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Meximanche!


Skylynx
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I know i'm going to hate myself for that title in the future, but it'll do for now, been putting off starting this tread for about two months now since i found this truck and started work on it, i never imagined how much work needed to be done or how much fun i'd be having fixing it up!


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I'd like this forum post to be kind of a story, a journal for this piece of American rust rusting away in a foreign country and it's journey to bring it back to glory, i guess i should start from what little i know about the truck from before i got it, keep in mind English isn't my mother tongue, and even if i'm well versed and practiced, i'm doomed to make spelling and grammar errors from time to time, so bare with me here!

This comanche's birthday is still a mystery, since the stickers on the door have since been removed from it, but i have a pretty good idea where it saw asphalt for the first time ever, since it still has the dealer's decal on the tailgate, can't be 100% sure though, since i don't know if the tailgate is original to the truck, and the original title has been lost to time, but in case it is, it's fun to think i know where she started things in 1988!

 

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She's very Likely from Alabama, and i hope to drive her to the dealership again one day, from all the comanche pictures i've seen i have never seen this decal, and i'll try my best to preserve it.

the other things we know about her is that she was bought in texas sometime in the year 2000's my a mexican national and brought down to the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon in the 18th of august of 2000, more than a year before she had to see her mother nation weap when the towers fell, she has been in this country and state since.

as i said, the original ownership title has been lost since Mexican customs keeps it when you do the vehicle importation paperwork, but they give you instead a document with a lot of information about it, from this importation papers i can know this comanche was a pioneer trim, which i already suspected from the interior, (since the original paint was so horribly painted over by a previous owner... ) but it's nice to see it confirmed in paper at least.

from this same doccument (which has to be signed by the new owner every time the truck is sold from hand to hand) i can also tell that it has at the very least had 8 separate owners since she crossed over down south, who knows how many she had while in the states since the years 88 til the 00's... she's been passed around and it shows..

the bad thing is that nearly everything need maintenande or is entirely broken, the good thing is that this was the perfect excuse to get it for cheap, and finally start making myself a cool toy i can take me and my brother fishing with in the weekends to the local lake, aside from wanting to get better at my mechanic and hand-working skills, since i'm at most a novice still and i've heard that this trucks along with the xj's are relatively easy to work with.

i pulled the trigger on it and bought it about three months ago, but i've been only working on it from time to time for the last two months, i'll include here some pictures of it from the day i bought it and before i messed with it at all, so you guys can have an idea of the state it was on when it landed on my lap.

 

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The windows barely worked, the mirrors need new supports, the dash was cracked, and the optional slider window was missing... the carpet had holes in it everywhere, the ignition cylinder is so worn out you can start the truck without a key making it more of a go-kart than a truck and the bench seat was not only torn everywhere, it also stank like cat pee.

 

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the truck bed is okay-ish, it's got a pretty big hit on the sheet-metal on the driver's side that actually barely poked through, and the tailgate is bent outwards, but a friend of mine that works with sheet-metal assured me it's more than salvageable.

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The whole truck was painted horribly by a previous owner, it seemed like they put the wet paint in their mouths and spat onto the truck until it was red enough, it's dripping in some areas, lacking in others, oversprayed everywhere and tool marks all over where you could see they laid things over the paint before it was cured, here's the roof for example, which is not the worst place, the hood has marks where they sat their beer bottles onto the paint before it dried.

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front needs work too, the hood had a bit of puddy in it, but only where i intend to cut it to add hood vents in the future, so not too stressed about that, the grill is what worries me, i want to keep it with the pre 97 grills, but i'm having a hard time finding a chromed grill that's not absolutely trashed... still looking!

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and this is without talking about the engine yet! just the outside still.. you've got to admit thoug, even despite all her bruises and age, she still looks damn fine.

 

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...Continuing!

 

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My journey with this thing starts with me picking it up after buying it, i knew the breaks were shoddy at best so i took my time, drove slow and prayed all the while driving it that those damn mercedes benz and BMW's would stop cutting me off so much when i was driving an old truck with barely any breaking power across the city without insurance, thankfully, i arrived at my friend's shop without much issue and gave him the truck to work on the breaks so i could at least use it, he kept the truck for a month since i had to go live in mexico city for a month, and he supposedly fixed the breaks by then so i decided to pay for the work, grab the truck and drive it home to start working on it for real.

the breaks worked really well, i was even able to lock up the wheels a little in the first tests i made as i exited the shop, but not even 3 blocks away from it they began to fail once more, it was too late to turn around now so i drove it slow as hell back home, called my friend and he said that he'd check em out at some other time for free, but that i should start working on it for now, i got home with no issues and parked it in the garage to keep her out of the rain, mainly cause the seals in the windows are entirely rotten and gone by now.

i don't know when or where in this site i read something about taking the carpet out and seeing the floor of the jeep should be one of the first thing you did, so i got to work on removing the seat and trim from the truck, to my absolute joy once i removed the bench seat i found 3 of the missing 4 trim pieces from the interior, the speaker covers that a previous owner had removed from the doors and back trim, and theyw ere in good shape too, sadly i couldn't find the back/passenger side speaker cover, but i'm sure i'll get one at some point from a junkyard.. hopefully.

 

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sadly the carpet was worse than what i imagined, and i'm already working on making a replacement with the new color the interior is going to have.. the rest of the trim's almost entirely in perfect condition though! though at the time everything was covered in a very thick layer of dust and dirt that i have since cleaned, i began removing everything from the inside, everything that could be bolted on and off, removed and taken out, i did, in part also because one of the main issues i wanted to tackle from the start was the HVAC box with the heater core and the AC evap.

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nothing could have prepared me to the mess of cables that i found, a big issue that is still haunting me to this very day, i did my best to tag and take pictures of every step i took, but i still think i'll need lots of help putting this thing back together, specially since i kept finding peeled cables and exposed wires everywhere that lead nowhere, i suspect i'll need to rebuild the entire harness from scratch.

 

Continued!..

