Project clean machine?

[The86manche]

Hello everyone, new to the forum but not new to jeeps!

Have owned a few. And currently own two, my other one is a 1995 grand cherokee orvis edition.

So Technically this is my second mj but since the first one i never had for very long at all and never got it running i don't feel like i can't count it.

Anyway recently picked up a very well cared for 1986 jeep comanche X

Its very nice and solid for an 86 truck.

It was owned by 1 family since new and they loved this truck.

They decided it was time to let it go.

10 hours total road time and it was mine and at its new home.

Its an x model, 2.8 auto 4x4.

Since they owned it the motor had been changed. Supposedly its still a 2.8 but its not an amc replacement. Theres no mechanical pump no block off plate. can't even find a serial number. Anyway the engines healthy so I'm not worried.

The trans is still a 904 but its was also replaced, the original one was given to me(in pieces, some assembly required) 

And the d35 had been rebuilt.

It was repainted once before too.

Anyway! So my plan is to fix it up and freshen it up quite a bit.

It needs rustwork on the bed sides under the flares both sides, a rear bumper, rocker and cab corner work and theres only one hole in the floors that needs attention on the drivers side.

Everything else is either solid or just surface rust.

Ive already started some of the repairs.

The fan clutch was shot in a bad way i was getting concerned about my radiator being taken out so i had one sourced and swapped asap.

The park brake did not work so i had to go searching for new cables, not installed yet but have them. she needs an oil change.

And the radiator is at the end of its life.

I found a nice aluminum one made by osc I'm having shipped in 

After that its onto the nightmare that is my vacuum and emissions setup..

Ive also been on the hunt for a unicorn. A non rotted tailgate handle and thats been very tough.

And trying to get my hands on as many spare parts as possible.

Ive been on the fence as to whether or not i want to swap out my dummy lights for gauges if i can find a set up or just put some aftermarket ones in somewhere. Mainly i just like having a tach which it doesnt have..

In the future i plan on respraying the truck, though I'm not so sure what color right now, and bed lining the bed.

So far though shes running like a top so I'm going to enjoy her for the summer before she goes in for surgery in the winter.

 

More to come! 

And always open to tips, pointers and suggestions.

[strictlyxjs]

looks like a solid starting point good to see another 86

[Pete M]

yeah, she looks great for a northern rig   

 

whatever you can see rust-wise front he outside is usually 10 times worse on the inside.    take a peak up in front and behind the rear wheels to see the condition of the steel inside the bedsides.  

[The86manche]

Thanks guys! 

 

I actually already have had a look and though it doesnt look great because its rust its still not as bad as it could be.

Would like to get the bed sodablasted but that won't happen anytime soon.

 

Anyway, did her first oil change today since i got her! I don't know who decided to put the oil filter right under the exhaust manifold but what a terrible placement.. could hardly get my hands in there. 

And then i met up with a guy who was parting out a few comanches and scored on some parts!

Found a unicorn! 

Bought an extra set of tail lights that were in nice shape.

New urethane motor mount bushings still in the box

And these beauts. 

Also found a quarts clock i want to try and install in my truck too!

[The86manche]

Long overdue update!

Ive been doing a bit of tinkering with the truck but for the most part ive just been enjoying driving her around

One of the few things i am happy to have fabbed up was a new handle for my tailgate!

The other things ive done are wire in a quartz clock. Its not the correct year part but i think it looks good. And its black so it matches my interior too.

Found a nice set of chrome drip rail trim that i snagged off another truck i found in a junkyard. Mine were plastic and looked horrible.

And some led headlights. Best choice i have made as far as lighting goes.

 

Aside from that its been just general maintenance mostly.

Put a new starter in her

I found some turbine wheels ill be picking up for her and then just the usual hunting for rare parts. And its not going well lol

Looking for a headliner and a rear bumper.

[The86manche]

I HAVE COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN TO UPDATE THIS THREAD! 

