1989 Comanche restomod

[Elwiscon]

Got inspired by the great projects in this forum so wanted to share my project. 1989 4.0 4x4 manual, sportruck. Originally bought to “fix up” and drive, this MJ project has turned into a complete restomod, you know, one thing leads to another and before you know it the truck is ripped apart. Here’s the  as purchased pictures 3 years ago, totally stock with some neglected maintenance issues, very little rust, or so i thought until i removed the vinyl floor cover.

[Elwiscon]

First, i removed the bed, cleaned up the surface rust (very little) and raptorlined it, including gas tank. Also replaced the fuel pump since i dropped the tank anyway. Also soaked the seized spare tire winch in PB blaster to free it up. To my surprise the oil soak restored it, cleaned it, painted it and good as new (sorry no picture was taken)

[Elwiscon]

it is a Comanche so obviously it had severe rust in the passenger side floor pan, rather than patching up holes i decided to replace the whole floor pan section. It was hard work, patience, air chisel and grinder are the best tools for this task. I attached the new pan and cross members with 3M panel adhesive and heavy duty rivets, coated the whole floor with POR15 and raptorliner…eventually will line it with “Kilmat”.

[fiatslug87]

Looking forward to seeing your progress. Add its VIN to the registry when you get a chance.

[Elwiscon]

8 hours ago, fiatslug87 said:

Looking forward to seeing your progress. Add its VIN to the registry when you get a chance.

Thanks, will do!

[Elwiscon]

Several engine bay parts replaced:

 

-heater core (brass/copper)

-water pump

-oil pump

-Coolant hoses

-alternator

-starter

-timing chain

-fan clutch

-harmonic balancer

-block plugs

-exhaust manifold, downpipe, cat, muffler, tailpipe

-oxygen sensor

-Head gasket, valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket, rear main seal

-Vacuum lines

-Battery cables

-Engine mounts

-starter solenoid

-radiator

-fuel regulator

-Injectors

-Electric fan (1996-2001 XJ), still need to wire relay, sensor etc.

-Sensors

-Etc!

 

Added additional grounds, cleaned dipstick sensor grounds per Cruiser 54’s advice, cleaned/ painted valve cover ,intake manifold, there was so much carbon built up in it…It runs a lot smoother now, even at idle, still need to get new spark plugs and wire set. High temperature paint used, gloss black and Chrysler red. Still so much to do!

[Salvagedcircuit]

Excellent work!

[Elwiscon]

5 hours ago, Salvagedcircuit said:

Excellent work!

Thanks! Still at it 

 

[89 MJ]

This feels very familiar to me. The floors were rustier than I expected. Let me guess, it had a factory vinyl floor? 

[Elwiscon]

16 hours ago, 89 MJ said:

This feels very familiar to me. The floors were rustier than I expected. Let me guess, it had a factory vinyl floor? 

Yes! Vinyl floor, passenger side floor pan and seat bracket had a lot of rusty crumbly spots, luckily the driver side wasn’t bad, just surface rust i was able to remove with a wire wheel, 

[89 MJ]

21 minutes ago, Elwiscon said:

Yes! Vinyl floor, passenger side floor pan and seat bracket had a lot of rusty crumbly spots, luckily the driver side wasn’t bad, just surface rust i was able to remove with a wire wheel, 

That’s what I thought. The vinyl floor trucks seem to rust worse than the carpet trucks, which makes sense. 

[pizzaman09]

Did you take the opportunity to gasket match the intake to the head while apart?  This is a nice resto.  Really dig the simple black on white sport truck graphics.

[Elwiscon]

8 hours ago, 89 MJ said:

That’s what I thought. The vinyl floor trucks seem to rust worse than the carpet trucks, which makes sense. 

Definitely an issue, likely because water trapped between the vinyl and floorpan doesn’t wick out or evaporate, unlike carpet. Luckily I didn’t find any firewall leaks, I will be getting carpet I think, Bedrug makes great carpets for jeeps, I have it on my LJ, looks great, dries fats,feels great and very easy to clean, too bad they don’t make it for MJ or XJs.