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Took me just a few hours to tear down most of the interior aside from the dash and some side panels (which i later removed too), leaving me a clear view of the floor of the comanche which was the original first task i had, the good news is that the floor panel situation was way better than most ofther truck i've seen in here, since this ulgy beauty has lived the past 21 years in the mexican desert, the bad news was that there was rust there anyways, which i knew from the start, from below you could see a softball sized hole on the passenger outer side of the floorboard, but only that was visible from the outside

 

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you can very clearly see the hole that was visible from the outside in this picture, but it wouldn't be the only one i would find once the carpet was out, sadly, just below the black foam insulation there on the firewall i'd find another one, which would force me to cut the entire right side of the panel out and replace it.

At this time thosw two would be the only holes I'd find, where were other patches of surface rust that had started to appear but nothing that didn't buff out quickly with the help of the wire wheel, sadly things wouldn't be that peachy for long, but that's further out in the story.

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it was after i managed to clear most of the interior when i had a chance to go to the junkyard to see if i could find a few pieces i knew would be upgrades, and i did manage to find some! Now, keep in Mind that is is Mexico where most car pieces are sometimes 4 times as cheap as they are in the united states! but this is also the same Mexico where people sadly make 2.50 USD per hour of work if they're lucky, so the value of the pieces you may find is actually greater if you see things that way, so keep in mid that every time i list prices here from the things i find or am trying to purchase!

(prices are almost always in mexican pesos originally, i just try my best to convert them to USD for you guys to have some reference to it, the conversion) prices are only relevant to the day i type the post, so if you're looking at this in the future it will likely be way off.)


ANYWAY!
i went to the junkyard and i found some goodies!
the big one and that i was quite happy with was the wire driven gauge cluster with the tachometer, i've not tried it yet, but apparently it worked when it was removed, i also got with it the whole cable with what i think is the cruise control sensor, which i don't know if i'll add to this truck, but it's nice that i got it anyway, the whole cluster and cable was only 15 bucks.

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I was happy with this find alone, really, i couldn't believe my luck when i found a compatible gauge cluster for me to replace the idiot lights one that came with the truck( i've bought the oil pressure sender and the air temp one needed to replace it already, they'll go in the truck when i start fixing the electrial.)

needless to say i couldn't believe my luck when i looked under the dash and saw this:

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i've heard this 428 computer model is way better than the one my truck had (225), so i pulled it and got charged only 8 bucks for it, i've seen this things sell on ebay before for over 120 USD, so i think i'm pretty damn lucky, and considering i got the gauge cluster and the computer from the same trashed jeep, i expect them to have good compatibility already.
Sadly apparently someone beat me to the TCU, the transmission computer, so i couldn't pull that one too, but since i'm not switching the transmission out on my jeep yet, i figured the one i have shouldn't be a problem, here's a picture of the new ECU with the TCU that was originally in my Comanche, if you guys know of any issues with combining these two, PLEASE let me know!!!!

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Continued!...

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I also managed to snipe a pair of chromed Door handles fro the same jeep, i snagged both of those for 8 bucks too, right around that, and from a different jeep i found i was able to find the chromed side electric mirrors, one of them was missing a mirror and both of them had cracked bases, plus the controls for them were gone already, so just for the chrome cases, one actual original glass and the cables that go into the door i got charged 4 bucks for the pair and i didn't even have to remove them myself, the owner of the lot just went for it.

 

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I've seen someone here in these forums selling new 3D printed bases for these for 20 bucks which i intend to get and repair these, the bases would legit they'd be 5 times the price i paid for these chrome electric mirrors (without international shipping, mind you, that'll make it a lot more) but in the end it'll be cheaper than getting new ones!

 

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while he was working on getting the mirrors off me and him kept talking, joking and laughing, having a good time under the mexican sun, i noticed that the glovebox in the trashed XJ still had the latch on it, and that it was the same color as the interior of my Comanche which was missing, i offered to take it for 2 USD, but he replied that since i had made him laugh so much while he worked, that little piece was coming home with me for free!

happy with my junkyard day, with a gauge cluster, an upgrade for my ECU, two new chrome door handles for my doors, powered mirrors that need new bases and a nifty little latch for my glovebox in my trunk and with around 34 to 36 USD less in my wallet... if only i knew things wouldn't be this cheap going forward, haha!

Continued!...

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it'd be a while before i could install any of these new nifty toys into the Comanche anyway, i knew i still needed to do the HVAC box job and the floor pans before anything else, so i got back to work the next few days, further stripping the truck out Until it was the turn of the dash to come out..

i'll be honest, i had t see a few youtube videos on how to even pull the damn thing to get it to come out, for whatever reason i couldn't figure out how to get to the bolts on the top of the dash with the windshield on the way, i honestly considered removing it for it, but in the end i managed to pop it free with a swivel screwdriver.. barely, this one's gonna be a female dog to put back in once i get to that!

 

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Not even the Ancient sahara has seen this much dust, ratatouille's home was not as much as a rat's nest as this, a thousand years of the scariest horror movies couldn't have prepeared me for the horror i witnessed here, the HVAC box wasn't even attached properly,hanging only from the crews on the firewall, cables going everywhere were entirely cut open, copper exposed to other wires and ready to start a fire as soon as you flicked a switch, all of the airlines were crimped and restricted, so even if the air box was working (which it wasn't, not even aligned properly...) you'd get no air out the vent at all.

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This is the state i found things in, entirely covered in dust, misaligned, free floating and stressed out of position, cables running here and there and nowhere at all, cut and not sealed, randomly paped and bent to go places it had no business being in. i wanted to scream.

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The factory radio was long gone, but the HVAC controls were still there.. sorta, the vacuum lines are all rotten and cracked, half of them are open and not attached to anything at this point, i have no idea where to get new ones or where i should plug them once i get them but that's a job that i'll have to do soon, if you guys have any clue where to get them, as well as details on how to service this thing, let me know please!!

 

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finally though, i managed to get the damn dash out of the truck and i couldn't be happier about it, well, maybe a little happier.. since the screws ontop were so hard to reach because of the angle, the screwdriver's shaft dug a bit into the plastic-ish covered foam which was already cracked in some spots, making it even more cracked, after more than 3 decades in the sun i can't say i expected anything else, but now my dash was even uglier than before, and i needed a plan to fix it.

you can very clearly see the cracks i was talking about here, plus where the vinyl thingy was just entirely discolored and burnt from the years in the sun.

