we did not believe at what just happened.

 

 

The People behind me were very nice to call 911 since we were all in shock and one of the EMTs was a guy I knew. Family showed up making sure we were okay and they re directed traffic as they took a police report and pulled my truck out of the steep embankment. Once they made sure we were okay and looked us over, we were cleared to go home. I rode with the wrecker driver with my MJ on the back taking it home. And he told me that he didn't know know how I pulled that off. He said that he had been doing wrecker services for over 10 years and had pulled many vehicles from that exact highway all the time. 95% of them being rollovers. The fire fighters that went down to make sure the truck was not a hazard said that it took it like a champ. Saying that most vehicles just crumble after an accident like that. I finally get him home and unload it. Not being able to inspect it since it was getting late, and it was a requirement for you to be at school on your first day or you would be kicked out and have to re enroll later on.

 

Both of us the next day were sore like no other. And tired. Going to our first day of college was horrible. Once classes released, we went home to inspect the damage done to the truck.

 

I'll upload pictures soon but I can't at the moment due to being in my iPad.

 

The front axle was snapped on the passenger side. The tube completely snapped and the truck was setting on just the wheel. Front divers side of it was smashed. Fender, header panel, bumper, (somehow my grille and upper grill trim were okay) were trashed. So I pulled it into the garage under its own power to hide it from the world.

 

I contiplated on what do with it. Sell it, part it out, fix it, etc.. But the more I thought about it. I couldn't sell it or part it out. Because of the fact of what this truck has done for me. It was my first truck, it got me back and forth to school and everywhere else, and I have so many memories in that truck. But there was one big reason as to why I wanted to give my truck a second chance. Because the more I thought about it, I realized something. That truck saved my girlfriend and I lives. If it were any other vehicle in the same instance, the air bag would have deployed and blinded me from getting the truck stopped at the moment of impact, I would have landed a lot harder in car and ended up through the trees and in the creek. That truck saved our lives. And for that big reason, I couldnt get rid of it. I could not since it did the dirty work for my girlfriend and I to still be here in one piece.

 

After it sat for nearly 7 months I started to tear it apart. Know it would need a lot but not knowing what all it needs. My uncle got me a parts Comanche to use to rebuild mine. 87 Sportruck shortbed 2.5 2 wheel drive 4 speed. So I pulled the axle swapped them out. Put the header panel and fendes on mine from the donor. And finally it was back on a 4s again. I drove it around the block and drove it around for aabout a week. Then one day I looked at it from a distance. And noticed something just wasn't setting right. After looking around on the body more I found that at the point where the axle broke (keep in mind the front passenger tire was the first to hit the ground) had hit so hard that it had shoved the front right of the frame rail up, bending the frame. At this point I was lost and knew it wasnt cheap to fix the frame. And around the same time the master cylinder blew internally, my guess from hitting the pedal so hard.

 

And ever since then it has sat. For nearly a year and a half. But that is starting to change.

 

I have since gotten a quote on fixing the frame. Rebuilt the brake systems. And have bought basically a whole new drive train. And I'm now to the point to where here in a couple of weeks. I'll be driving it again everyday. It's currently in the state of floor patching and new interior. Once that's done, it's straight to the frame straightener. Then once again, I can drive this truck.

 

It's been a long time and I have been on here looking at other peoples projects coming up with new ideas learning more and more about it. So I'm happy to say that it's back. And I can't wait to bring it back from the dead. The day has finally come.

[Fernando87mj]

Man that's crazy , glad you're okay though , don't give up on the jeep , keep us updated !

[TheDirtyJeep401]