Kelgard

Yes as the title says its a 1998 Comanche, I'll start from the beginning. I found this awesome project on Craigslist for $800. The previous owner is a Auto body repair guy and he had two repairable one being a 1998 Cherokee hit in the side, and the other an 1986 Comanche long box hit in the front. He had a stroke of genius, combine the two. He measured and cut the unibody of both vehicles, He then welded on the front half of the 98 Cherokee onto the rear half of the 86 Comanche, Cool thing is he measured and cut it so that all of the Cherokee equipment was intact and never disturbed creating a 1998 Comanche. Yes the entire computer system, air bags, and drive train minus the rear drive shaft and rear axle are from the 1998 Cherokee. Alright now with that said I have a lot of work to do to finish the project, including: Finish welding what he started hanging the fuel tank with modding the fuel pump to take the 98 equip, body work!!(lots of it), Swap/mod 98 style interior, install all of the glass, mod new style doors on, ect... I'm sure I'll find more to do but theres just an idea of what I have ahead of me.

Sorry about the pics I'll try and get some that I took up, it was too dark to take any decent ones.






Ps: the Name is an inside joke between a buddy and me.

Bluemax

start buy swapping out the idiot light cluster..

Kelgard

yeah thats on the long to do list.

kellan_musseau

Sounds scary.. welding two jeeps together?

brutalxj

He didn't really cut the uni-frame and weld them together did he. If so you must really trust this guy. I would have just swapped the newer front end and interior parts on to the MJ its a lot easier. Cutting and welding a frame is something I only trust myself and one friend to do. That's just people I know added with the knowledge I have of welding. Well good luck and be safe!!!!!!!!!!!!

ProudXjOwner

Wow thats got to be truly a one of a kind!

Kelgard

thanks guys, yeah I trust the guy, he's done it before without any problems. I'll also be welding some c-channel over the section of the unibody that was welded together for some extra support. I'm assuming that the front rails on the Camanche were all messed up hence the weld on, plus it was originally a 2.8 v6 so engine mounts would be a bit different

kellan_musseau

Well then thats gunna be one heck of a cool rig when you finish. Good luck!

brutalxj

Well in that case it should go sweet. I have seen many of these done and I like them alot. Just never seen one attempted this way. But your not wasting anything this way.

xj_ftw

im excited for this to be finished! so...lets get crackin lol!

XxXJ99xX

Now if theyd only remake the comanche...man yours looks good and as long as everything holds up ok this thing is gonna look sweet, keep us posted

Kelgard

yeah will do, if it wasn't dark outside 30 min after I got off work I'd be working on it more than I am.

Kelgard

alright, I may be choosing a different direction with my Comanche. I would how ever like to get some input, I was thinking 5spd 2wd. Thinking that I already have an off road rig as in my Cherokee and since gas keeps going up it wouldn't be a bad choice.

PingPong

Pics not working

JeepCoMJ

so you're the guy who got suckered into buying it?


the only difference between the 86 comanche and the 87+ comanche/cherokee engine bays are the firewall *may* need to be massaged a bit, the hood will need to be swapped, front crossmember needs to be swapped, and the header panel/radiator supports must be swapped.

I did it on my 87 comanche...and it required no wrecking of structural integrity of the vehicle...and no advanced body work. and I can trust it going down the road.


good luck with the project man...and have fun passing emissions in a vehicle that is, for all technicality, too old to be required to pass it.

pat