LocoJeeper

Well, when I bought the MJ back in March my plan was to build it up quick (and thorough, I am way too OCD to let something go by without doing it right) and have it ready for display at the PA Jeeps Show in July.

Well, it’s July… and if my chronological math works the fabricator has had Maggie in his possession longer then it was in mine.

He’s been busy building all new JK stuff… so its understandable.

An email yesterday revealed that I should be able to pick it up this coming friday (a mere 24 hours before the Jeep show.. no way am I pulling a thrash fest to get it together). So i’m excited at the possibility of getting my Comanche back and I very likely will enter it in the show anyways.

It’ll look a tad goofy, as it will have custom bumpers front and rear and rocker protection… but no other customizations… still rolling on its street treads and sporting a 10% swapped over XJ interior. But its got fancy bumpers!! Hehe.

Anywho… pictures to follow once I get my mits on it.

I really like the “no questions asked, if it breaks we replace it” lifetime warranty of BDS Suspensions. However, they don’t make a Comanche lift kit that will clear 33’s. Realizing that most of the MJ lifts on the market are XJ fronts with SOA in the rear, it shouldn’t be that hard to assemble a “kit” myself.

Here are the parts from BDS Suspension:

• 034452: XJ 4.5″ Front Coil Springs
• 124422: Adjustable LCA’s with flex end
• 124424: Adjustable UCA’s with flex end
• 124413: Adjustable track bar

I’m seriously consider Bilstein for shocks. As far as the remaining items (spring perches, extended brake lines, etc) I’ll be adding things to this “kit” as I go along to arrive a complete parts list.

At the begining of May I dropped my 89 Comanche, project named Maggie, off at AtoZ Fabrication in Cressona. Zach is a long-time sponsor of a Blue Mountain Jeep Alliance and I got to know him pretty well over the years since he moved from NJ to PA.

Over a couple months of emails and throwing ideas around, the plan was to loan him the entire vehicle for 6-8 weeks so that he could build a front bumper, a rear bumper and rocker protection.

Whether these items go into “production” category or not is yet to be deteremined. At least the front bumper probably will as it is interchangeable with the Cherokee’s and there are a number of people wanting him to build front bumpers for their XJ’s.

I got an email from him a few days ago saying that the rocker protection was finished (really want to see some pics… but i’ll save my excitement for the finished product). He also said the rear bumper is laid out and ready to weld together.

Anywho… anxiously waiting.

With the bucket seats in place focus was then paid to the rest of the nasty blue interior. Swapping in the XJ seats held me over for a little bit, but I really needed seats from a 2 door Cherokee as they would have the fold front capability that the Comanche needs in order to get behind the seats.

I found a guy parting out a 90 2-door Cherokee with a gray interior just inside NJ on the other side of Philley. A 50 or so minute drive and about 4 hours of wrenching and the interior was completely stripped and strapped down in the back of Maggie.

As of right now the gray buckets have since been swapped in place of the 4-door versions… but the rest of the interior is sitting in the garage attic waiting to be swapped over.

After driving about 20 minutes in my new Jeep Comanche I was reminded of what I had already determined… the bench seat needed to go!! Big time. Though the bench seat didn’t look worn, it always felt like I was sinking to the passenger side while driving.

I’m 6′3″ and have steel rod and pins holding my femur in place… so I appreciate the bolstered support of a bucket seat. So I had a fellow Blue Mountain Jeep Alliance member who was parting out an 89 XJ drop some seats off for me. He was already coming down to my garage to buy my old arc welder… so it didn’t take much to convince to have the seats hitch a ride down.

I unbolted the old bench seat and drilled out the rivets attaching the seat risers to the bench seat and slider assembly. A little bit of persuasion with the BFH and I had the necessary risers to bolt onto the XJ sliders.

I did the same to the XJ risers and drilled through the sliders, so I could bolt the MJ risers to the XJ risers and seats.

The seats worked pretty well. They are the older rocking chair/ bull riding / swivel seats and they add about 3″ to the overall height of the seat. Its not too much of a problem as most of my height comes from my legs… so that gives my legs a little more room to make their way to the peddles. However, I might run into a problem if I adhere a windshield sticker… as I am looking out the top 30% of the windshield.

So pulling up in Maggie the day I bought it… my wifes first comment upon seeing it was “looks like an old man drives this!”. So with the cap gone, the graphics (strip and text) on the cab and body were the next thing to go. They weren’t completely objectionable, but with Maggie needing a paint job anyways, I figure I’d hurry the build along by getting those graphics off.

I started off with just a razor blade and ended up scraping the paint more then the vinyl. It was the first nice day of the year so I ran down to Harbor Freight Tools (a discount tool supplier that is dangerously close to my house) and after $9.99 + tax I had a heat gun.

It didn’t take me long to pick up the necessary technique. Following about 12-16″ ahead of myself with the heat gun being held about 3-4″ away from the body. Finger and thumb grabbing the vinyl strip and they’d come off quite easily. I still had my share of scratches left from having to use the razor blade after my “feed” of vinyl ripped. Knowing that I was going to re-paint it anyways I didn’t feel so bad.

