Project Pango

[RAH66]

Hey all... figured it's finally time to start a build thread.

 

When we got the truck, my wife lovingly named it after one of her favorite animals, the Pangolin. Over time we've tended to just call the truck "Pango", hence the title.

 

First of all, I want to talk about my mentality and philosophy going into this build.

 

With a combination of a lot of patience and even more luck, I managed to grab this 1992 Comanche Eliminator a couple years ago. I got it bone stock from the original owner. It's 4.0, 5 speed 4x4 with a D44 axle. I pretty much found a unicorn and am beyond grateful and don't take it for granted. I wrestled for a long time with what to do with it. I got it because I wanted a project vehicle to work on, but after I got it and its rarity sunk in, I started wondering if I should even do any work on it. The truck, while in nice shape, is definitely not in pristine, just rolled of the showroom floor condition. The owner used it for years as his farm truck, so, the body has its fair share of dings, dents and scrapes (and has been repainted at some point).  So even though I can show off the best angles in photos, it's still a 25 year old, well used truck under the hood.

 

I had a vision in my head of my perfect Comanche, and after driving it stock for over a year, I decided to just go for it, because I'd never be truly happy with it without doing what I got it for in the first place.

 

With that being said, I still wanted to respect the truck and not turn a beautiful, rare machine into a hacked up shell of its former self. So, with one exception (which I'll explain later), everything I've done to the truck is either a better-than-stock replacement, or could be brought back to stock if I ever wanted to for any reason. The axles aren't a defining characteristic of the truck so I modified those more freely.

 

I planned the build for months, and wanted a "no regrets" type build, where I did exactly what I wanted the first time so I didn't end up buying a different part later on.

 

With all that said, on to the mod list:

 

LIFT

CavFab Alpha 3 link long arms

CavFab heim steering

Rubicon Express springs

Rubicon Express track bar, bracket, and brace

Spring Over Axle in the back with TNT U-Bolt Eliminators

Bilstein 5100 series shocks all around

JKS quick disconnects

Prothane progressive bumpstops

Prothane bushings for sway bar and rear leaf springs

 

WHEELS & TIRES

33x10.5 General Grabber X3s

Pro Comp 69 wheels

 

BRAKES

Dual Diaphragm Brake Booster + master cylinder

Teraflex rear disc brake conversion

Iron Rock Offroad extended stainless steel brake lines for front and rear

Load Sensing Valve Delete

 

AXLES

4.10 gears

Eaton E-lockers front and rear

 

DRIVETRAIN

JB Conversions Super Short SYE

Tom Woods rear driveshaft

 

 

 

That's most of it, probably a few other smaller things here and there that I forgot.

 

I have a garage here at my home in Los Angeles where I can park it, but it's a small 1 car garage with no power. So I did all the work at my parents' garage down in San Diego. I started this build June 15th, and just finished last weekend. The build was a lot of fun and I learned a ton. Of course there were bad day bad days and good days, but we got through it all. Of course it's not "done" (it never will be), but at least it's drivable!

 

So, now that it's all said and done... here are my final thoughts, and, with the incredible power of hindsight, things I wish I would've have done differently.

 

Right now, the thing I most wish I had done differently was not done a long arm kit.

 

First of all, the install was a huge PITA for a first time lift kit installer. I learned during install that Comanches are only mostly the same as Cherokees in the front... and I think I found all the differences. The brake and fuel lines route differently than Cherokees... RIGHT where the upper control arm mount goes. There are also some braces between the frame and the body that got in the way. Short arms would've been waaaaay easier than I realized going in.

 

Secondly, the only body modification I did was to make room for these long arms. I cut off the lower portion of the original control arm mounts, and cut away one of those frame-to-body braces. These body mods, even though they're pretty minor, do still bug me more than I thought they would. It's the only part of the body that I modified. If I had to do it all over again, I think I would've just done adjustable short arms with Rocky Road's Control Arm Drop brackets, so I could've kept the body 100% stock. Still gives me a little knot in my stomach, but what's done is done, so I'm trying to just enjoy the truck now. I guess one minor little solace is that I managed to remove the lower control arm bracket's Comanche specific braces in one piece 

 

I do, however, tend to suffer from "the grass is greener" a lot, so had I gone short arms I probably would've wondered if I had gone with long arms. So it is what it is.

 

 

That little guilty bit aside... I'm so happy with how it turned out! Like I said in the beginning, I had a vision in my head of the "perfect Comanche", and this is it exactly. I couldn't imagine a more perfect looking truck for me. Every day that I walk out from work and see it sitting there it gives me butterflies in my stomach 

 

 

 

So what's next? First thing up is getting the speedo to work. I didn't realize that the JB Conversions SYE had a different style VSS, so I'm hopefully going to get that working this weekend. Follow up info and some questions I have about that to follow a little bit later.

 

After that, I want to build some rock sliders for protection. (bolt-on, no more body mods besides drilling some mounting holes).

 

 

So, on to the pictures!

 

 

[kansashogan]

Looks good

[Pete M]

yeah, you've done some beautiful work there.  love it!   

 

 

[IDMJ]

Looks great!

[Swampy]

That comanche is beautiful. How do you like the e-lockers?

[MeanLemons]

Great work!

[JeepFanactic]

Nice Truck

[boxyjeep]

I believe I saw this posted on IG.  Looks awesome!  I'm also in Dana Point and drive by that spot pretty often.