LocoJeeper

When I was looking over the 1989 Jeep Comanche trying to figure whether I wanted to jump a few steps outside of my budget to pry the Jeep out of the old-mans hands, I was amazed at how little rust there was on this particular MJ. My previous ventures into the XJ world (two 1989’s and a 1996) I knew that in the north-east, it is hard to come by a unibody XJ/MJ (or any Jeep for that matter) that didn’t have its share of floor board rust. My initial inspection only revealed one spot, just above the drivers side rear fender flare, of rust. I crawled underneath looking for the “poke my screwdriver through” type rust that I have come to expect, and found nothing. So an extra $100 outside of my budget didn’t seem like a huge jump for not having to weld in all new floor pans.

So I bought the thing, drove it home and within a few hours began my initial “I don’t need/want this on my Jeep” tear down. The cap came off, and surface rust was discovered below the rear sliding window. Not a big deal, a wire brush and an afternoon and that will be taken care of.

A few days later, I began tearing out the blue interior with a bench seat in favor of a donor 2-door XJ interior. That’s when I discovered the surface rust on the floor boards. Again, not what I was used to seeing, but rust non the less. It was only a few days until I was scheduled to take the MJ to A to Z Fabrication for custom bumpers and rocker guards. So I hit the rust with a wire brush, and sprayed some Rustoleum over it and called it done.

Three months later my Maggie was returned to me… and the rust had cancer-ed its way through the previous coating.

So, a new plan needed to be established. Because I had carpet ready to go in I really didn’t feel like pulling it out every 3 months to keep my floor boards from disappearing. I heard good and bad reviews of the Por15 line of rust-preventative products and keeping in mind that the MJ build up is just a the pre-amble to my YJ build… I wanted to give their products a whirl. And what better spot then the floor boards.

I purchased the following:

• POR-15 Six Pack (6 x 4oz cans)
  
• Marine Clean - Quart
• Metal Ready - Quart

The first step was to remove all flaking rust. A quick run with the wire brush followed by a blast of air from the compressor, clean up things quite nicely. Next was to remove any grease and impurities from the area with the Por15’s Marine Clean. I diluted the product into a spray bottle, sprayed the area, then after pulling the drain plugs hosed it out and let the floor boards dry. The final step before painting, was to use Por15’s Metal Ready. This product etches the surface so that the Por15 can bite into the rusty metal a lot better. Again, I had to let the application dry. Finally, I was able to apply the Por15 black to the floor boards. Using a regular bristle paint brush, I used one 4oz can per side. Again… let the stuff dry.

Looks pretty good ‘eh?! My initial impression is that Por15 puts a real impressive finish over existing surface rust. It leaves an almost ceramic, glossy finish that is in no way reflective of the rust that was/is underneath. My only prayer is that it holds up to the test of time. At least better then the 3-months that Rustoleum gave me.

A quick note: Por15 is UV sensetive and should pretty much only be used in a primer type application. They recommend top-coating Por15 with their BlackCoat or Chassis Coat. I would not doubt the quality of those products, however, since my goal was to simply stop the rust and provide a good surface for my carpet to cover to up… I went back to Rustoleum and covered it in 2 coats of Black Hammer Tone Finish.

For some reason the county that I live in only has one u-pull-it (up until a few weeks ago, there weren’t any… one junkyard opened its doors to public wrenches). So anytime I find myself up in Berks county and try and hit a u-pull-it, in hopes of crossing things off my wish list.

About 30 minutes from A to Z Fabrication is EZ Pull & Save Auto Parts. So when I went up to get the MJ last friday, I swung over on my way back to see what I could come up with.

My wish list was simple… I was in search of a 97+ front clip to swap over to the ‘manche and a 93-98 ZJ rear axle with disc brakes to swap the brake hardware over to the MJ Dana 44 I have laying in my garage.

After walking the entire truck lot (about 2 hours) I only saw 1 97+ XJ, which must’ve rolled, tumbled and then sat on itself! ’cause there wasn’t a straight anything on it.

And I only found one rear axle that was even close to complete, however the entire weight of the vehicle was setting on it… and I forgot to eat my wheaties that morning.

So, the search continues.

Well, on friday I got to take the trip up to Cressona and pick up my 1989 Jeep Comanche project code-named “Maggie” from Zach at A to Z Fabrication.

The MJ had been up at his shop for about 12 weeks getting custom bumpers front and rear as well as a pair of rocker guards.

So without further adieu I present:

The front bumper was already bolted on. Appears very stout. He ran the supports right in line with the d-ring mounts and the whole way back past the power steering bolts and underneath the front bar for the sway bar mounts on either side. I was hoping to have the front receiver hitch be flush. But no doubt it is strong. Its a tweak that will happen later on down the road… along with a 45 degree modification for the bottom of the square tube. To give it a little more of “roll” to the front bumper and a slightly better approach angle.

As far as the rocker guards… I couldn’t be more pleased. He welded square tube to the pseudo-frame rail and the bolted a section of angle iron to the pinch seam, and finishing it off with square tube and then a round tube “step” at an up-angle.

The rear bumper is a similar design as the front… but re-used the existing mounts for the rear. It was in the bed when I picked up the MJ. I got about half way down the road until I realized that the license plate was still mounted to the old bumper… which fortunately was in the bed as well.

I can’t figure out where to put the plate though… I was hoping to have a “frenched” spot for the plate to go. But Zach wasn’t able to come up with anything… so I’ll have to sit on it and see what I can come up with.

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.