omega_rugal Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 have anybody tried to unweld the X-frame of a comanche? the idea is to find a MJ with a damaged cab and assuming the X-frame is good, unweld the cab and then, get a good XJ, cut it right behind the front doors and weld the MJ X-frame and the back of the cab... yeah, i`m desperate to get more MJs.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 You could do this, although there is some major complications as there is differences between them. I do not think it would be worthwhile though, as fixing a MJ cab would likely be much easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dzimm Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 19 minutes ago, DirtyComanche said: You could do this, although there is some major complications as there is differences between them. I do not think it would be worthwhile though, as fixing a MJ cab would likely be much easier. This^ It's an interesting idea but even if you tried to turn an XJ into an MJ, you'd need the back of the cab to make it look right, and then a bed, and then all the trim pieces. You would be much better off taking on really really poor shape Comanches and fixing those to save them. The majority of them I've seen for sale recently are listed as "parts" trucks because they are further gone than the current owner cares to fix. You could look for these, scoop them up, then spend your time fixing them because ultimately, they will end up at the crusher. As you get into the swing of saving these, you may come across one that it makes sense to do what you are thinking and graft in major sections of XJ parts to fix it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omega_rugal Posted April 15, 2018 Author Share Posted April 15, 2018 How about crashed or rolled over MJs? as long as the frame, bed and back of cab is good... also MJs that have been stripped but happend to have those parts in good shape, in here people trash perfectly good XJs with blown gaskets or worn engines (which can be fixed) 1 hour ago, DirtyComanche said: although there is some major complications as there is differences so bad to make it not worthy? that`s my question... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 Unfortunately, finding decent MJ "frames" that are not rotted out beyond repair isn't easy. Might be more cost effective to build a custom updated frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omega_rugal Posted April 15, 2018 Author Share Posted April 15, 2018 1 hour ago, HOrnbrod said: Might be more cost effective to build a custom updated frame. that... never ocurred me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dzimm Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 5 hours ago, omega_rugal said: How about crashed or rolled over MJs? as long as the frame, bed and back of cab is good... also MJs that have been stripped but happend to have those parts in good shape, in here people trash perfectly good XJs with blown gaskets or worn engines (which can be fixed) so bad to make it not worthy? that`s my question... Problem with that is good luck finding an MJ that only has damage to the front end and not the rest of it. If the damage to the front was substantial enough to cause the whole front end to be completely unrepairable, the back end wouldn't have survived either. And any stripped MJ is going to missing the key components you would need. Very very rarely would someone take a front clip or fenders from an MJ and not grab the good stuff also, and if this does happen, the next guy walking by is going to grab the rest. I like where your head is at but I think you are delving into the "unicorn" of wrecked MJs and honestly it would never really be worth it to haul a heavily wrecked MJ farther than your state's boarders, at least not at this point in time. You have to consider that yes the XJ and MJ are very similar in that they use a majority of the same parts but the skeleton is completely different. Check out Bleepinjeep on YouTube as he is doing an MJ build currently and in one of his earlier videos in the series, he describes the differences of the frames. I think HOrnbrod has a point in that it's usually going to be easier and more cost effective to build something custom than to graft a bunch of mismatched parts together to make it work. Yes it can be done, but it's extremely difficult and I wouldn't recommend it unless you are a highly skilled fabricator and have a ton of time on your hands, but then consider that time you spent doing drastic repairs to one MJ, how many other MJs you could have saved that needed less work. 10-15 years from now i think we will start to see more conversations about drastic repair work like you are describing, we just aren't at the point that it's worth it yet IMO. And it's not that these trucks and the XJs junked just with bad gaskets aren't worth repairing, but people just don't care for vehicles like they used to and they are considered disposable now. Nobody outside our little world cares about an old rusty pickup that's loud and smells funny or an XJ that they made 2 million of. It's sad really but that's the reality we live in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 So the differences between an MJ cab and XJ "cab" are the floorpan, rockers, back of cab, and the roof. Rust wrecks the floorpan and rockers first. Rollovers wreck the roof and back of cab. I can't think of many situations where it might be less work to swap everything over than to just fix the damage to the MJ. You'd have to peel both the top and bottom off of the XJ "cab" to make it work out the same as factory. You'd be saving what, the firewall, a-pillars, and doors? One member here a few years back did do the '97+ OBD2 swap (I think?) by cutting the front end off an XJ right behind the firewall and welding it onto a similarly cut MJ... But many people have got the same result with significantly less work involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 7 hours ago, HOrnbrod said: Unfortunately, finding decent MJ "frames" that are not rotted out beyond repair isn't easy. Might be more cost effective to build a custom updated frame. He's in Mexico. I doubt they have a problem with rust there. I wonder if Cherokees and Comanches are as popular there as they used to be in Chile (my late wife's native country). The hybrid splice has been done before. I thought we had photos of one somewhere on this site. If we didn't -- we do now. This is a bit too long for my taste. I think it would be better with a shortbed box. Sort of like this (edited photo): Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omega_rugal Posted April 16, 2018 Author Share Posted April 16, 2018 XJs are common here, so common that like i said, they get dumped as soon as something goes wrong, they don`t bother to fix them... MJs are nonexistant, only my unit and like 5 other i have seen, one of which is in very bad shape i also saw several of those 4 door "comancherokees"... and yes rust is not an issue here, mine had rusty floors but that was because some idiot PO got the carpet wet and didn`t do anythign to dry it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 You must be pretty close to the Texas border, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omega_rugal Posted April 16, 2018 Author Share Posted April 16, 2018 right nex to texas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeep Driver Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 If I want one bad enough............. I could find a solid roller for about $800 and drag from wherever to wherever. If I wanted one bad enough. I see no good reason to marry a mouse and a rat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 3 hours ago, Jeep Driver said: I see no good reason to marry a mouse and a rat. But such crossbreeding has produced many wondrous things like the zorse, the mule, and the zedonk. Where would we be without them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertRat1991 Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 On 4/15/2018 at 9:40 AM, HOrnbrod said: Unfortunately, finding decent MJ "frames" that are not rotted out beyond repair isn't easy. Might be more cost effective to build a custom updated frame. On 4/15/2018 at 9:43 AM, omega_rugal said: that... never ocurred me... This is pretty much the Comanche project on the BleepinJeep YT channel. Cut off the x-frame, then replace with a tube frame and custom 4 link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 1 hour ago, saveevryjp1998 said: Anyone looking for this? I don't know what I'd do with it, but I'd take it if I was close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 1 hour ago, saveevryjp1998 said: Anyone looking for this? Damn. Now that saveevryjp1998 knows how to post pics the forum will be overloaded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omega_rugal Posted April 23, 2018 Author Share Posted April 23, 2018 That`s what i was talking about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnuck Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 The ‘90 longbox I was going to graft 12” of my ‘88 MJ cab’s rear onto so I could use the short box and 2dr XJ doors on it turned out to be too rusty for me to do that. Someone wants the back portion of the bed to chop down for practice shortening his but it has the rear X-section up to the driver’s seat that I considered making a trailer from but again, lack of lifetime left to do it all means stuff is going away. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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