1987 Comanche AKA Ghost

[HuntinHopin]

Been lurking around and wrenching on the Comanche as needed trying to get the kinks worked out prior to my son's 16th birthday. Picked this up back in September for $2500 off Marketplace. Pretty straight. Not much rust to speak of other than the floorboards. It's a 4.0 4x4 stick shift. First thing we were looking for were seatbelts. Found at Buddys in Springfield thanks to a member on here for pointing us in the right direction. We also had no turn signals, dash lights, or tail lights. Tried trouble shooting the grounds with no luck. Finally took it to a local who discovered the fuse box had some issues (I'm sure from a leaking master cylinder at some point). He was able to get that all fixed up and working again. Now was time to let the boy start practicing how to drive a stick. 

[HuntinHopin]

He has been driving SxS, fourwheelers, and dirt bikes since he was very little so he has done pretty darn good learning to drive it. The ignition had a key broke off in it so we replaced the cylinder and picked up a new set of door locks but have yet to install them. We ordered the pillar lights and upgraded the speakers because every 15 year old knows how important music is in the driving process. Middle of September we ordered him a new set of tires to replace the dry rotted ones that came with it. We also ordered new floorplans and a speedometer cable because his was snapped off at the instrument panel. While replacing the speedometer, we went ahead a dropped a new instrument panel in from a donor Cherokee since all we had were the dummy gauges. 

[HuntinHopin]

Since welding in the floor pans, we have mostly just been driving it and enjoying the learning process. We have removed and repainted the rear bumber and fender flares as well as touching up some of the interior trim. One of the previous owners had painted the blue interior black but like most of their other repairs, didn't do a great job so it was peeling and flaking. On Christmas Eve, he drove his Mom to pick up food and stop by the store for some last minute things. When they got ready to leave the store, the ignition wouldn't engage the starter. Crawled under it, jumped the starter and brought it home. After digging around on here, figured out it was more than likely the ignition switch mounted on top of the steering column. Picked it up at O'Riellys, switched it out and good to go again. For Christmas just about all he asked for were Comanche parts or upgrades for his truck. He got new LED headlights, a toolbox, bed lights, and a winch controller since his has been missing since we bought the truck. LED headlights were plug and play and make a big difference. Toolbox he will need to carry school stuff and sports stuff once he starts driving to school. We have yet to install the bed lights. Attempted to install the winch controller tonight but having some trouble figuring out the wiring. Will try again tomorrow. 

 

We also got some bucket seats and a center console out of the same donor Cherokee the instrument cluster came out of. We are going to attempt to take the brackets off the current bench seat and attach them to the buckets.

 

I will try to keep this thread updated and do a better job at taking pics as we go since I have figured out that everyone here likes pics...

Edited Friday at 04:38 AM by HuntinHopin
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[Skorpyo]

Great work so far! Nice to see younger generations driving stick and into older trucks too. Also great to see such a great way to spend time with your son. Great job, and the Jeep is looking good!