 

[Elwiscon]

5 hours ago, pizzaman09 said:

Did you take the opportunity to gasket match the intake to the head while apart?  This is a nice resto.  Really dig the simple black on white sport truck graphics.

I replaced the head gasket, i used “Indian Head” shellac and a felpro gasket, new bolts and torqued them to specs in sequence. So far no coolant/oil mix. I replaced it like many other components “while i had it all apart”. I like the white too, I was going to keep it with the original paint and faded worn out graphics to give it more character but unfortunately there’s some rusty areas I’d like to fix so I’ll have to repaint the whole truck which isn’t too bad of a thing, I was thinking the same white, but now I’m considering black, charcoal, silver or 89 MJ’s Chrysler blue with black accents. At some point i was going to “Monstaline” it myself but decided not to… this isn’t the vehicle to do it in my own opinion, too rare, classic and not to be abused off-road, I’ll still treat it like a truck though, to haul, drive and have fun in. 

[Elwiscon]

Looking good so far, Still need some secondary non-factory electrical work such as air conditioning, powered subwoofer, 12V outlet, USB outlet, kill switch, fog lights, heated seats etc. Already added headlight relays and new sockets, I’ll be running a 2awg wire with a breaker for the secondary relay/fuse block. Also need to install the air conditioning lines, already have the factory AC hvac box and AC panel from a donor 1992 XJ and a new evaporator. Also need to fix the vac line for the front differential, but I’m also thinking about adding a CAD delete or cable control. Interior is also getting lined with Kilmat to make it a little quieter and with better accoustics.

[pizzaman09]

15 hours ago, Elwiscon said:

I replaced the head gasket, i used “Indian Head” shellac and a felpro gasket, new bolts and torqued them to specs in sequence. So far no coolant/oil mix. I replaced it like many other components “while i had it all apart”. I like the white too, I was going to keep it with the original paint and faded worn out graphics to give it more character but unfortunately there’s some rusty areas I’d like to fix so I’ll have to repaint the whole truck which isn’t too bad of a thing, I was thinking the same white, but now I’m considering black, charcoal, silver or 89 MJ’s Chrysler blue with black accents. At some point i was going to “Monstaline” it myself but decided not to… this isn’t the vehicle to do it in my own opinion, too rare, classic and not to be abused off-road, I’ll still treat it like a truck though, to haul, drive and have fun in. 

My point in gasket matching was did you port and polish the head and intake to match their shapes at the interference to clean up air flow?

 

All of your proposed color schemes will look great.  I would personally suggest the blue, my truck is black and it looks dirty one day after washing it usually.  White is a bit more resilient to dirt but eventually starts looking grungie. 

[89 MJ]

15 hours ago, Elwiscon said:

89 MJ’s Chrysler blue with black accents

 Our trucks were twins when new, might as well keep it that way

[Elwiscon]

15 minutes ago, 89 MJ said:

 Our trucks were twins when new, might as well keep it that way

Definitely considering that nice blue

 

[Elwiscon]

58 minutes ago, pizzaman09 said:

My point in gasket matching was did you port and polish the head and intake to match their shapes at the interference to clean up air flow?

 

All of your proposed color schemes will look great.  I would personally suggest the blue, my truck is black and it looks dirty one day after washing it usually.  White is a bit more resilient to dirt but eventually starts looking grungie. 

 

 

I see what you mean, no I didn’t do any machine work, just made sure everything was done by the book. I guess I should’ve for better performance/reliability. As for colors, I’ve had black vehicles before, they look great for 10 minutes when you wash/wax it, then dust settles on it and it fades over time if not garaged. I like the white to keep its original color, but the Chrysler blue looks great, I’ve seen it in person in some 90’s Dodge trucks, a guy I know used to have a blue 90’s Ram sport, looked great.  The grill and bumpers will be black regardless of body color, mine doesn’t have chrome bumpers so I’ll just repaint them or raptorline them in black, too many choices to consider!