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'91 Comanche H.O. Build


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Good morning! I've been wanting to get started with some work to my "new to me" MJ. Had to finish up a project on my Sonoma 4x4 and hopefully have a buyer lined up.

 

I've wanted a Comanche since I was a kid cruising around our hunting lease with my brother in our uncle's 4x4 daily driver Comanche.

 

3 years ago I bought a cheap GMC Sonoma for our hunting ranch and that truck taught me how to weld, rust repair and to start understanding some mechanical work on vehicles. Rust stinks but man that 4.3L engine started everytime. Fast forward to about August 2017, frame rot got the best of her and the steering gear completely broke loose. Brought her home and began working on the fix. In the mean time I knew it was time to upgrade to a jeep truck.

 

Started a local search for a Comanche and found one on Craigslist in Houston and reached out by phone and email but never heard back from the dealer/owner (to their credit, this was weeks after hurricane Harvey and his business could have been lost, I don't know) So the search expanded and I found my '91 in Virginia, dealt with the owner, agreed and had it transported back to Houston. Here's what she's working with...

1991 Sportruck 4.0L H.O.

4x4 Automatic

73,000 miles

Short bed

231 transfer case

2" coil spacers

Dana 30 & 35 with 3.55 gears

Bench seat

Vinyl floor mat

Some rust but nothing compared to my last

 

Some issues..

Outer window seals are rotted away, last hard rain had 1/4" of water in both floor boards

Brakes are fairly weak but definitely functional

Power Steering pump is whiney

Possible rust repair needed in floor pans, nervous about pulling the mat up

Shift indicator needle is gone.. I want to replace that for sure

Speedo isn't working

Driver side door sag just a bit

Pillar lights or door jamb switch not working

 

With that said, this MJ starts and runs awesome. 4x4 engages and works really well. It has so much more pep and acceleration and handling than my Sonoma. The engine is strong and the truck is light!

 

Future plans..

This will need to handle off road as it will be my primary hunting truck. However, it's in good shape so I'm going to make sure its road ready too. Here are a few plans...

 

Fix outer window seals.. water in cab is ungood!

Fix the Jeep emblem

Ford 8.8 axle swap, spring over

Regear Dana 30 to 4.10 with a TrueTrac

Add frame stiffeners

Upgraded HD steering

Long arm lift

285/75/16s

Upgraded front bumper

Load sensing valve delete, not hooked up anyway currently

95/96 Cherokee brake booster & MC swap

Possible switch to bucket seats

Possible switch to carpet

Radiant barrier / sound deadening mat of some type

Window tint

 

Got started this week with my first project, a complete flush of the power steering, helped some with the whining but didn't completely fix.

 

Bought a JY Ford 8.8 limited slip with 4.10 gears and discs from a '99 Eddie Bauer Explorer

 

This Comanche is awesome already and I'm pumped to make it even more capable for what we need and lots of fun along the way. I hope you all like it and I hope I can reach out with tons of questions and advice.

 

Just to mention, one of many inspirations from following CC was Brook's 89 Sportruck

 

Here's "The H.O." it's been given as a trial nickname that might stick or it can earn another.22daf280408c573fcb730d90eb1b30c2.jpgae951b90f53571ad6eccb5df68aa266c.jpga0326ae6beb48124635ee8605fb8a9f2.jpgac31eec85ee0150c5c91dc49e9fefe65.jpgfb61fd91f329fcd6060001c8ca4fe72a.jpg50ed64e129204dcce12cf5283a32447d.jpg31f66b24d6af9677adb8699e88e39d80.jpg10c43aa34a043fe9a090e22c8949bf76.jpg66f454dbb337f22a429e3706d1b96add.jpg

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Presidents day sale a few weeks ago.. pulled the trigger on Mickey Thompson MTZs 285 75 16s with Pro Comp 16" wheels.. I'd been following a few online retailers for tires and I thought based on price I was gonna get the BFG km2s when the right sale hit they were about a hundred less than the Mickey Thompson's, watched these prices each weekend or so for 3 months and prez day sale hit and Mickey Thompson's dropped a deal and I jumped on it.. for our rocky and unforgiving southwest Texas hunting ranch, quality tires are a must.. we've seen many many good all terrains and mudders lay flat when they can't handle the mesquite thorns and cactus. Can't wait to get these mounted up! 0225e71a5d140e3d81bbc9fbf3d23dde.jpg

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Looks like you have a good solid HO platform there to work with. Original paint?
Thanks HOrnbrod! No sir on the original paint, it must have gotten in a fender bender or something, the PO changed the drivers front fender, front clip and hood. He showed me pictures of some of that progress and it was originally a squiggly stripe Sportruck.
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My project yesterday got a little side-tracked when my dog got scared by the air compressor coming on. Once I started with the air sprayer, he took off and my mom and i had to track him down in the neighborhood.. Luckily some nice folks were playing with their dogs and mine decided to join in. They read the tag on his collar and called me right then. So thankful!