 

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Continued!...

 

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Man was i frustrated at this point, just looking at the mess of wires and cables surrounding the HVAC box made me panic a little, the mountains of dust everywhere kept my nose permanently runny, and both the dash and the trim piece that goes below it had steel pieces on them that were very rusty and dusty, thankfully it was all surface rust still, so it was easy to fix at least, first things first, i began cleaning everything, trim pieces, dash, cables, interior, anywhere i saw dust i attacked with brushes, wipes and a vacuum cleaner, i was tired of it, and got to work on fixing that, here you can see a pic of me holding the TCU and pointing at where it attaches behind the trim piece, where you can see how absolutely nasty it was back there, and how rusty this thing was.

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i grabbed a small 12 V battery drill and a wire wheel and began grinding the rust away from wherever i could reach from the dash's metal piece and the under-dash's piece as well, of course wearing safety glasses and a dust mask all the while, and doing so in a well ventilated area with a fan blowing across and away from me, no rust dust in my lungs please!

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Here you can see kind of a before and after picture, the top part already being cleaned while the bottom was as nasty as it came.

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i took my time and was thorough, at some point along the way i decided that just cleaning the one side wasn't enough and i drilled the studs connecting the metal piece to the plastic dash to remove it and be able to wire wheel the underside of it, once i had the two clean pieces i cleaned them well with alcohol and hanged them, painting them both with a few layers of Rust preventing rustoleum, which instantly made thing look much, much nicer!
here's a picture of the dash's metal piece attached back to the dash with new rivets, you can barely see the difference between it and the plastic

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a small victory for me in a much, much longer way i still had to wage with this truck's absolute negligence riddled past, all the while working on this i could feel it.. presence of something evil, of something god did not intend to create, staring at me and laughing with a mania that would make even Alexander the great retreat, from the corner of the yard the monster lurked and waited patiently, waiting for me to man up and face it...

The dreaded Hvac box... it was time to face my destiny....

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Continued!...

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I had taken the blower motor out since before i took the dash out from the engine bay, just taking a peek through the circular hole was enough to show me the decadent mounds of dust inside, making me cringe and i decided to explore no more until the time came, well that time was now, and i began taking this thing apart bolt by bolt.. i made sure the vacuum actuators actually worked before anything, and  after i finished taking it all apart i wrapped the ends where the hoses plug into with masking tape to prevent any dust or water going into them, since i am still planning on re-using them.

The following images contain decades of muck and grime and have not yet been approved by neither the Vatican, CDC, CIA, WHO, FBI, White House, Mike Rowe, My Mom, CBP, The Marine Corps, The Queen of England, Your Mom, The Founding Fathers, Nor Carlos, the guy that makes the tacos on that Mexican restaurant you really like.. so from here on out proceed with caution and under your own risk.

(keep in mind the dude that sold this to me told me the AC worked ((absolutely did not, you'll see why in a bit)) and that there were people using the air coming from this box to breathe air inside the cab ((which i also doubt a lot)) )

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a few neat Souvenirs i found INSIDE the HVAC box.

 

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Needless to say, this was a horror show, everything was sticky, dusty and gunky at the same time, all the metal parts were rusted,and some of the plastic was so deformed from being secured improperly that it was hard to make it fit correctly, so i knew this was going to be quite a task to fix...

Continued!...

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40 minutes ago, jamcomanche said:

What are your plans for the interior?

Since the exterior is so horribly painted, i'm stripping it down and painting it another color, i wouldn't do this if it were the original pain, but now since the sin is done, there's no use on moderation, still undecided on the color the exterior will have, but i think i'll go for the "area 51" paint scheme the new broncos are coming out with.

AND since i'm painting the exterior, i may as well do the interior too, the trim pieces are mostly intact and workable, but are heavily discolored from abuse and grime and they just look old and burnt.. so i'm still not sure if i'll put a wrap around them or actually paint them too, also planning on ditching the bench seat and adding buckets along with a center console, my dad who's a carpenter is already drawing up concepts for a custom one that'll match and look cool!

i've got many more plans for the interior coming up, i'm staying all night uploading the backlog until i reach the progress of today, i'll explain some of my plans in those posts later tonight, hope you like em <3

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28 minutes ago, fiatslug87 said:

Welcome to CC, if you post the VIN in the registry one of the guys will get you build sheet info as well as build date and selling location to verify the tailgate badge.

OOh sweet! where can i post that? is there a charge for the service?

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I couldn't think of anything other than the filth covering every single atom in and outside of this box, i'm not a squirmish person but this was truly horrible, it smelled like motor oil, antifreeze and sodomy, truly a sight of hell, and i decided to tackle that first, i took the heater core and AC evaporator out and grabbed the four pieces the Box divided into and hosed them down to remove the surface dust, but even the pressure washer could only get so much done, this next pic shows where the blower motor had been throwing dust at for decades, that stuff was so stuck into the plastic i had to use a Flathead and both hands to remove it in some areas, along with de-greaser of course.

 

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This is the side of the tray that laid next to that last pic, as a closeup of what i'm talking about.

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after 3 and a half hours i was left with the four pieces of the HVAC cleaned, i took pictures wherever i saw double-sided tape sticking onto the box, it seemed it once had foam on one side of it that has by now evaporated long ago, but i kept them for reference on where you should make sure to seal the box to prevent leaks and assure a good airflow, and i suggest you do the same if you also voluntarily undergo his hellish torment.
 

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Sadly things were just about to get worse from here on out, even if i was able to clean the pieces to acceptable levels and had the skills to put things back together okay, it wouldn't matter at all without new hardware, after all, the heater core was leaking, (because of course it was, duh.) and the AC evaporator was broken entirely, thankfully the Heater core remained the same for every year of the XJ and MJ, and finding an aftermarket replacement for it was a breeze!

The same couldn't be said for the AC evaporator though... which would become a ghost that would haunt me for this entire HVAC restoration.

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This thing was toast, gone, Donzo! it only had one of the original two tubes, and it was clear someone had tried to fix it in the past in a desperate attempt to try and get out of the heat of the Mexican desert but to no avail, this thing's corpse would never work again, i did some research and the part number for this is apparently EV4177ATC, i searched far and wide for it but the only place i could find it was Rockauto for like 90 USD, plus they wanted another 60 for international shipping, and i knew this was just not going to be possible at all, plus reviews online said this worked best with R12 (now discontinued and increasingly more expensive) and even with R12 it was never any good at all...

I searched elsewhere, anywhere for answers and ended up deciding to buy this:
UAC EV4864999PFXC It's the AC Evap for a newer jeep XJ, i knew i was risking it cause i couldn't find measurements for it anywhere and i was not sure it'd fit in the HVAC box i had, but since reviews for it were good, it is adapted to be used in the newer, better AC systems, the fact that it's sister the heater core never switched sizes in the whole XJ/MJ production, and the fact that it was only 43 USD or so with free shipping... yeah, i took the risk

Few days layer Papi jeff delivered the new Evap in a shiny, new Amazon box, i was nervous and eager to test fit it, so i took it out and rushed over to try and place it inside the HVAC box, there is where i realized that my gamble had not paid off, my cocky spending habits had gotten the best of me, i had two options from this point on, return the Evap and go for the original replacement with less efficiency and much higher prices, or go out and try to find a new Hvac box that actually fit this model, i did some research and saw that the early 90's Cherokees had the same dash as me, but a modified HVAC box that would fit a similar evaporator than the one i had now, so i grabbed my car keys and visited 6, yes. 6 junkyards in a day

i expected the Junkyard gods would answer my prayers and show me the way, help me find the box i needed to put the Evap in and be done with it, but it was not to be, every Cherokee i checked had either the same box as me, or the one that would fit it was massively broken and unusable, i was trapped in the terrible financial decision i had made before, and would be forced to return the Evaporator and buy the expensive one...


NO!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
NOT ONLY NO; HECK NO!!!

I WAS GONNA MAKE THIS WORK, NOT ONE STEP BACK, NO SURRENDER!!!

 

I got my @$$ back home and began thinking on ways to solve this, i read somewhere on the internet that the more wrinkles you have in your brain the more smartier you are, like for example Einstein had at least 4 wrinkles on each side of the brain while most normal dudes have at most two, so i started to fix that problem by banging my head on the wall so that my brain would much a little and wrinkle against my cranium for a little while, just enough time for me to come up with a solution to this massive problem...

i did this for a while, i tore down two walls on my house and was still trying with the third, i almost managed to knock that one down too before the idea came to me.. eureka! it may be crazy enough to work, but i'd need measurements to make sure..

Continued!...

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so, the reason why this New Evap wouldn't fit inside the old HVAC box was because of two things, the HVAC box had a taper downwards while the EVAP was consistently square, while also having a weird angle that honestly had no reason for existing other than to make my existence worse, here you can see a few pictures i took before i made the modifications, keep in mind, the Evap core Is 24 CM long, so in one side of the box i was JUST able to stick it in, while on the other side i had almost two CM of spare, in this unmodified configuration the Evap would go down and into the box just fine for the first 4 inches until the taper caught it and wouldn't let it go down much longer without permanently deforming the box or breaking it, and even if i managed to make it fit it was too tall so the lid on the HVAC wouldn't close on it, being almost one inch too tall for it to do so.
As you can see on this side i had almost two CM of spare, good.
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But on the other side...

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It couldn't be closer, thankfully the Evap would fit in the space between the "L" the plastic made on the top left of the picture and the hole for the bold to hold the lid down onto the box, so far so good... two issues needed to be resolved next, first, i needed to eliminate that taper, make things straight enough for the evap to sit all the way down.. which leads us to the other issue, that tray you can see all the way at the bottom? yeah.. that's the other issue..

It simply had to go, it would fit the other (older model) of evaporator just fine, but it was absolutely getting in the way for this bigger one, that tray contained the drain for the condensation the evaporator was doomed to produce, and unless i wanted a flooded passenger foot well every time i turn'd it on i had to come up with something for that too.

i decided to Bubba it up hard and break out the dremel with the cut-toff wheel.. yeah i was that guy, but to my favor this actually worked okay? spoiler alert by the way, haha!
i made a few cuts down the side and under, but not at the top so that the plastic would bend out of the way as soon as the new Evap would start pushing onto the taper downwards that the box had, allowing it to reach all the way down to the bottom of it, at least that was the hopes..and guess what?..


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IT WORKED!!!!!!

 

Finally for once in my life i had made something worth that i could tell my grandkids over and over until i bore them to death, i was so damn happy!.. now to fix the NEW issue i created by making it fit, the massive hole on the bottom of the box..
I started to look around the piles of materials and junk i have at home from the construction jobs i sometimes do, searching for plastic pieces that will help me seal this thing in without issues, that coupled with the fact that i had a full box of rivets that i used to re-attach the metal parts to the dash made the job way easier.

I found an Old paint tray made out from the same plastic as the box, which was also as thick as it was, i used the dremel on it to cut it to fit, made  the rivet holes with the drill and a metal bit, placed Gasket maker where plastic would meet plastic to seal things off and then riveted the new piece in place, which gave me a permanent new shape and structural support for the rest of the patching up in needed to do, there was a lot of that still needed to be done.

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Here's a view for it from the isnide.

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This is the part where i wish i had taken more pictures of the process, but sadly i was so frustrated and hurried to finish that i just went full blitz onto this thing until it was done or i met a major roadblock, so you'll have to settle for descriptions, because i'm REALLY not opening that HVAC box again if i don't absolutely have to...

from working with water for the last 15 years i knew for a fact that loose plastic pieces, gasket maker and rivets were not going to hold things for long, the rigid support they provided was necessary and good, but i also needed a more flexible support to unite that to keep things sealed with any and all shifts and movements the box is bound to have in it's life, i needed something to reinforce the it all, and fill the gaps in between the pieces while also holding them together like rebar does to reinforced concrete.. and i had just the thing in my tool closet.

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Honestly i have no idea what this mesh tape is called in english, and i'm not bothered to check, all i know is that we use it to fill the gaps in between drywall pannels and then spread drywall puddy over it to fill the seams while this mesh reinforces it and prevents it from crackling, it was really perfect for the job, it's made out of nylon and is also sticky on both sides, so i could place it in the HVAC box where i needed it, wrapped around the plastic pieces that would fill all the gaps and reinforce the strength of the gasket maker, and since it's made of nylon it'd never rot and give out, this thing will outlive me and my kid's kids.
I only have one example in picture of it in use and it's this one, you can see it used in the far corner of the cut i showed you guys earlier.

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From that picture another problem was also pretty evident, i'd imagine, even with the tray removed the top cover would still not close down onto the EVAP, and here's why and how i went about to fix it..

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There you can see the Evap inside the box while the Unadultered top covers it, still living a gap because it was just too tall for it to fit correctly, you can clearly see that from the left side of the picture, in the part where the heater core lives the top part of the Lid would easily and effortlessly cover the Evap if only it didn't angle downwards as it got into the Evap area, if it'd only stayed level instead of going down... yeah.. if only..

Continued!...

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SO me and my dremel had a good talk with that lid, we told it that it should REALLY consider switching directions or not change at all, it refused entirely, so me and my dremel had to get a little bit handsy and creative, First thing i did was to grab the lid and peel off the Auto-adhesive foam cover it had enough for me to make the cut with the cutoff wheel without messing it up entirely, here in this picture you can see the foam insulation i'm talking about, it lines the entirety of the inside of the Lid, you can see  square imprint on it from where the old, rusty EVAP sat against it

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I then cut a semi-symetrical piece of the plastic that you'll see here in another picture, flipped it upside down so that the former inside of the box was now the outside, reversing the down turn angle the lid was taking and preventing the EVAP from fitting in the box, NOTICE that i made sure not to cut the edges of the lid where the box would seal against it, only through the body of it so it would let the EVAP poke out from under it and let the new upwards angle i gave it seal it down into it, the piece of foam that i cut and peeled from the former bottom now was pasted and sat on the former top of the lid, keeping the insulation in the side it needed to be.
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View without the new lid on, as you can see i had to cut the exiting side of it, but i'd reconstruct that union later with rivets and spare plastic,along with gasket maker and the other products i already listed. i did the same with the rest of the lid, i had to cut the bottom tray i showed already to get the drain out of it so i could use that again to plug the hole under the box and route it out of the cabin with a rubber hose for drainage, i'll show how i did that in a few more posts., but i used parts of that too to seal off this new holes created in the new Lid and consolidate it as one again, keep in mind that if you're to do something similar to this you should try your best to always keep the rivets coming out and away from the evaporator, you don't want to have poky metal bits aiming at the radiator that could rub onto it and cause a leak, i made sure no rivet was close to it and so should you.

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From here on out the pictures sadly diminish a lot since i was so damn focused on just finishing the damn thing and not looking back, but if you want to i can get some more pictures of the finished product in the future and post them, it looks messy but i think i did a pretty good job converting this HVAC box into one that could accept this model of evaporator, though i would not ever undergo this again, i did it out of desperation and from the absolute bad luck i had finding one that was already made to fit this thing in the first place, heck i may go back and find one later and ditch this whole thing entirely if the opportunity comes, so do this at your own risk.

another thing that i also did was put new foam on all the routing doors since the one they had turned to dust as soon as you touched it, i did that with regular foam, contact cement and an exacto blade, there's also a few metal pieces inside the box that i took out by drilling the rivets that held them in place, i attacked the rust spots they had with the wire weel (drill, not angle grinder, this pieces are super thin metal and would bend away with the power of the angle grinder., so use the drill)
i sanded them until they were clean and shiny and free of rust, then painted them with black rustoleum again after a quick clean, settled them back in place with a few drops of gasket maker and new rivets in the same holes i drilled the old ones out, i did this with the "door frame" Pictured next as well as with the metal circle that sends air to the blower motor, along with all the shafts that connect the vacuum actuators to the doors, everywhere where i saw surface rust i attacked and painted over to stop it.
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you can see the rusty door frame behind my hand there, that's one of the metal pieces i took out and worked on, sadly no pictures from the finished product were found.
SO
The HVAC box was now sealed and ready to be installed again, but not before i tackled the BIGGER issue the truck had....

Continued!...

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Holes are good.. holes are valid, it's okay to have HOLES.
holes help us get one thing from some place to somewhere else without ENTIRELY removing what's in between, Some holes are BIG and some are small, But in the end a hole is a hole and it will do hole things... or so my friend's say.
a lot of things have holes... morals, ideologies and logic, specially if you're a politician!
even the universe has black holes, though i have no clue what race has to do with that.
Even people like you and me have holes! lots of them with all sorts of functions and fun activities that are not to be delved into right now.
Cars have holes too! and jeeps are cars, so it's okay for your jeep to have holes!
That being said, moderation is key, and TOO MANY HOLES can be a bad thing too!

such is the case for this comanche, she got carried away a little, got too excited and went on and done did actually got gotted some dem darn rust holes on er'... which is SAD and LAME but nothing that can't be fixed...i wanted an excuse to buy a welding machine and learn how to weld anyway!

 

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Don't worry,i  ditched the battery drill for the angle grinder with the wire wheel right after this picture, but you can see the major holes this thing developed in it's career, though as i said before this jeep was in pristine condition compared to others i saw before buying this one, or jeeps i've seen in this forum before, hey, for the price i got her, this is nothing!... so i thought.

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Pretty intimidating, yeah... but i was thorough with the angle grinder until i had almost the whole footwell shining silver before i got the wire wheel out and cut out the problematic area, though before i did that i did go over to the driver side where there was a few patches of surface rust that looked like they were starting to be a bit pitty... i hoped once the wire wheel went over them they would clear and not poke through, but i wasn't that lucky, thankfully the holes on the other side were minimal, small patches i could so easily, unlike the big, major one on the passenger side.

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Here you can see the whole passenger side cleaned the hole on the underside and the top side where one panel meets another is pretty evident, this is also around the time when i realized what was likely causing this rust to appear, the rubber garmet that plugs the hole going through the wall to the right side and up to the anteena was not where it was supposed to be, letting the tire throw rocks, dirt and mud straight into the cab through it, with where that upper hole was i took like 4 fistfuls of dirt out from under the carpet where it had accumulated moisture and dirt for years.

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This is the driver;s side, as i said, no major holes were visible, or any holes at all, sadly as soon as the wire wheel was used to remove the pitting rust some small holes appeared and i had to make some repairs, 5 or 6 patches of different sizes were used, but nothing major.
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Here's the immediate after on the driver's side once some of the holes were patched, with 3 more remaining all the way ontop which i later patched too.

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Aaaaand this is the passenger's side once the whole problem area was cut out, i then traced this to a piece of paper and then translated that to a flat sheet of 16 gauge metal to make my cuts, giving it 1 CM of tolerance on the sides cause i knew i would need to bend and twist it to fit well, and that would reduce the actual size of the piece

I'll continue updating this tomorrow, it's late at night and i'm tired, but we're half way caught up til how things are right now, so the battle's already half won! more updates then!

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Finally back updating this thing!
SO, again i don't have many pictures of me fabricating the floor panel from a flat piece of sheet-metal, [or any at all for that matter] But i do have a picture ofit being welded in after it was made, where you can see the details i had to do, or at least tried to, i started by tracing the hole onto a piece of paper and then using that as a template to cut the piece of metal i was gonna use to patch the hole, leaving about a CM on each side wide-wise because i knew the bends and angles i'd have to form into it would eat up some of that length, and leave me with a piece that's too thin if i didin't add more material there.

I wanted the piece to be more structurally sound than just a flat piece of steel, so i tried my best to give it the same strengthening bends the original piece had by using an anvil and a sheet-metal hammer, granted, my best is not the best out there, so it came out... not pretty, but functional, and since this'll be covered by the carpet and insulation, i wasn't bothered by looks.
 

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This is a picture of the moment when i did the last welds on this piece, i was sweaty and tired cause it took nearly all day to complete with the welder i purchased but in the end i was happy with the result!

The welding job is again, my best, but not the best out there, i'm still learning how to weld better since this is the first times i've ever done it seriously, and i was forced to use the welder with flux core wire which is a lot more sparkly and spotty than MIG wire, i was originally going to use MIG, but my friend who was going to borrow me the gas cans for the job so i didn't have to outright buy them was busy with them at the moment, and i was forced to use flux core instead since i had no shielding gas, the welder i got also gas the Option for MMA sticks and apparently TIG too, so maybe i'll use those later when i'm building the bumpers for this thing.

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Here's a better look of the welds and the piece i fabricated, as i said... yeah you get it, i'm no pro, but for now it serves the purpose! i covered the whole bare metal area with a can of rust preventing Rustoleoum paint, and then came back 2 days later and sprayed a few coats of truck bed-liner over that just to give the paint that much more protection, for the underside i used undercoating, also from rustoleoum, still just stuff out of a can, but for now it'll hold up fine, i plan on undercoating the whole underside at some point in time, perhaps when i make the switch from 2x4  to 4x4, or maybe if i go from renix to HO, still not sure if i'll dot hat though, we'll see.

I did the same with both sides, making sure not to leave any area without coverage from the new paint since i had to wire wheel a fair bit back to remove surface rust that was starting in some other areas, thankfully nothing deep or compromising, so i am glad i caught it in time.

 

This is the driver side after the first coat of paint...
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Aaaand the passenger side too.
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 quick note before apinting at all, cover the studs that hold the seat in place with masking tape,you don't want excess paint, let alone bedliner messing up your threads!

After this was done, dry and sealed i began focusing on the electrical systems, i knew the harness was pretty damn HECKED .... so i started to try and get everything more or less organized so that i could at the very least know what the hell i was doing, it quickly downed on me that the rubber and foam insulation matt on the firewall was getting in the way a lot and it'd be easier to just remove it, it was also extremely dirty too, and would need a wash, and it'd be good to see the condition of the firewall from this side too, so i got onto it and began removing it slowly until i managed to peel it off the glue pads on the wall and the cables hugging it from all around until finally it came off with a cloud of dust, this thing was nasty as hell.

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trust me, this picture does not do it justice, it was entirely covered in engine oil and dust, i rinsed it many times over in a big bucket of water and at the end of it i had a bucket of mud, it was a good call to pull this thing off just to clean it, but also because it revealed some other problems under it that i'm glad i caught before they went ballistic. with rust of course!

Continued!...

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I've seen a lot of rust in this trucks over the years, rocker panels, floorboards and wheel wells being the main culprits of this natural process that oxygen and iron undergo and that water catalyzes, but never have i heard of any jeep having rust in this spot i found on mine, and maybe it's be a good idea for you to check your jeep just to make sure yours doesn't have it too.

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This is the three holes going out into the engine bay right over where the wiring harness goes through too, one is for the hood latch and another for something else i can't remember, but right over those, right in the very corner i had a small rusted through spot that i had no idea how it got there, the source of this rust still eludes me to this day and frustrates me massively, just when i thought i was done welding sheet metal i had to go and do it yet again, i grabbed the welder back from the cabinet and began tracing things.

First i grabbed the dremel once i had wire-wheeled the whole area with a drill because the angle grinder had absolutely 0 chance of reaching this spot... luckily from the three walls that intersected in this corner only the firewall appeared to be affected by rust which was good news, the dremel with the cutting wheel was a big help to actually get this rust cut out, even then i had to over-cut in some areas due to the lack of space i had in such a difficult spot, here you can see the cuts i made as a magnet holds a piece of steel i found in my scrap that nearly matched the hole, but in the end i decided not to use it because it left open a few major gaps, and instead i cut one out from a larger piece to fit it in better.

 

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Here't the final product, welded in place and painted well from both sides.

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The other problematic part was the ECU's mounting plate on the top of the firewall next to the steering wheel, for some reason there was some surface rust creeping out from under it, but thankfully it all got eliminated when the wire wheel made a pass over it, still, i had to find the source and i knew that right over that was the electric motor that controls the windshield wipers, i got out of the truck and removed the trim panel that covered it, before struggling with the motor for half an hour before i cohered it enough to come out.

Again, the dust was everywhere, so i cleaned as much of it as i could as i went along, this is just under the panel covering the wiper motor

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Here's the Wiper motor coming out, after removing the 10 mil bolt i find it's easier to push it down so the wiper studs come free from the car, then pull it towards the driver's side while rotating it upside down and then pulling it out that way as you see in this picture, i'll try to do the same process once re-installing it and let you guys know.
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after the motor was out of the way and i gave the inside of the "nook" it was sitting in a quick wipe and clean it was pretty clear where the moisture was getting in through, in this next picture you can see the ECU mount's spot welds from up top, they're bent and twisted and one of them split recently i think, because light barely shines through it if you hold a flashlight inside the cab towards the mount, so that's the source of that leak, i'll be sealing it with sealing puddy and silicone, as well as many coats of paint from both sides since i don't feel like welding this, at all, in this two pics you can see the same spot from inside and outside, already with the first coat of paint.

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the ECU mounting plate, and...

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the shoddy spot welds under the wiper motor, you can see the  right-most one being the one that broke off and allowed water to leak into the cab.

Another problematic area was just behind the break pedal, apparently the troglodyte that owned this truck before me thought it would be a good idea to drill a hole through the firewall under the pedal and into the wheel well for absolutely no reason at all and leave it as such, in this picture you can see it cleaned, welded and sealed already, but originally it was surrounded by zilt and stuck mud that ran all the way down to one of the rust points in this side of the driver side that i had previously fixed, i wouldn't be surprised if the whole diver side damage was caused by this idiocy alone, so i'm gald i decided to remove the foam insulation for now because this was pretty well hidden because of it and i wouldn't have caught it before it kept damaging things out.

I made sure to leave a FAT weld on this bad boy, plugged it well and nice before baking it in undercoating on the outside and bed-liner on the inside.

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Continued!...

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Given i was already down here, waging an unrelenting war against rust and slowly winning it, i decided to attack the one other rusty thing that was very clearly in sight, but my laziness was still unsure about removing it or not,i'm sure this next step was completely unnesecary, and that it would have been fine if i hadn't done it at all, but i did it anyway because i had the time, and honestly just looking at the hot mess of wires scared me away from even trying to diagnose and fix them, since i know very little about electricity, and i'm still reading upon how to.. even start fixing this.

Anyway, i took the break pedal holder out which was easy now that the dash and everything else was out of the way, just four bolts to the back, two on the front and one to the break pedal and the booster held it in place, here it it before i removed it, in all of it's surface rusty glory.

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I made sure to mark and check on all the sensors before i removed them too, taking lots of pictures from all angles this time.

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As i said, it's all just dirt, grime and surface rust, but if i already had access to it like this, why not coat it in paint too before forgetting about it forever? to the right of this picture too you can see the ECU holding plate before i painted it, but after i wire-wheeled the surface rust away, most of it anyways.

I took the holder out and wire-wheeled it down hard until it was silver and shiny, then hung it outside and blasted a few layers of rustoleum over it until it was nice and covered, this thing will hopefully never have that rust on it again, i did the same with the break pedal and the accelerator one too, making sure to cover the cilinder with masking tape as to not get any paint inside it that could clog it up, here's a picture of the finished holder, but i don't appear to have one of the finished pedals for you guys this time, maybe later eh?

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It was at this time, as i gave the last sprays of paint to this thing that i got a call from my buddy, the one i gave the truck at the start of this and that he supposedly fixed the breaks, he did.. for about 6 or 7 pumps before they failed again, we knew the truck had a major vacuum leak, but he had been thinking about how the breaks failed again and he told me that it may be the break booster being bad, and that i should consider on switching it, i've read somewhere that there's better break booster to the one i have, i think they come from later model XJ's or a WJ too, i may go have a run at the junkyard to see if i can snipe one of those, in the meantime and while this dried, i moved over under the hood to try and see if i could help the Vacuum issue at all..

there's... many reasons why i haven't shown the engine bay of this thing yet, it's NOT in bad shape... no visible rust from what i can tell, and it ran decently-okay-ish when i drove it here despite the exhaust and vacuum leak, but it's really ugly.. i have big plans for this engine bay still so don't worry, she'll be looking much better soon hopefully!

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There's.. a lot to cover here, so let's start out journey from left to right and see what's going on... on the next post cause this one's already decently long!

Continued!...

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Let's start from left to right, by this point the left side of the engine bay is pretty much entirely empty, the carbon filter thingy seems like it hadn't been used in decades, some other previous owner has already converted this truck from the closed to the open cooling system, though the reservoir was toast when i got it, so i'm getting a newer one for it, i still have the plate that holds the older style to the side and may use it for something else, the battery tray is entirely broken, unusable and trashed, the AC motor thingy is just there as a pulley right now, the hoses were all unplugged when i got it already, and the condenser that should be in the front of the radiator is nowhere to be seen.

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Literally the only thing remaining from the Battery tray, i'm tempted to re-construct another more sturdy one with the scrap metal that i have, would serve as welding practice i thing.

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tHE STUDS THAT HOLD IT SEEMS TO BE IN PLACE THOUGH, AND NOT RUSTED, SO AT LEAST HAT'S GOOD!

Just after typing that i realized i was in all caps.
i won't delete it
i won't apologize either.

this tiny, rotten thing was the only thing left from the old vacuum system along with a few other lines, things were desperate, but i bought a new Drop-in system and plugged in where it needed to be plugged in, i followed youtube videos for this, i have not tried it yet because the truck won't turn on without a battery, but everything plugged in well and seems to be in working order.

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Here's the absolute mess i'm dealing with here, i know, it's giving me nightmares too..
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Continued!...

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so, here's the Brake booster, it looks bad but i have absolutely no idea on how to diagnose any of this things, still, i heard that the double diaphragm ones from later models are way better, so i'll try to get one of those soon!

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hopefully the breaking problem is about this thing and switching it over for a newer model helps fix things..

this is the charcoal canister as i removed it from the truck, it was absolutely caked in a layer of burnt grease and motor oil, it was even inside the plastic holes that are meant to have the vacuum lines in letting me know this thing has probably not been in use since it entered mexico, i'm not sure i'll use it again even though i cleaned it well and it's apparently in working order, i blew into it and there's airflow... i'm unsure it's even matter to have it and create another potential failure point or to ditch it and forget about it, Mexico deosn't control for emissions what so ever so, maybe?... i don't know, hopefully you guys will let me know what you think!

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before cleaning, straight out of the truck, aaaaand...
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Cleaned! again, it appears to be working but i'm not sure if i'll re-use it or ditch it, looking forward to your comments!
Once this was done i turned my attention over to the rusty Parking break inside the cab, i loosened the nut under the truck bed to be able to remove the cable and take the parking break tensioner which was rusty as heck
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Here's a before picture of it, it creaked and dragged when actioned, to i took it out, carefully cleaned it, used the drill's wire wheel to remove as much rust as i could after i dismantled it as fat as i could, removing the sensor and the springs from it, then i used masking tape to cover the plate with teeth  as to not to paint that, and then gave it the good old rustoleoun treatment.
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it looks so much better now that i put new grease and removed the rust from it, very happy with how this turned out, i didn't do the springs cause i don't know how the paint i have would react to being moved like it is, and would rather first investigate before i frick it up.

next morning i got a package in the mail, it was something i was eager to get because i've done this job before with my friend's car and i kind of liked it! plus it was just after the paint in the floor pans had dried up and was now walkable so i could work on the inside of it with no fear of messing up the previous work i've done repairing the floor.

Sound insulation! apparently this thing helps with temperature regulation too? not sure about that though it would be nice! i'm mainly adding it to have an even more quiet ride that me and passenger can enjoy, also boosting the music once i get a sound system in here!
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The roller that i ordered to help me apply this thing broke apart in the first three rolls though, and i was not about to wait for another one to arrive, so i made my own tool to help me apply this thing.. it's just a copper tube i flattened 6 inches of in the anvil with the hammer, then folded it onto itself for more support, it was still kinda flimsy so i drilled a couple of holes from the tip that was floppy and into the tube, making it look like a Muppet with big eyes, but holding the whole piece together well!

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He can see you too!

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As you can see, it's rounded and i made sure to file all the sharp edges that could cut the insulation up, it's also decently sturdy so all i had to do was press it onto the aluminium side of the insulation and drag it across it with some pressure, flattening it onto the surface of the metal and adhering it permanently to muffle the noise of the naked sheet-metal.

i did the roof and the back wall, waiting on doing the firewall and the transmission tunnel until I'm done working inside and i have at least a bit of an idea of how to tackle the wiring harness problem...

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Continued!...

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Holly long posts Batman! I used that evap core (plate and fin style) and it took plenty of mods but works well. You’ll need to get the evap core probe worked out also for the ac select to work. I’d also recommend keeping the killmat off of the floor. There are so many leak spots in these trucks. Every single body seam is another possible leak point. I had redone my floors and applied dynamite over it all. 3-4 years of pinhole leaks and the floors had to be redone. Removing that stuff was brutal
 

 

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@ghetdjc320

Hah! yeah, sorry i get carried away with storytelling sometimes, hope you enjoy the posts though!
i'll be honest with you, i don't even know what the evap core probe is, what it's for or where it goes, so thanks for letting me know it even exists haha! i'll do some research for it even if fixing the AC system is not a priority right now, mainly focusing on making sure all the work i need to do inside and under the dash is done before i put it back on so i don't have to take it all back off for that one single thing, you know?

so making sure the HVAC box and controls are complete and working, along with fixing the wiring harness and possibly even making the necessary preparations for the future radio, speakers, powered locks, windows and mirrors and maybe a few 12 V outlets for cellphone charging! along with all the other switches, lighter, lights and stock things like that of course

it's gonna be tuff with me not knowing ANYTHING about electricity or wiring, but i'll mannage! (?) HOEPFULLY

Edited by Skylynx
Tagging the person i was meaning to quote-tweet, still getting used to the website!
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This... pretty much catches up to today, i'll be looking out for electric issues threads and try to start piecing things together from there i guess, i really don't know much of what i'm doing with all this wires, i may post some of that in here too actually, and i'm already trying to convince a friend of mine who works with this stuff to at least tell me how to do things, i really don't want to be unsafe or cause a potential fire hazard or fry some of the components, until i'm sure of what i'm doing and how to do it i won't cut a single cable on that harness, though i may further remove it just to see the full extent of the damage.

In other more Caveman brain level news! Axles!! i found a guy locally with a pair of what he claims are a pair of Dana 44 Axles that he pilled from under a Wagoneer, for which i have some doubts, he has no idea what gear ratio is in them at all, and they seem to need a rebuild desperately anyway.. the front axle at least seems to have some custom shock mounts on it, which leads me to believe that they may not be stock gears in the inside since they seem to have been worked on and modified in the past, that being said they don't appear to be bent or cracked, and no pitting either or major rust on them.

He wants 300 bucks for the pair of front and back dana 44's in the state they're at, rear has drums and buying this axles would mean that i would either have to switch the shafts on them to 5 lugs or sell all my wheels and replace them with 6 lugs, which only increases the price and hassle of the whole ordeal... is it even worth it? this are the only pictures he sent me, i may get more this week if i make the trip to go look at them

i really need advice on this one, 300 bucks is quite a lot of money here in Mexico i'd have to save up for it since i don't have the money right now, and still then i'd have two beaten axles, useless until i sink more money into them to rebuild them.

i really don't know what to do with this one guys, and i would seriously appreciate any advice from you on it.

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 Here you can see what i mean with them being worked on in the past, this block here doesn't look stock, right?... should i be worried they're not virgin anymore? haha!

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If you have any info on this axles, what it takes to adapt them to the Comanche, if they're even a good option for it, or ANYTHING ABOUT THEM!
Then please let me know, i'm eager to find more relevant info on these from the eyes of the Comanche connoisseurs i know lurk around here!

Continued!...

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  • Skylynx changed the title to Meximanche!

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