1989 Comanche Project: A Love Story

[Hudy]

I'm almost giddy posting this. 4 years of owning this Comanche and I'm finally starting the process of getting it back to where it should be. 

So here's the story:

I bought a fixer-upper house 5 years ago and had a need for a work truck. My brother, knowing my love for Jeeps (and MJs), was living in Seattle at the time and found the perfect fit: A 1989 Long Bed, 4.0, 4WD MJ. He bought it for me, worked for several months getting it ready, and my girlfriend (now wife) flew from Philadelphia to Seattle to pick it up.

And we drove it home. Our 7 day cross country trip included 2 days in Moab, UT and 2 days in Ouray, CO (Alpine Loop). We still talk about the trip once a week to this day. 

As a side note: If you're ever wondering whether you've found the right woman to marry, put her in a 25 year old single cab truck and drive 3,000 miles with no radio.

 

(Engineer Pass, which we found impassible and had to back down).

 

So, over the past 4 years this truck has carried thousands of pounds worth of demolition and construction material into and out of my house. 

 

 

With a little maintenance, the past 4 years have gone by fairly easily. 

I replaced the destroyed rear leaf springs with new metric ton springs, bought new tires, and put on a new exhaust system from the headers back. Other little odds and ends, but nothing major.

I've always been careful not to drive it during the winter, and the few times I did followed with a nice hot bath to get any salt off.

The bed was never in good shape, it had some pretty gnarly dents, and after a hit and run in the home depot parking lot, it was beyond repair.

 

So, here we are! A few weeks ago, a fellow CC member pointed me to a fairly straight bed for sale in NC. 13 hours of driving later, it's home and ready to action.

 

 

and the story continues from here...

 

 

 

[coolwind57]

Very cool story.  thanks for sharing!

[WahooSteeler]

Nice.........I saw that bed on Clist too, good pick up. Literally LOL. 

[Pete M]

I love a good story!    how are the rockers? 

[Hudy]

On 11/6/2018 at 11:17 PM, Pete M said:

I love a good story!    how are the rockers? 

They're rock solid!

 

---

 

So here is the 7 month update (and mostly everything's happened in the past month or so):

I decided its time to show the MJ some more love. I had a cap on it (I use the truck for a side contracting business), but the cap was leaking and more hassle to use then it was worth. The truck was hesitating to start, and other little things were making it a drag to use almost daily.

 

Off the cap came. I bought a backrack for it (the rear window guard) and a toolbox to store my tools. I've been super happy with the size as its just big enough to store all my junk but not so big that I can't use the bed anymore.

 

And some mechanical things:

New fuel pump (and the story behind that HERE)

New starter (and the story behind that HERE) 

Headlight Wiring harness (after repeated posts from Pete helping me out and not being able to ignore his signature)

Newer style mirrors

Door Locks ... yeah, pretty neat to have 

 

And some photos to show where we are today: