18,600 MJs left on the roads

[Classy Comanche]

So I heard whereabouts of a junked Comanche in my area. I found out the home address and paid a visit and asked the owner about his Comanche which was nowhere to be found. He said it set for so long he hauled it off to be crushed. Nothing pulled off. Crushed.....I'm devastated. It was a '87 Sport truck. Had tail lights and all. I just....I'm actually disappointed and upset. He had no idea what he had, let alone what the rear bumper, tail lights and cluster was worth. Very sad. However. I did call a scrap yard near me and they had a driver side manual window regulator. Which I've been fighting tooth and nail for and looking high and low. So at least somthing good happened. That's 1 less of the 18,600 on the road....

[gogmorgo]

22 hours ago, Classy Comanche said:

So I heard whereabouts of a junked Comanche in my area. I found out the home address and paid a visit and asked the owner about his Comanche which was nowhere to be found. He said it set for so long he hauled it off to be crushed. Nothing pulled off. Crushed.....I'm devastated. It was a '87 Sport truck. Had tail lights and all. I just....I'm actually disappointed and upset. He had no idea what he had, let alone what the rear bumper, tail lights and cluster was worth. Very sad. However. I did call a scrap yard near me and they had a driver side manual window regulator. Which I've been fighting tooth and nail for and looking high and low. So at least somthing good happened. That's 1 less of the 18,600 on the road....

If he told you where he sent it, it’s worth checking with them to see whether or not it made it to the crusher yet. 

[Classy Comanche]

He said he had it crushed for $200 worth of scrap. He watched them do it. It infuriated me but just let it go and walked off

[hassyfoto]

Ok, I'm a senior citizen and love jeeps. I have three. One is a daily driver. The Comanche is another story. I'm a hot rodder so my truck is tricked for car shows. But add to rarity, there are 10 million Chevy c10 on the show circuit. All lifted, all have a painted frame and to add insult to injury every jeep show I go to, the new jeeps are the popular choice. Folks just walk past the Comanche to look at a new jeep 6 feet in the Air with $20 thousand in bolt on accessories.

On the good side, when someone does stop to talk to me about a Comanche it's a very positive conversation with a lot of. I wanted one, I loved the one a had. Wish I had another one. 

The best part, only once in six yrs of car shows I've only come across one restored Comanche. 

Those who do stop to look always comment about how great a Comanche is/was 

[Car Enthusiast]

I always tell guys that we have to save the rusty crappy ones out there or there won't be anything left. This community is going to have to figure out making our own parts because there just won't be enough pristine Comanches to find

 

Bad floors, cut them out and weld new ones in, rockers gone bend new ones and put them on. 

[Pete M]

we don't even have to do that anymore.  key-parts is making both of those items.   just waiting on those cab corners! 

 

it's a weird time to be into MJs.  a lot of common parts are getting hard to find, and a lot of rare parts are now just a few taps away from arriving at your door. 

[pizzaman09]

I can say that my Comamnche gets far more attention than my other classics.  The only one that gets close is the 62 Austin Healey Sprite.  With the Comanche I've had people slow down and yell up my driveway saying they love it.  Lots of people say they had one or knew someone with one and they loved it.

 

I personally bought mine to use as a truck but I take very careful care of it as I know it's rare.  I welded up the rusty driver's floor pan, and now it's basically perfect.  To keep it perfect, as soon as salt started getting spread on the roads I parked it and switched to driving my 99 BMW M3.  It's a lot less rare and a little rusty, however it's appreciating fast in the classic car world.  The Comanche is probably the better winter vehicle but the M3 does well and I'd much rather keep the Comanche clean.

[tugboat95]

On 6/30/2022 at 2:35 PM, 87 MJ Chief said:

Here's 3 Carolina Comanches together! (me, @Classy Comanche@NC Tom). I'm 2 counties east of Tom in Alleghany. I know of two others on the road here and 3 on the road in Ashe, which is between tom and I. I don't think those are on here but they are registered.

 

I'm trying to buy 2 Comanches now. I have to buy both of them to get a couple of parts off of 1 of them. If the "good one" is good enough to put back on the road (fuel problem took it off the road) it will be for sale. Yeah, that's putting the cart before the horse but when I'm going in halves with a 12-year old you have to work 3 steps ahead!

FYI, they are 2 more in Carolina due east of you.  All the way on the coast in Craven county.  I own 1 89 Eliminator that I drive regularly and 1 89 Pioneer that has turned into a parts truck.  I'm at the point of turning it into a dedicated trail rig, but I just picked up a Cherokee already built, well about 80% for next to nothing.

 

I know there is a third one in the havelock area but I've not been able to get the guy to talk to me.  Come to think of it, I haven't seen in over a year.

[87 MJ Chief]

My sister will be on the lookout for that one in Havelock! 

[Classy Comanche]

@tugboat95we got another too! @dasbulliwagen is in my town! We're the only two cruising Asheboro NC. There's a older fella probably in his 80's that has one almost identical to mine that is mint and has turbine wheels and a bar in the back his truck with overhead lights. Ive only seen it twice and I want to figure out where it went. The thing looks like its never seen rain! But yeah we got another fella cruising NC. Me and dasbulliwagen are the head turners of town. People either don't know what our trucks are or do know and talk about how neat they were and how they missed theirs when they had one or loved the one someone they knew had. 

[Gojira94]

@tugboat95 I've seen a fully restored MJ, don't know the year, about 8 1/2 miles east of Kinston on 58. I make the drive from Clayton to EI quite a bit and I used to see it almost every weekend. It's orange. I haven't seen it in maybe the last year or so, but it was what pushed me to find the MJ I'm working on now. The guy's got what looks like a Renix or early HO XJ (red) on blocks, either for parts or set aside for work). Also a burgundy WJ is there a lot, looks like a daily.

[Gojira94]

On 2/16/2023 at 1:45 PM, Gojira94 said:

@tugboat95 I've seen a fully restored MJ, don't know the year, about 8 1/2 miles east of Kinston on 58. I make the drive from Clayton to EI quite a bit and I used to see it almost every weekend. It's orange. I haven't seen it in maybe the last year or so, but it was what pushed me to find the MJ I'm working on now. The guy's got what looks like a Renix or early HO XJ (red) on blocks, either for parts or set aside for work). Also a burgundy WJ is there a lot, looks like a daily.

I saw this orange MJ again tonight. Passing by around 7:30, it was dark and I had my daughter in the car so I didn’t stop to see if the owner was about (it’s a business address, looks like a seed and fertilizer outfit or something). I really want to meet whoever that is and take a look at his (or her) MJ.

[oleskool]

On 2/15/2023 at 9:27 PM, Classy Comanche said:

@tugboat95we got another too! @dasbulliwagen is in my town! We're the only two cruising Asheboro NC. There's a older fella probably in his 80's that has one almost identical to mine that is mint and has turbine wheels and a bar in the back his truck with overhead lights. Ive only seen it twice and I want to figure out where it went. The thing looks like its never seen rain! But yeah we got another fella cruising NC. Me and dasbulliwagen are the head turners of town. People either don't know what our trucks are or do know and talk about how neat they were and how they missed theirs when they had one or loved the one someone they knew had. 

I cruise through Asheboro every 3 weeks when I'm back home to visit / help my parents with house work etc If you see a dark blue long bed rolling through its probably me haha.

[Swampy]

On 12/23/2022 at 10:38 PM, pizzaman09 said:

I can say that my Comamnche gets far more attention than my other classics.  The only one that gets close is the 62 Austin Healey Sprite.  With the Comanche I've had people slow down and yell up my driveway saying they love it.  Lots of people say they had one or knew someone with one and they loved it.

 

I personally bought mine to use as a truck but I take very careful care of it as I know it's rare.  I welded up the rusty driver's floor pan, and now it's basically perfect.  To keep it perfect, as soon as salt started getting spread on the roads I parked it and switched to driving my 99 BMW M3.  It's a lot less rare and a little rusty, however it's appreciating fast in the classic car world.  The Comanche is probably the better winter vehicle but the M3 does well and I'd much rather keep the Comanche clean.

I took mine to a car show. People liked it and were looking at it but when it came time to voting, I lost to a 2013 black wrangler that had pink accessories thrown all over it... basic mall crawler, I'm still salty about it 

[Classy Comanche]

I've been browsing FB market place a bit and I'm seeing a lot of half finished projects and very rusty ones. I'm also seeing lots of like offroad builds. It's odd to me I don't see hardly any like....just standard road builds like mine. A mj is a mj! But I do wonder why a lot of people are compelled to take these offroad a lot. I see a lot of beat up ones of FB too. I almost want to buy them but mine already likes to give me problems which I fix like every other week 

 

 

[Pete M]

they make a great offroad platform.    light, strong and tough.  I love that extra wheelbase over the XJ and 2dr wranglers. 

 

I imagine you're not seeing the stock MJs much for sale because the owners are driving them instead of selling them.  

[Classy Comanche]

That is true. I do love driving mine so so much when I'm not having it worked on. Ain't the fastest thing on the road by any means. But it just drives so good. I've seen one completely restored one for sale and it was like 17k. Everything rebuild and had 2,000 miles on engine and transmission. So. Justified in my eyes. I know the guy that normally works on my jeep says when he drives mine it's like a whole new world because he had big knobby tires on his while I got little whitewall all-terrain tires. 

[dasbulliwagen]

On 6/30/2023 at 8:58 PM, Classy Comanche said:

That is true. I do love driving mine so so much when I'm not having it worked on. Ain't the fastest thing on the road by any means. But it just drives so good. I've seen one completely restored one for sale and it was like 17k. Everything rebuild and had 2,000 miles on engine and transmission. So. Justified in my eyes. I know the guy that normally works on my jeep says when he drives mine it's like a whole new world because he had big knobby tires on his while I got little whitewall all-terrain tires. 

Thats more of I have a lifted 2.5 4 cylinder and yours is a stock 4.0 on stock sized tires. Yours seems effortless to drive, while mine seems like it really has to work.