 

So back to work.. my windshield trim clips are broken and the trim was half hanging on. I removed it and going to try and get the rest of the clips. I want to add a soft rubber black trim for the later Cherokee.. 95+ I believe. Has anyone used that one instead of the hard pieces and clips?

 

I believe ill post up these chrome trim pieces in the clsssifieds if anyone is interested. I'll get the new molding and see if its gonna work.

 

The original owner must have reinstalled the windshield and set it too low to be able to reinstall new clips. We'll make it work somehow! d2504bfbdc687863db867f8bf5766c52.jpg&key=3af18ee85694355f23e0fec01d3085cc68c16a2e0573692139a57eb8f57c499f

 

 

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Looks awesome! I'm hoping when I have the windshield replaced I can pull the trim pieces and clean them up. I think they were chrome originally and they've been painted lack It'd be nice if they cleaned up well.

 

Keep up the updates!

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32 minutes ago, Skorpyo said:

Looks awesome! I'm hoping when I have the windshield replaced I can pull the trim pieces and clean them up. I think they were chrome originally and they've been painted lack It'd be nice if they cleaned up well.

 

Keep up the updates!

 

It should. The trim is stainless and it polished up nicely when I had a new windshield put in.

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Looks awesome! I'm hoping when I have the windshield replaced I can pull the trim pieces and clean them up. I think they were chrome originally and they've been painted lack It'd be nice if they cleaned up well.
 
Keep up the updates!
Thanks Skorpyo! They we're pretty easy to get off, once you get one clip broke or popped loose, the pieces just slide right off (pretty much) even after 27 years of being on there. Mine are chrome or maybe stainless like Hornbro says, they could be cleaned up really nice either way.. or prepped and painted
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Awesome! Well if you get around to getting yours done before mine share any tips you figure out.

 

When I put the chrome trim on the front the PO of the donor had rattle canned the Jeep and there was a lot of overspray. I ended up using those magic erasers and that did a great job getting off the paint without marring the plastic chrome. I might try that for the windshield trim too.

 

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Sweet I just ordered a set thanks
Heck yeah man.. I figured 30 bucks was better than the time to JY some used ones! I hope they work out as good as mine did, I used a dead blow poly hammer to tap the clips the final little bit in place..fyi
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4 minutes ago, rosco11 said:
7 minutes ago, 88whitemanche said:
Sweet I just ordered a set thanks

Heck yeah man.. I figured 30 bucks was better than the time to JY some used ones! I hope they work out as good as mine did, I used a dead blow poly hammer to tap the clips the final little bit in place..fyi

Cool thanks 

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  • 2 months later...

A few weeks ago we did the big reveal! Bought the Ford 8.8 limited slip axle at the junk yard.. we suspected from the vehicle it came from, but were not sure exactly if its the preferred beafy 31 spline or a normal 29 spline axle shaft.. once we take this cover off, we'll find out!15ba79e5f5aecb9c4be453cbeb5e80a8.jpgbb19bcc4ccb3119aebcd07aabd9e9eb2.jpg8f8a8483ad7f1795e7ecd8f7c13ce139.jpg

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last weekend my brother and i tackled the first major projects.. In the June Texas heat everything about it was a little tougher that day. We removed the bed & remove the holy gas tank. We fought the bed bolts all afternoon, broke the middle two studs and couldn't find the rears. Taking the bed off was supposed to be easy..lol. didn't want to, but we removed the bumper and receiver hitch mounts and bam.. rear bolts were hidden by the mounts. Got em off, unhooked everything with gas tank, filler hoses, muffler hanger etc and it came right off. d6ac5b3b49b09cd7b3d076165256bc7c.jpg7d479819e71929183bdd250f9f9880a7.jpgccb899c0627a8b4c7f57e127fca73501.jpg

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On 6/14/2018 at 6:03 PM, rosco11 said:

What are these little spacer looking things that the bed sat on? They were in terrible shape. What are good replacements for those when we put the bed back on? Washers? Or can you find real replacements?

 

Just ran into the same problem myself. They are bed spacers. I'm going to use this set. https://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-144-Piece-Body-Shim-Assortment/dp/B00YN6XZAE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529531084&sr=8-1&keywords=body+shim+kit&dpID=51bbAdsE86L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

 

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