Indiana coMANche

Ok guys, been on the site for years but have never taken the time to do a build thread. And since comanche club is giving me trouble lately, I will start a thread on here vs there.

I bought this truck a few years back after my first comanche took a massive dump on me heading home one day. Was driving home doing about 65 and the good ol' dana turdy-5 gears went out, casuing my drive shaft to shove up into my transfer case and destroy it. Ended up selling it to a cool guy named Ron for a wheeling rig build he was wanting to start.

With that being said here is a link to my "new" comanche that the p.o. had posted on cardomain.


http://www.cardomain.com/ride/390470...e-regular-cab/

From there I began doing small mods like bumpers and the roll cage and some other odds and ends.


Bought these bumpers on ebay for $325 total... later sold them to my brother for his cherokee


This is what she looked like around 2010




Painted the aluminum rims black once i got my goodyear wranglers on the truck.


Forgot to mention the first week i had the truck the 35 in this one went out too. I combined good parts between the 2 bad axles to have a functional one for the time being but when I called to get it towed, the tow truck driver pulled a classic tommy boy moment and backed the truck up with the drivers door open, hit a garbage can and bent the door around...Needless to say i was heated (having all this happen in less than a week) but 2 weeks later their insurance paid me $1200 for the damage and i pocketed the money and fixed the door. You can see the door and fender bent here:


My new favorite sticker addition to my manche haha:


Here is a crappy photochop idea I have thrown around a few times in my head just to mix up the front end a bit. Still haven't got the nerve to pull it off; what do you guys think?


About the end of October 2010 I was leaving school and was going through an intersection when a teenage girl in a chevy astro ran a red "turn left" light and t-boned me right at the drivers side cab/bed. I don't think I've ever been so mad in my life at someone but looking back now I should really thank the girl because I ended up getting $5500 for my truck and a month's worth of car rental fees reimbursed to me. I got $4700 for my truck based on NADA classic car values (neighbor is an insurance adjuster and helped me milk them to the last drop!).

While my truck was out of comission, I bought this 1998 cherokee classic off craigslist for $2600. 3inch skyjacker lift and that's about it. Later sold it to my brother once I got my truck going again and here it is with my old bumpers on it.


Once spring hit i got goin on the body work/repairs to the damage and called it close enough at this point.
http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/...2/546ccbb3.jpg

Never got the pics of the damage off my old phone but the sheet metal was smashed in pretty good; used 2x4's, a steel pipe, sheet metal off an old lawn mower and some bondo to pop/fix the dents.




This is what the rear fender looked like before the sheet metal patch and flare over it. P.O. used a combo of steel wool, bondo and insulating spray foam to fix rust above wheel wells so it was a pain in the ***** to fix.


That's all for today; I've got plenty more to post so stay tuned

Indiana coMANche

Ok back at this thread.... Been a little while but after I fixed the damage to the drivers side I let my brother borrow it to take my dad's jon boat down to the lake. I get a call about two hours later from my brother with some great news; the second D35 i put in it a few months back just went out. He had it towed home and this is what it looked like when I pulled the dif cover:



At this point I got ahold of my dad's buddy that owns a junk yard near where I lived in good ol' Ligonier Indiana and scored this baby for $120! Going to do the spring over axle lift on this baby!




Ford 8.8 lsd with 4.10 gears. Put new rotors and pads on it as well as the new rear lines. Also got the mounting brackets,spicer u-joint and u-joint bracket from Iron Rock Offroad for a reasonable price. Here's my truck sitting without its back legs haha.


While I was underneath my jeep taking care of the rear axle swap, I looked up and noticed the carnage Indiana winters had taken on the underbody:






Well with the axle already out of the truck I decided to just tackle that rust and pull off the bed. Didn't take a ton of step by step pics because it's nothing you guys haven't seen before but here is a pic of the frame after I got the bed off.


Pulled the bed and had it resting on some old saw horses... Yard starting to look like a jeep junkyard between my build and getting started on my dad's jeep.


Here is my dads jeep. Painted it for him for fathers day, fixed a **** ton of rust also and gave him my old tires & rims that came on the comanche when i got my new tires. Also threw on a fat bob's garage 2inch spacer & shackle lift.


Bought a 3M rust remover grind wheel and that worked for like 5mintes so my neighbor let me borrow a angle grinder with a heavy duty wire brush wheel he uses for work to strip paint off propane tanks. This pic is after like 20 seconds of using it.


That wire brush wheel made quick use of the rust! After I got all the rust off the frame, I used rustoleum clear rust inhibitor product, then painted over it with rustoleum rust reformer paint. This is how it turned out. Pretty good I think...


Here's an unerbody shot of the final result... with my sexy 04 mustang gt in the back ground



And how it looks on top:


Searched for a while to find a reasonable price on a lift kit since I am doing the SOA on the rear. Found a brand new 4.5inch rough country lift kit on craigslist. Bought it from an Australian guy that worked the railroad for CSX for $300. Can't remember his name but he was from Columbia City; cool guy with a pretty sweet cherokee... Thanks!


Didn't need the AAL leafs so gave em to my dad along with my old comanche springs.. Looks pretty beefy, but i'll have to get pics off his thread for you. Also gave the rear shackles to my brother since his rear was saggin pretty bad. Seems like anytime I get new stuff for my jeep, my dad and bro get the hand me downs/new parts too!

Anyways, heres a pic with the lift and rear axle installed. Put longer brake line hoses on the front to help with lift. Kept the 2inch spacer and AAL on it that the previous owner had on it when i bought it; here's how it looks with my now puny 31" tires haha.



Starting to look pretty mean I think! LAter after getting the bed on my brother's cherokee got a flat so went to my dad's buddies junkyard for a new tire and found a rolled 98 cherokee with some goodies on it. I scored some clear side markers and fog lights along with some black 16" moab rims. Also bought the header panel to throw on my truck.

Here it is painted, then installed with the new rims on too!




And this is how she sits today guys... I have been on the lookout for either some 33's or 35's but they're impossible to find for a 16" rim unless I want to spend about $1000 for tires.

Also I have been on the fence about doing a digital camo wrap. I can get a 72"x48" sheet off ebay for about $120. There's about 15 different colors but I am considering either orange, red, desert, or purple digital camo. Here are the samples of what they look like. Need your guys' opinion on which color to go with.






Looking forward to your input on the next step in this build. Will be doing tires, camo and bumpers very soon!

Indiana coMANche

DO you guys have access to reply on my thread? Still a newbie to the site so I'm unsure if access is limited because I have a ton of views but no replies...

AirborneDeth

Most people are lurkers, myself included. Your thread will get some lovin' in due time.

The digital wrap is a good idea, but please take purple out of the discussion. I would go with red, but that's because red, gray, and black go so well together in my opinion.

BeauDuke01

i like the last digi best

Indiana coMANche

Right on man, just checking whether it was a setting issue or something. As for the purple I agree, just threw it out for a wildcard. Actually am between the red, orange or going with a real camo like realtree ap or mossy oak.

Or even realtree ap blaze. Just kinda want something that stands out from the crowd

sam24th

Sweet Project! I am more of a lurker now aswell. Just don't have time to post much anymore. but I definately like the desert digi camo. The truck is looking great though. Still wish I could find a nice comanche around here.

anywhere & everywhere

red and black digital no doubt about it