Bezerk1's bucket list 86 rebuild

[Bezerk1]

I picked up my Comanche last June (21). I was working out of town taking quarry equipment down to move and our company's trucking co. was there to haul it away, I worked a lot of jobs with them for the past 20 years, they heard I was leaving early that week and hassled me why couldn't I stay and get the work done, told them I was going to a Jeep event in Butler, it's a family run trucking co. with two brothers and their dad who passed away, so the one brother after hearing where I was going said would you like to buy our Dad's jeep pick-up, thinking it was a newer gladiator so I said nope, he said well we are probably going to scrap it then it's been in our yard since about 2014, then it hit me they didn't make the gladiators yet, then I started asking all kinds of questions,  I said is this a Comanche, is it 4 wheel drive, they said don't really know they'll take pics when they get home, but they both said pretty sure it was only 2 wheel drive, I told them I was looking for one of these since 2017 when I saw my first one at a jeep event, I was also thrilled when they sent me the pic it had a 4X4 emblem on the bed, they said give us the scrap metal price, I said $500 cool, then the one brother must of seen how excited and said I was thinking $800 but still bought it right when I got home from Butler, at Butler I looked for Comanche's, saw one with a V8 in it, saw a great looking black one, had lots of questions for him so asked if I could get his # but he said he just got robbed so he don't share to much info, thought fair enough, then I had to figure out what power plant to put in, the brother's said either the engine died or the trans weren't sure which one, it had a 2.5 in it, I didn't want a 4 cylinder anyway, I had a 318 in the garage forever but heard and thought might be a pain to put in, so thought 4.0 since they came in the trucks years later, so I went to craig's list for a parts XJ, must have been meant to be the first thing to come up was a 2 door XJ, 2nd on my wish list, so got that and had to say good bye to a 30 year old friend ,my 91 XJ, so now the plan was take everything from that and put in the MJ started stripping the MJ and saw Fred Flintstone floor boards, I just put new ones in the 91 XJ couple years ago so even took floor boards, it had a 4.0 /auto, then I met Pete at Pa. all breed jeep show and he introduced me to the Comanche Club, I spent some many hours on it already, learning a lot and seeing great people with the same passion, I know it's not going to be a show truck or climber, just to put it back to road ready will be good enough for me, so my plan is to get it back on the road, hope plan and bank account hold up

 

this is the first pic of the Comanche I got texted to me

 

 

 

 

[Bezerk1]

Here are some pics when I got it home

[87 MJ Chief]

And going by the front tag, you've already got a name for it.

Raise hell, praise Dale! lol

[saveevryjp1998]

I already want to meet you just from the intro story. I'll definitely be watching this one progress. Welcome and  to the mj addiction.

[Bezerk1]

Thanks Saveevryjp, here are  some more pics when I started to take it apart 

[Bezerk1]

In the last picture of the last set I sent you can probably see how bad the floor boards were, I do little things every weekend and some days before work time allowing, so don’t show everything ever day, forth of July week I had off and just got new welder ( could use old jobs welder and shop before) so mostly got done with floor 

 

 

took whole floor board out of 91 XJ

 

cut into quarters to fit and align crucial holes and welded it upthen undercoated it

[saveevryjp1998]

On 9/5/2022 at 9:52 PM, Bezerk1 said:

In the last picture of the last set I sent you can probably see how bad the floor boards were, I do little things every weekend and some days before work time allowing, so don’t show everything ever day, forth of July week I had off and just got new welder ( could use old jobs welder and shop before) so mostly got done with floor 

 

 

took whole floor board out of 91 XJ

 

cut into quarters to fit and align crucial holes and welded it upthen undercoated it

Your making major progress!

[motownXJdad]

cool story and cool truck, i like how you did the floorboards all way up to the cowl. wish i had column shift in mine, I'm following👍

[Bezerk1]

Been a little bit since last report on work I’ve done 

 

first got the heater box in

 
 

next ran the wiring harness 

 

cleaned up engine bay and firewall and painted it

 

switched VIN tag and cluster ( liked AMC logo but not idiot lights and no tach )

 

then got dash in and playing endless game of follow that wire to this date got 75% figured out

 

[Bezerk1]

Even though I put whole floor pan inside the bottom was bothering me with the old holes sticking out like sore thumb. Took me awhile to do. Bad weather and lack of interest was biggest hold up, it seemed every time I’d weld one patch get two holes put another patch on to let holes cool down get two more then fill first ones seemed like endless cycle but got finished this week. Then today I got rug and seats in. Then center console 

now on to bigger (& costly) things