Daisy, my '91 Comanche Eliminator

[Moosieus]

I haven't had any updates to share in a hot minute - been busy upgrading my skills and workspace to make my restoration go right. I've some perhaps interesting data points to share though!

 

With the old carpet removed I've only come to reinforce my theory: the rot progressed from the inside out, likely due to wet carpet retaining moisture against the interior floor. I say that because the underside is stunningly clean. Daisy's underside body is remarkably free of rust and corrosion. Some undercoating was done in the past, which I suspect to be asphalt/bitumen based b/c it dissolves poorly in alcohol and well in mineral spirits.

 

Here's the passenger side rear frame rail for reference. There's not much left of the coating in this area, but it seems to have done well.

 

The underside of the bed while dirty, couldn't look much better for a ~35 year old truck. This makes me believe she was largely spared of winter driving, which would track with the 2x4 open diff config.

 

Here's the passenger side floor, which is DRAMATICALLY in better shape than the driver side (but still getting fully repaired).

 

Here's what the underside looks like for reference with this undercoating removed. More to follow in a moment.

[Moosieus]

So far my greatest challenge has been removing corroded fasteners while not callously causing competent combustibles to confligrate into certain catastrophe.

 

The worst of this (so far) has been my driver side seat belt (torx) bolt. The tight space and rust on the bolt head left me spare for options. I first managed to weld a tack up and weld a bolt into the rounded out torx head. The first attempt broke on the welds, but left me with more workable surface area.

 

The second attempt resulted in this. I welded, it helded, but the parent bolt ended up shearing ;_;

 

For the third attempt, I cut away the failed bolt, welded on a nut to the now more accreted surface area, and borrowed my pal's "Solary Induction Heater", pictured below.

 

Third time's the charm, right?

 

With the nut welded on, metered use of the induction heater, and a long-@$$ breaker bar, I managed to get THIS RAT B****** OUT!

 

Here it is compared to the passenger side!

[Moosieus]

I'd say I've learned two key takeaways from all of this:

1. The best (not necessarily the most convenient) extractor for a stripped bolt is a welder.
2. This induction heater is well worth its cost for restoration and general use.

I've been especially adverse to using an open torch to free these fasteners, for fear of damaging my interior wire harnesses and factory e-coat. The asphalt undercoating also sponges up petroleum products and is soaked with motor oil, so I regard that as a fire hazard as well.

 

Compared to a torch, induction heating works on fasteners from the inside-out, gets heat into the threads faster, keeps it far more localized, and removes the combustion risks of an open flame. It's a genuinely useful piece of kit I cannot recommend enough.

[taddraughn]

16 hours ago, Moosieus said:

I'd say I've learned two key takeaways from all of this:

1. The best (not necessarily the most convenient) extractor for a stripped bolt is a welder.
2. This induction heater is well worth its cost for restoration and general use.

I've been especially adverse to using an open torch to free these fasteners, for fear of damaging my interior wire harnesses and factory e-coat. The asphalt undercoating also sponges up petroleum products and is soaked with motor oil, so I regard that as a fire hazard as well.

 

Compared to a torch, induction heating works on fasteners from the inside-out, gets heat into the threads faster, keeps it far more localized, and removes the combustion risks of an open flame. It's a genuinely useful piece of kit I cannot recommend enough.

The induction heaters have gotten a lot cheaper in the last couple years so I picked one up recently but haven't used it much yet except to test it out. Welding has always worked for me in the past though. Maybe it takes a few tries but the additional heating and cooling probably help loosen things up to. The shoulder on that seat belt bolt looks pretty gnarly though!!

[pizzaman09]

On 7/26/2026 at 7:05 PM, Moosieus said:

I'd say I've learned two key takeaways from all of this:

1. The best (not necessarily the most convenient) extractor for a stripped bolt is a welder.
2. This induction heater is well worth its cost for restoration and general use.

I've been especially adverse to using an open torch to free these fasteners, for fear of damaging my interior wire harnesses and factory e-coat. The asphalt undercoating also sponges up petroleum products and is soaked with motor oil, so I regard that as a fire hazard as well.

 

Compared to a torch, induction heating works on fasteners from the inside-out, gets heat into the threads faster, keeps it far more localized, and removes the combustion risks of an open flame. It's a genuinely useful piece of kit I cannot recommend enough.

I've recently purchased an inductive heater, about $160 from Amazon.  It's one of the best tool purchases I've ever made, almost a miracle cure for rusted on hardware.  A set of bolt extractors used on the end of an air hammer are also quite useful.

 

This truck is luck to have found you, Daisy is a lucky gal.  I'm jealous of your 1991 Eliminator graphics, they are so much cooler than the earlier Eliminator graphics.

[Moosieus]

 

Making incremental progress, damn this is a lot of work…

I’ve removed most of the driver side longitudinal floor support, providing a look at the interior of the frame rail. It’s mostly clean primer with some surface rust. That’ll clean up nicely with some abrasives, Ospho, and 2K epoxy primer.

 

For all the damn work this takes, I’m buying a stroker motor someday.

[Moosieus]

Removing seam sealer has been a struggle bus. Best method I’ve found thus far is a hot and sharp chisel, welding gloves, and a respirator for the fumes. Does a good job of lifting the seam sealer w/o damaging the e-coat underneath.

 

 

[Moosieus]

Progress update! My truck was optioned with the interior firewall liner which was getting in the way, and I finally came to terms with pull the dash so I could work properly. Safe to say I'll be taking care of any "while I'm here" items while I'm here. Pulling the dash and HVAC module was a surprisingly modular affair, and not too tricky given time to spare. Huge shout-out to this guide on Cherokee Forum and Pete and Mintuit's callouts here!

 

 

I bought an right angle air drill to get at the difficult to reach spot welds, specifically an Aircat 4337. I also got a cheap harbor freight non-contact tachometer to set the speed closer to what Blair recommends for their spot weld cutters (not to exceed 500 RPM). I'd been using electric drills and "that seems about right" prior, but even that had been too fast in retrospect. I wish I'd done this from the start, because I'm getting through these spot welds at a far more consistent rate now.

[Moosieus]

And Now, for something completely different. My desire for Daisy has always been something approaching an OEM+ build, although I wouldn't have known to call it that when I first started. As of yesterday, I've taken a massive step towards that.

 

The fuel pump buzzes like there's 10,000 angry bees in the trunk. The leaf springs are flat. She death wobbles at highway speeds on innocuous bumps. There's questionable speaker wires run about. A swift kick would make her floors no more. 10 minutes from home, the front brakes turned a spectacular smoke show. Dear ComancheClub members, I give you, a fully loaded, clapped out, 1992 Jeep Cherokee XJ Limited.

 

Black leather seats! I plan to have them professionally restored, great expense withstanding:

 

Overhead console! Not sure what that black dot is in the middle.

 

Select-Trac!

 

Here's the full options list:

 

and the door sticker:

 

Still has a Jeep Eagle badge too.

 

My plan is to part it out and make the ultimate factory-optioned Comanche. I had some reservations about parting out a such a highly optioned Cherokee, but after a thorough inspection and an... eventful drive home, this is without a doubt the best possible out come.

 

 

[eaglescout526]

The black dome is keyless entry.