Finally a Manche 87 Pioneer

[87_Pioneers]

I have been wanting a comanche since I turned 16 many years ago. However the timing was never right or we didn't have the space or they would sell before I could purchase. I had just sat down after coming home from vacation and saw these posted on marketplace and got lucky the other two guys no showed. So $800 later and 4 hours in my old sad chevy I brought home 2 87s. The Grey long bed is going to be the project and then black short bed will be striped for parts and scraped. The unibody is completely beyond repair however the bed is surprisingly good which would be great if it was also a long bed. More pics to come as I get them both in my barn and start working on them in the coming weeks. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

Why limit yourself to one project when you can have two?

Hahaha, that's one hell of a score right there. Nice find! Good luck with restoration 

[87_Pioneers]

I won't be able to get a better look until this weekend as I decided to go back to school for some reason while still working 40+ hours a week lol. The black truck is totally and completely beyond repair. I originally had a pipe dream of a truggy but I do not see that happening. I am torn between hacking the short box up as patch panels for the long box. It seems like the short box may he worth it to someone else in need as it is very clean with minimal rust under the flares. 

 

The Grey truck I noticed today has a couple small holes starting in the unibody by the cab mounts. The rest seems very sound so I am hoping a little surgery and some fishplate reinforcement will work just fine. I also have a pile of parts in the bed to comb through. So expect several items to come up for sale in the classifieds soon lol. Plan for the weekend is to finish cleaning my barn now that it is warm out and I sold my scout II that I was way over my head on. Pull the box on the short box and then wheel it in the barn. The Grey interior I will be keeping and the drive train as part of me wants to manual swap down the road. Which leads me to question if a short bed drive shift from an AX 15 would work on the long box?

[87_Pioneers]

Well things went a little sideways pulling the bed and getting the trucks pulled in the shop. The parts truck broke in half and basically has no frame left. The planned Grey project truck has a little worse then I expected. Which leaves me torn as I think it is still able to be saved but more work then I was originally thinking. I may be on the look out for a new base and make the Grey truck a longer term project.