89 MJ Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 As a whole, it looks pretty darn solid though. The soft spots in the frame are unfortunate, but don’t look too bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted April 10 Author Share Posted April 10 13 hours ago, 89 MJ said: As a whole, it looks pretty darn solid though. The soft spots in the frame are unfortunate, but don’t look too bad. You are correct. It is still quite solid. Nothing that would question viability of this project at least. It's rough where the rear bumper brackets would bolt too. Oh well, rust belt woes haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted April 16 Author Share Posted April 16 Last night I made more teardown progress! Arguably got the hardest part out of the way. Front and rear glass removed. I was able to save the rear window gasket too! The windshield though.. did not save. The slider I probably won't use again. The seals are failing and ir was leaking into the cab from the bottom corners. I have a cl lawerence 3 pane slider I'm thinking about using instead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted April 16 Author Share Posted April 16 You just love to see it... At least it's not rotted. Just rusty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted April 16 Author Share Posted April 16 I also removed the whole dash assembly, wiring and all. Sketchiest part of that was removing the defrost vent panel without breaking it. Which I succeeded at. It just feels like very dry and brittle plastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted April 17 Author Share Posted April 17 Just chugging right along here! Front and rear shocks are out, fenders off, heater core out, pulled the firewall insulation, wiper motor is almost out, all the wiring is removed. I picked away at the rust and scale to assess rust damage. Cab corners are gone. Both rockers are paper thin, driver floor is gone, passenger floor is decent. I've got two patches to do at the back of the cab where two drain plugs go. Driver fender is rotted at the bottom. Passenger fender was replaced at some point and has a date stamp of '92 on the back but it's good. Big strides! Major progress! Even with the rust.. I'm still happy with the progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H3ADBANG4L1F3 Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 Great progress! Both of our trucks are in a similar state of nakedness. I'll be watching yours for inspo. You may be able to touch up those seals on the slider with RTV, similar to what Pizzaman did to his vent windows. https://comancheclub.com/topic/68921-1990-comanche-eliminator/?do=findComment&comment=763885 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted May 13 Author Share Posted May 13 Alright, the clock is a ticking now! June 3rd Candace has a date with the sandblasters so I've got to put the hammer down own getting her as naked as possible. The interior is basically just a steering column now. Door panels have been removed and the doors are about ready to be gutted. I've got sway bar, motor/ trans and brake and fuel lines left. Doors and hood are the only bolt on panels left on the trick. If I have time I'm going to get as much seam sealer as I can out of the cab, maybe remove the floor braces and cut out the rockers and cab corners so it can be blasted behind there. And right after that my work will be epoxying the chasis. Both doors. Never been opened since sealed in 86! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted May 15 Author Share Posted May 15 A little more progress! Doors and steering column are the only thing left to address with the interior. After I took the photo I decided to pull the 4x4 shifter. Sway bar, track bar, steering box, all unbolted. and removing the sway bar links i discovered that the torx bolt for the axle side of the link wasnt knurled. It was smooth. Was that like that in 86? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted June 3 Author Share Posted June 3 Updates! 2 weeks ago I yanked out the engine, trans and transfercase from the jeep and put it away for storage. Trans and transfercase I won't likely use so at some point they will be up for grabs. The engine I'm not sure about yet. I also got the bed loaded up with parts and put away for storage for now. After all that was taken care of I went on a trip to vegas for a week for some long overdue r&r. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted June 3 Author Share Posted June 3 After getting back from vegas I had the weekend get a lot of stuff done before work. Yard work and the like. I also had the weekend to get the truck ready for sandblasting too. I wish I could have removed the seam sealer myself to save the blaster some time but oh well. I got her all the way down to a bare shell and loaded up on the trailer to be dropped off today 6/3/24. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 Dropped off at the sandblasting shop this past Monday. Will get her back mid next week roughly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 In the mean time I've been tinkering with the dana 44 axle that will be going into the truck. The bolt that holds the brake hose to the axle had broke off so I tried extracting it. Turns out it refuses to leave. I had quite the fight with it. Tried welding nuts to it and the stud would only break shorter until it was flush. Then I tried an easy out and it snapped in the bolt. Somehow got lucky and managed to weld to it and extract it. Thinking about just drilling it all the way out and retapping it at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted June 17 Author Share Posted June 17 Got the hole drilled and taped for the axle. Got it stripped apart a little more. A happy surprise inside and a not so happy surprise inside. The happy surprise! Clutch packs! And a 3.54 gear ratio. Which would in theory make it bolt in ready for my truck but.. Spider gears got a little chewed up in its years of use. And it looks like there was a roll pin holding the spider gear dowel in place and the rollpin sheered. And God only knows the condition of those clutch packs. So not actually bolt in ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted July 5 Author Share Posted July 5 Got Candace back from the sandblasters mid week! She's better in some spots and worse in others than I thought. But still very fixable. And they did a pretty good job for $700! they didnt clean her out though so i had to make sure i didn't have anyone behind me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted July 5 Author Share Posted July 5 And then dropped her off at my work for epoxy primer Friday morning(today) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted July 5 Author Share Posted July 5 And then epoxy! Took a few hours but turned out real nice! wasnt thrilled to see how bad that was. Still fixable though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvagedcircuit Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 Nice work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 Project Candace is underway again! Made some progress tonight! Passenger side floor braces were removed for floor patch. For an 86 the passenger floor is considerably clean! The braces are even reusable. The main brace does have pitting but it's not compromised. drilling out the spot welds sure took some time though and my back doesn't thank me for it. Haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted August 14 Author Share Posted August 14 Progress progress progress! Tackled the drivers floor braces. Not nearly as fun because I couldn't tell where some of the spot welds were and the brace turned out to be too thin and folded on me. Getting the brace off revealed some.. less than desirable results. I wish the driver side was as nice as the passenger side. The floor is toast a ways up. cleaning out the rail was fun too. Full of black beauty and rust flakes. And although not terrible, still not great to find a small portion of the unibody slightly compromised. Easy fix and small spot but not one I wanted to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The86manche Posted September 13 Author Share Posted September 13 As I pinch pennies for some more sheet metal I figured I'd do some more work elsewhere. I went back to the d44 to do more work! Center chunk removed! It's an absolute mess! Spider gears are chewed, the pin is held in by hopes and dreams, the amount of glitter and chunks is astounding. Seals are shot too. It was just a list of discoveries that I didn't love. I also found out one side of the axle had new bearings installed.. and I could pull the race out by hand.. so someone may have spun a bearing? And I have to deal with that. But I'm going to make it work! In the meantime I scuffed and coated the whole axle in flat black rustoleum. That turned out nice at least! Next step is to take the pinion gear out, remove the rest of the races and pressure wash the chunks and glitter out of it so I can put it back together and put it under the truck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Car Enthusiast Posted September 14 Share Posted September 14 Nice man, digging out all of the bad will make you feel better once it's done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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