 

Ive been slowly doing work to my truck, i took it off the road for the winter so the salt doesnt eat it away and i have nothing left to fix haha

 

Before winter i fixed my exhaust that was leaking. The gaskets were basically nonexistant.

I also deleted the egr tubes coming off the exhaust manifold.

Durring the winter i went searching for parts.

I sought out a new intake manifold to get rid of my rochester 2 bbl. After a while of searching got a deal on an edelrbock intake and 4bbl adaptor. This summer i plan on installing it.

I also acquired some exhaust headers for pretty cheap too.

And lucky me i even found a minty rear bumper!

I plan on having that stripped and chromed to match the old oe one.

 

Now that its starting to get warm out again ive been starting to work on the truck again. I started pulling parts off. Tail lights, rear flairs, and rear bumper in preparation for the bed to come off for metal work.

Only snapped half the bolts off removing the old bumper 

And i was hoping to save the bumper brackets but as it turned out they were too far gone.. much like the bumper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The86manche]

Local to me i found someone selling a repop 2 door xj quarter panel which i quickly scooped. I plan to use some of this metal to help patch up my bedsides. For anyone who may be wondering the quarter is not the same as the bedside. I am aware and thats okay. It still gives me plenty to work with

 

And since today was such a nice day on the east coast i took advantage of that to do a little more removal work

 

 

I was very happy to find nothing snapped on me.

Today was a good day.

And i think that morr or less brings us up to date on things. I probably missed some details but thats it thus far. I plan to do more work tomorrow and will try and update more regularly

 

[The86manche]

I think it's long overdue I start updating this again.

I'd also like to change the title of this to Candace the comanche (original owners granddaughter had named it that)

Gearing up to give her some much needed love again.

[The86manche]

So before covid hit I had picked up a spare bed from dead jeep in rhoad island.. originally I was going to just do a bed swap but after looking into the bed and some of its.. quality.. I decided it was best to skin it and use it to fix my bed.

It was decent. When you werent looking at it in the sun.

One side had been repaired with what I believe to be a nos bed side assembly? If you could get then that way. It's black ecoat where the poorly matched paint didn't end up.

And the welds were.. subar and bubblegummed here, there. And everywhere..

They welded in the seem in the bed to join the bed side together to the rest of the bed.

Bubblegum in the tail light pocket.

And in the wheel well areas.

[The86manche]

And with that I decided to skin it. Use what I can save and scrap the rest.

Even built a little bed dolly out of wood and Harbour freight castors lol

A nice little punch and a spot weld drill bit worked wonders. And a metal seam splitter.

After.. not nearly that many spot welds I felt later the skins were off and we were left with the wheel tubs.

Very clean panels. No rot at all. Some scale and rust but super clean for a new england bed.

Next up was the wheel tubs.

Went with a slightly different approach to this. I actually cut them out so that I could drill and seperate the pieces I needed.

[The86manche]

It was for sure bubblegummed together and as much as I hated it sure made my work easier. I just sliced the stitch welds they put in and used my metal seam splitter to seperate one side. Other side required drilling.

Not the greatest work I've ever seen by any stretch..

[The86manche]

So the original owner had replaced the WHOLE headliner with carpet. And I knew it was glued up but didn't know how.. until I ripped it down.

Someone knew how to insulate. the sound deadening was very impressive too. I pulled all that out. 

And although everyone hates on the 2.8 this one is healthy and I love it. So I had plans to liven it up. I scored some rare headers for it because they are discontinued.

Needless to say.. 4wd got in the way. lol

D'oh.

[The86manche]

These posts will be all over the place and my photos are everywhere so just roll with it! Lol

[The86manche]

A little time after I found a 3rd gen camaro with a efi 2.8 with headers on it! A different set from the ones I had! Also rare and discontinued. On top of that I found a fiero with a 2.8 and pulled the valve covers.

[The86manche]

And I refurbed the covers. Threw them in the blast cabinet and then painted them high temp red.

There was some pitting and i wanted to remove them and give the top ribs that original shiny look. So i took wet sand paper at different grits, I think I started at 320? On a block and went to town sanding up to 1500 or 2000.

