88 Comanche in Lusby, MD

[drcomanche]

I'll begin with a short preface and call today a very sad day for me. I have spent years tending to my truck and to this day, still love having it and don't want to let it go. I have learned a ton from this community and all the great people here and have really grown to admire everyone and the vehicles themselves on here. This will not be my last time owning one of these awesome trucks, but this time, it's a bit too much for me to handle. The truck itself has the onset of frame rail rust, and after pricing my options and considering very carefully what I could do about it, I came to the conclusion that I simply don't draw enough money to save it and give it what it needs. I want it to go to a good home with someone who actually cares and respects it, and there are no better people I can think of than this club. 

 

The truck is a 1988 body with a 1993 Jeep Cherokee engine. It has a laundry list of parts on it and I have documentation of receipts dating to well before I even had the truck totally well over 10k invested. I personally have upgraded the rear calipers to accomodate an emergency brake (although the cabling and lever were never installed). The front axle is a D44 from a 77 Ford with 5.13 gears in it and a Yukon locker. It was recently welded up with a brand new axle truss from T&T customs. The rear axle is a Ford 9 with the same gears and a spool. It currently sits 6 1/2" up on 35 inch General Grabber Red Letters with about 20% tread left. It has a T&T y link assembly for the front axle with a built in tcase skid plate bolted to the frame. It has a Teraflex SYE assembly built in. It's disc brakes all around, but the front needs new pads and hub rotors since the old ones gouged a quarter inch out of them. The truck is a manual with an AX15 trans. It has hesitation getting into gears and probably needs a new bearing and a good flush. Many new parts on the engine. I replaced the injectors, plugs, coils, distributors, and every sensor you can think of within the last 10k. The body is in ok shape with the onset of rocker panel rust(I was going to cut it out and weld in steel square tube for rock rails). One side is bent up from some a tree on the trail, so if you're looking for a show truck, this isn't it. It was born and bred to be an offroader. It has a prefab winch mountable front bumper with brush guard and a square steel tube rear bumper. The interior is all gray except the headliner, which is black and it's the full console with bucket seats. It also has the visor shelf that's hard to find nowadays. The floor pans have been treated well and rewelded with fresh steel and then bedlined to prevent further rusting. There was so much put into this truck that I can't even begin to list it all. It comes with a crapload of extra parts(2 transfer cases, one in pieces, a hood, interior parts, extra windows, seals, engine parts, tires, rollbar, etc.). Visit my build page to see it in depth and all the work that's been done.

 

As stated before, it has framerail rust starting at the forward leaf spring hanger with a 1 inch by 3 inch hole and one at the axle bend that's about 1x1, and both of these are only on the passengers side. The drivers side was looked at extensively and seems fine. Anyone with some welding skills could fix this up easy and sleeve it. There is rust in the cross member for the bed rails too, but not enough to put holes in it. It has body rust at the rockers, but none at the wheel arches. I never finished my axle rebuild, so to take it away(and get it down the hill it's on) it will need a dummy axle to bolt up and get it moving.

 

I'm asking 3500 or best offer. I know I will never get the money that was put in back out of it, but I just want it to go to a good home and live on. Too many of these trucks are dying off, so we need to keep them going. Feel free to post up any questions and I will try to answer them.