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Unibody damage what are my options


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Recent accident damaged the front end and looks like the front brace on the unibody frame is broken. 86’ 2.5L manual 4x4 What are my options?

 

Do I need a full frame replacement? Can I just get the front piece replaced? 
 

Most posts I’ve found suggest getting a donor car and replacing them quickly down the rabbit hole of just upgrading to a 4.0L.

 

I can post a pic once I get home.

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Here are the pics of the damage. From what I can tell I know I’ll need new: fenders, grille, header panel, bumper, all lights and repaired frame. Anything else obvious?

 

Does the frame look repairable? 
 

Appreciate the expert help

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My MJ was in an accident similar to yours. I ended up welding frame stiffeners to repair and reinforce the unibody. Replaced the fenders, hood, header panel. Used oxyfuel to heat up the original "frame" boxes to bend them straight, and lots of clamps to sandwich the frame stiffeners. Quite a bit of fabrication involved if you tackle this yourself.

 

End result:

 

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Details in my build thread:

 

 

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Thanks Airborne!

 

I'm not the welder you are so once I get it to a shop I’ll have to assess but I do like the idea to reinforce with the unibody and make it bulletproof for any future accidents. Plan to beef up the bumpers as well to help with that.

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3 hours ago, RowerJim said:

Thanks Airborne!

 

I'm not the welder you are so once I get it to a shop I’ll have to assess but I do like the idea to reinforce with the unibody and make it bulletproof for any future accidents. Plan to beef up the bumpers as well to help with that.

 

Yup definitely need a welder or know someone who has one. Is insurance going to cover the damage? I'm thinking a shop will want thousands in repairs. Could maybe use that money to buy a welder and the parts to fix it yourself, then pay for a paint job and still come out ahead. Depends on what insurance says and if they total it and all that jazz. 

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First things first: start by stripping off all the damaged parts; it will help you make your parts list, and you're pretty much garantied to find hidden damage that you can't see right now. Then, measure your frame structure to really know what's going on. I you need them, I have one pic of the unibody blueprints, otherwise I also have the Comanche Body Manual, so I can always take more pics with my phone.

 

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7 hours ago, OldSch88L said:

First things first: start by stripping off all the damaged parts; it will help you make your parts list, and you're pretty much garantied to find hidden damage that you can't see right now. Then, measure your frame structure to really know what's going on. I you need them, I have one pic of the unibody blueprints, otherwise I also have the Comanche Body Manual, so I can always take more pics with my phone.

 

Yup, that’s been my last few days working to strip off the damage best I can in between the rainy days. I’m expecting to find more as I get deeper so hopefully pleasantly surprised.

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Cut the bumper off and looks like the front section definitely needs to be replaced. Hard to tell if either side would though. Looks like the bracket bend into the unibody on one side so hopefully that can just be straightened?

 

side with the bracket is passenger

side without the bracket is driver

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the front crossmember is a piece of tin and barely does anything anyways. :D  I don't really see any damage to the frame horns.  looks like the crossmember just tore.  what's the measurement between the frame rails? 

 

I'd be tempted to just bolt another bumper on and drive.  :driving:

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  • 4 months later...

Well it took some time but thought I’d share the results of the repair.

 

Airborne or anybody,

 

I did have some trouble finding all the front end pieces. Anybody know where I can find the final pieces or what I might have gotten wrong.

 

Notice right above the turn signals I’m missing chrome. I think I have 86 bezels but seems there are extra pieces I can’t find. Ideas???

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A2D3A362-1AB2-4A4D-94D2-5495DC469E6C.jpeg

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On 5/14/2023 at 2:01 PM, RowerJim said:

Well it took some time but thought I’d share the results of the repair.

 

Airborne or anybody,

 

I did have some trouble finding all the front end pieces. Anybody know where I can find the final pieces or what I might have gotten wrong.

 

Notice right above the turn signals I’m missing chrome. I think I have 86 bezels but seems there are extra pieces I can’t find. Ideas???

7D581CB7-6BED-457F-AE80-90CB091C6E4C.jpeg

CBEC4275-0315-4D72-9894-A0ADAB55F1C4.jpeg

A2D3A362-1AB2-4A4D-94D2-5495DC469E6C.jpeg

 

those are pretty rare these days. :(  best to put an ad in the wanted section and see if anyone has any.

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On 5/16/2023 at 1:35 PM, gogmorgo said:

I think I’ve got a full set of chrome off an ‘86 that I picked up a long time ago before I realized it wouldn’t fit my ‘91. Don’t remember what I did with it. I’ll have to do some digging. 

If you do end up finding it, let me know would be awesome to complete the front end. 
 

thanks for searching even if you don’t find it.

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35 minutes ago, RowerJim said:

If you do end up finding it, let me know would be awesome to complete the front end. 
 

thanks for searching even if you don’t find it.

 

are you also missing the lower chrome trim that runs under the grille? 

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On 5/17/2023 at 8:37 PM, Pete M said:

 

are you also missing the lower chrome trim that runs under the grille? 

Hey Pete,

 

Yup missing that one too. Wouldn’t mind a clean top piece either. Was able to salvage the old one from the accident. 
 

Have a lead on the bottom piece?

 

thanks!

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Unfortunately that box of stuff didn’t make it into my basement during my move last fall. I’m guessing that means it’s sitting in the back of my MJ at my parents’… but hard to say. I’ll have to check next time I’m there. Work insisted on hiring movers for me and it definitely only made the move more stressful. Everything just kinda got unceremoniously dumped into boxes with no obvious organizational logic and then piled in various places at the destination. Seven months later and I still can’t find half my $#!& and so much of it got damaged. Super frustrating. But enough of that rant. 


If memory serves the early headlight bezels are two pieces, one to go around the corner marker and the other for the headlight, and I believe the marker portion has the upper bit of chrome built into it. I want to say that was my first clue the stuff wouldn’t fit my ‘91, the hole to receive it simply isn’t big enough, but that was ten years ago now so memory of the details is getting a little fuzzy. I think to make the newer chrome parts work you’d need to swap the header panel.

I think there’s three generations of header panel/trim, and while it visually looks the same and some will mix and match, not all of it does. I wanna say it’s ‘83-‘86, ‘87-‘90, and ‘91-‘96, eventually reducing the complexity and number of pieces. But I haven’t dug into it much since trying to

figure out why the pieces I pulled didn’t fit ten years ago.

 

I’ll keep trying to track that stuff down. I know it exists somewhere, it’s just figuring out where.

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On 5/14/2023 at 11:01 AM, RowerJim said:

Well it took some time but thought I’d share the results of the repair.

 

Airborne or anybody,

 

I did have some trouble finding all the front end pieces. Anybody know where I can find the final pieces or what I might have gotten wrong.

 

Notice right above the turn signals I’m missing chrome. I think I have 86 bezels but seems there are extra pieces I can’t find. Ideas???

7D581CB7-6BED-457F-AE80-90CB091C6E4C.jpeg

CBEC4275-0315-4D72-9894-A0ADAB55F1C4.jpeg

A2D3A362-1AB2-4A4D-94D2-5495DC469E6C.jpeg

 

What accident? Looks great!

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