I followed it up with a rub-down of “Opps” and then a dry car wash rub and it turned out not too shabby.

First task at hand was to get rid of all the “un-necessaries”.

The cap would have to go… though convenient it doesn’t quite scream Jeep machine the way I would like it to. I tried posting it for sale, and no-one seemed to bit. After calling around for a bit I found a Ishler’s Truck Caps, its a family run business. Gave the owner a call, described what I had, and he said that he’d give me $25 for it. Sold! I ran it over to Mount Joy and the fork lifted it off, and I said my goodbyes.

Second item to get rid of was the rubber cargo mat. I liked it, but realized so would someone else and I was going to end up durabacking the bed anyways.

So I posted it on the various forums and within a few minutes Lynn of Rausch Creek Off-Road Park fame was chomping at the bit. $25 and it was hers. Another Blue Mountain Jeep Alliance member was headed up to the park that weekend so I had it hitch a ride. In a matter of a moments it was riding in Spike.

That concluded the initial pillaging. There certainly will be more. But that was it for the moment.

Here’s the plan of attack: Maggie is going to be my daily driver. Just back and forth to work (5 miles or so) and running to the home improvement store to pick up supplies for the house remodeling project. I loved the way I had Betty (the 96 XJ) built, but I realized I put the seat’s down and never bothered to put them back up. I was really in need of a pick-up truck. So that’s when I talked myself into swapping it for a MJ.

I still have Wendy (the 91 YJ) and it’s right now sitting on waggy SOA with dana 44’s, 35’s …. and not a whole lot else bolted to it. I want to take the next 4-5 years and build that the way I would really like too.

That’s where Maggie (back to the MJ) comes into play. I want it to be a nice looking, capable daily driver / weekend warrior. Something that i’m proud to call myself a “Jeeper” in and something that keeps me from rushing the Wendy project just to get it on the road.

So here’s the “short-list” … in a semi-chronological order of attack:

• Remove vinyl graphics (done)
• Vinyl lettering of “Comanche” in rubicon style below the “Jeep” on the tailgate
• LocoJeeper.com logo stickers on both fenders
  
• Swap out for gray XJ bucket seats (done)
• Custom front and rear bumpers and rocker guards
• Por-15 the floor boards to repair light surface rust
• Swap out blue interior pieces for grayt parts pulled from a 2-door XJ
• 97+ Shifter handles
• ZJ shifter grip for AT handle
• Cobra front firing speaker CB mounted flush in the dash
• Pioneer CD player with iPod adapter and steering wheel mounted remote
• Grant replacement steering wheel
• 97+ front clip swap
• Louvered hood
• Firestick mounted where the stock FM antenna is
• Bushwacker fender flares
• TJ style filler neck
• SOA on rear disc-braked MJ Dana 44
• Swap out 231 in favor of 242 t-case
• 2wd rear springs to lower it to approx 4.5″ total lift in the rear
• Front suspension components from BDS to level it out
• 33×12.5r15 TrXus MT’s mounted on 15×8 Crager Soft 8’s
• Power windows and door locks
• Remote entry and start button
• Painted silver or gray using DupliColors Paint Shop line
• Accent pieces (louvers, door handles, filler neck, etc) painted black
• Duraback bed
• Rear bed cover
• Round off-road/driving lights mounted on front bumper
• 4.56 gearing
• On board air, and tool mounts built into new panel behind seats
• On board air port using another TJ filler neck
• Ummm… cool stickers. I think that’s it

Here is a short “wish-list” which I may or may not get done:

• 4.5L stroker motor swap
• AW4 “manual” shifting kit
• MasterCraft Rubicon w/tilt seats
• Interior roll-cage
• 4 point harness
• Palm pilot built into dash for GPS navigation and possible undercarriage camera

Whew… im tired already. Anywho, time to get my arse off the couch and start building this thing so I can get to building the other project (is it insance? Cause it’s begining to sound a bit off kilter)

Ladies and gentle-jeepers,

Introducing my project “Maggie” a 1989 Jeep Comanche Pioneer 4WD and my 7th Jeep purchase! For those of you not in the know… here is my short chronological list know also as an obsession:

1. Wendy - 1991 Jeep Wrangler Islander Edition (project Jeep)
2. Stewie - 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited (sold to my parents)
3. Larry - 81 Jeep Cherokee WT (disassembled then sold)
4. Angie - 89 Jeep Cherokee Laredo (parted then crushed)
5. Rosie - 89 Jeep Cherokee Laredo (repaired then sold)
6. Betty - 96 Jeep Cherokee SE (built, then sold)

I sold “Betty” for $2000 and within 30 minutes was driving “Maggie” that I had deposited $200 against three weeks before. For a total purchase price of $2100. A little higher then I wanted it to go, but it was right down the street… had less then 1000 miles put on in the last year… and only had two noticeable specks of rust (nothing poke-your-finger-through worthy).

I’ll try to keep things updated as I go along. Frankly, im not off to a good start as I purchased Maggie in February (hence the snow on the ground) and it is now May and 90 degrees outside.

Anywho… fresh start here I go.