You can see the pitting in one of them, the other side I had sanded to a really nice smooth finish.

Finished product. I used high temp clear on them as well. I was very happy with the end results.

these will be going on my engine along with the edelbrock intake.

[The86manche]

My work had no order of operation. I was working on a little bit of everything. Just whatever I felt like working on at the time. Haha

[The86manche]

Als the headers I may have to combine both a left from one brand and a right from another to make them work from visualizing and investigating.

[The86manche]

For a while the truck went on the back burner for other projects so I didn't really work on it. But you'd better believe I was amassing more and more parts for it.

 

Mj d44 rear axle

Sport bar WITH lights and switch

A few extra martchel fog lights

A handful of tailgates

An mj had hit my local yard so I stripped as much off it I could. 

I have soo many b pillar lights

Solid pane rear glass.

Cl lawerence 3 pane slider

The list just goes on..

More recently I found someone giving away a 2.8!

To which I picked up. Perfect for what I was looking for.

Stripped down, for whatever reason and left. They gave me everything they had and knew about itabout wished me good luck.

I won't need it.. but this little 2.8 will.

after getting my hands on this.

A fageol supercharger for the 60 degree v6 platform. The kit is incomplete but the manufacturer is still around.

the engine thats in my truck I will run until it dies. Or I get impatient. In the mean time I plan to build this 2.8 up for this supercharger

[The86manche]

Of course with that I wanted to get another set of fiero valve covers for this engine too.

I found with success.

I have not touched them yet but I plan to do the same procedures as the last set.

[The86manche]

But after parts gathering and hoarding I decided it was time to get actually working on the truck.

The parts I had removed I have started sand blasting and will apoxy prime when done.

Starting with the wheel tubs.

A discovery I made with these is part of the reason they rot out .

This piece I was blasting I discovered there was shiny bare metal still existing just below the scale line opposite the drain hole. Which led me to believe they were bare metal coming out of the factory. Just up top though, where they couldn't get any sort of coverage.

So anyway. I started blasting.

I ran out of media and went to some sand paper to help break up some scale.

I have picked up more blast media and will resume blasting in a few days.

I intend to do the bed side skins as well.

[Pete M]

not everyone hates the 2.8.   it's perfectly fine as long as you understand it's not a v8.   

[strictlyxjs]

I'm glad you were able to use the bed. I honestly didnt see any of that stuff wrong with it the day you and I looked it over at the shop. That truck was an island truck. It came from Jamestown and the guy only used it to haul his trash off the island since there is no dump. If I recall the milage was 31k but the unibody was rotted in half.

[The86manche]

17 hours ago, strictlyxjs said:

I'm glad you were able to use the bed. I honestly didnt see any of that stuff wrong with it the day you and I looked it over at the shop. That truck was an island truck. It came from Jamestown and the guy only used it to haul his trash off the island since there is no dump. If I recall the milage was 31k but the unibody was rotted in half.

At first glance you wouldn't notice anything wrong but it was one of those things, the longer I looked at it the more I noticed something seemed off.

What I needed was absolutely still usable and good and I appreciate you guys loading it up for me.

I remember seeing the truck. Was a sad sight but it went on to help my truck

[The86manche]

19 hours ago, Pete M said:

not everyone hates the 2.8.   it's perfectly fine as long as you understand it's not a v8.   

Whaaaat? It's only missing two cylinders.. and most of a v8 displacement. How is it not a v8? 

[The86manche]

Well we had a nice day today so after i work I got to do some.. work.

I wheel tub I was working on I pulled back out and went over it with the sand blaster one more time. I went to tractor supply and got a bunch of media, turns out too fine, but It still works.

Wiped it down and coated it with 2 coats of rustoleum rust reformer.

I won't lie I'm a skeptic for this stuff but I wanted to give it a try anyway. I let it dry in the sun and gove it a week to see if anything comes through. I plan to apoxy these as well.

Drys to a flat black finish and all in all I was happy with the results.