2001 Comanche Crew Cab - Detroit Didn't But I Did!

[Pete M]

 

 

 

[krustyballer16]

I used to have a picture of when a buddy saw this in Illinois.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[johnj92131]

WOW.  Love the documentation!  Very pleased to see this follow up.

 

Do you still own and drive this truck?

 

Should be a Comanche of the year!

 

 

[bamamanche85]

i wanna build one so bad lol..

 

[DirtyComanche]

Amazing build.

 

How was the fender flares joined?  Electric plastic welder, or with fiberglass and filler, or?

[redhornet122]

I'm sending you a Comanche and a Cherokee to commission a build!!  That thing looks fantastic!

[J. Cesar]

On 8/2/2013 at 6:39 AM, Britt said:

I hope the link works below to take you to a couple of pictures of my almost completed (95%) Jeep Comanche Crew Cab pickup (X/MJ).  It has been a dream of mine ever since the MJ Comanche disappeared in 92 and I finally got the time and funds to complete it.  Started with a low mile 2001 rust free XJ 4x4 Sport 4 door Cherokee (one of 2.85 million made) and a rust free 87 Comanche short bed base truck and after about 3 years of part time work and lots of it, the end result is even better than I expected.  I never thought the proportions would be so good and I think the overall look is about as factory as if Detroit made it (which they should have).  The wheelbase was stretched from 101" to 147" in the process and it rides like a dream - the overal length is 19.5 '.  Learning to park is a whole new process tho as it seems the rear of the truck does not go where the rear of the Cherokee went or not at the same time at least.

 

The unibody frame junction is in the middle of the back door of the Cherokee and is reinforced on each side with 3x3x42" long angle iron with 1.5" holes drilled every 6 inches and rosette welded to both the Comanche and Cherokee side of the unibody frame.  A new drive shaft tunnel was fabricated and rolled with new sheet metal and ties the rear of the two driveshaft tunnels together. The floor joints and rocker boxes are either butt welded or plated and welded 100% side to side.  The drive shaft was 27.5" long for the Cherokee and a new 5" diameter x 72.5" long aluminum driveshaft was made and balanced by a local suspension shop in Evansville IN.  I took the Cherokee trans crossmember and the Comanche trans cross member (now empty and about 30 " behind the Cherokee's) and made a single cross member by cross bracing and plating the two together.  It bolts to the bottom of the frame rails in the original places using four bolts into the Cherokee and four bolts into the Comanche portions of the crossmember and frame rails.

 

The bottom back corner of the Comanche doors were cut and welded to the bottom back of the Cherokee back doors to fill in the former Cherokee wheel well cut out in the back doors.  The Comanche door post slanted back while the Cherokee rear door post slanted forward so there is a 3" wide x 15 long triangular piece of metal welded in to tie the two posts together.  Th roof of the Comanche was 1" taller than the Cherokee so I made a rear spoiler with the height difference at the very back of the cab top - looks like it belongs.  From the rear door latch up is Cherokee while below the latch is Comanche on both the door post and the door itself.  The local trim shop found the original cloth material to match the front buckets and recovered the Comanche bench to match the front buckets for a five passenger capcacity (all the mounting points for the original bench seat were still with the Comanche portion of the truck floor).

 

I used the plastic gas tank from the Cherokee and the metal floor / gas tank mounting area from the rear of the Cherokee and placed it where the Comanche spare tire was located behind the rear axle - an easy fix for the gas tank.  Then I had to fabricate (not so easy) gas fill and vent lines from the new tank location up to the original bedside fill door as I did not want to move the gas filler door to the back of the bed side.  I used the Comanche Dana rear end for now since the 3.55 ratio matched the front of the Cherokee but still have the 8.25 Chrysler unit if the Dana gives out (more fabrication needed at that time).  The top rack is from an 02 Nissan Frontier (fits like a glove) and the nerf bars are from a Toyota Tacoma four door long bed - OK does Johnny Cash come to mind?

 

After much body work and block sanding, I painted the back doors, cab top/sides/back and bed with the original 2001 Cherokee Stone White base coat / clear coat but am not thrilled with the match and will likely end up painting the rest of the truck at some time down the road.  Its OK for now as I will be driving the Crew as my daily driver as soon as the headliner in installed and a few more things are worked thru.  I have a PowerPoint picture group of the build starting with the two vehicles if anyone is interested - I would be glad to share.  I did not keep track of hours but am guessing I have between 400 and 500 hours invested but as of now that time pretty much has disappeared in my mind especially after seeing what the result was. 

 

Thanks Britt - From Southern Illinois and a Southern Illinois University Engineering Graduate way back in 1974 - yes I am older than dirt!

 

 

Awesome job!! Congrats!! 

I would love to see the photos of the work. How could I see them? this is my email julioae159@gmail.com

Congratulations again!!

[ComancheCrewCab]

Your an inspiration , getting close to finishing mine, used your data as a template for my build, did you ever build anymore crewmanche’s?

[ComancheCrewCab]

Can you post some interior shots, this is where I’m at with mine