RATE me, Do and do it again, Paste me(sic), RATE me my friend.

This is my 1986 Jeep Comanche 2wd 4 cyl. 4 speed. It has half a V8, a non-automatic transmission, air-no-conditioning, power-no-windows, power-no-door locks, power-no-steering. It also has un-tinted windows. It boasts a hardly rocking stereo system with two invisible subwoofers powered by an invisible amp which are so loud that they are inaudible. It is faster than all things slower than it and only slower than the faster ones. It was the second most awesome birthday present ever! (I got a daugther in '06)

Here's some views of the lavishly well appointed interior. I've cropped the pics to hide anything un-lavish. But, I only did that for you. For YOU! Note: 71k miles on an '86?!(edit: it's up to 90k now, and still purring.)

Here are a few pics of the truck before I started screwing it up

Here's a pic of the new black paint on the grille and headlight shrouds, surrounds, trim, whatever. Sveet.

New rims... 5 wheels: $41.00. I know, strange dollar amount. The guy wanted $50 but I only had $41 in my pocket. DEAL!

Here's a close up of the old GranPappy wheels they replaced. No offense to any of you GranPappys...

Huge power (2.5 litres??!! WOW!!!)leads to huge holes in the tailpipe from high exhaust heat and pressure. Or it could be rust, I'm not sure... (This was remedied with a new Thrush Turbo muffler and a turn down before the axle. It's sounds great. No really, it really sounds good!)

Sanded & ready for primer.

Here's the finished(sorta) product. Still lots of work to do. It's only primered for now, but at least it's black. Wet sanding really helped get rid of most of the zebra stripes. Now I need a good coat of satin black on it.

Time for some modeling photos. Yeah baby, yeah, YEAH, NO! NO! NO!

Here's what it would look like if the Wrangler center caps would have cleared the dust caps on the front hubs. C'mon people, someone had to see this coming... I want my $41 back!

Update 11/02/07: Hood still needs final coat. New muffler in place, sounds good.

Still need to do front brakes. Don't know if I ever mentioned the Pioneer CD player that I got for $50. It sounds 1000% better than the garbage radio that I took out. Thanks for oogling my truck. Anyone want to donate a SBC for a V8 swap-a-roo? Text me...

Update 11/26/07: Clutch is gone.... poof. So, if anyone wants to come by and photograph my baby, now's a good time. She'll sit still for you. Should get the new clutch on Fri, hope to put her in on Sat. I'll let you know how much fun it is.

Update 12/10/07: New clutch is in! Now for the strange part: according to Carquest, my 4 speed trans has a 5 speed clutch in it. I ordered the correct part W01-010. But apparently Jeep was famous for "parts bin" building and occasionally would use whatever parts they had. The 5 speed part (W01-020) is actually smaller at 9 1/8" versus the 9 11/16" in the 4 speed. Like I said, strange. PLUS, the freaking 5 spd clutch was $40 more. Ridiculous. I guess the worst part is that we found out we had the wrong one with my trans laying on the asphalt behind my Dad's house on a Sunday afternoon. There ain't alot you can do about it on a Sunday afternoon. Glad it's finished.

Update 01/07/08: Recently replaced the valve cover gasket, belts, battery, terminals and getting ready to replace the oil pressure light switch. That switch must have a bad seal or something on it b/c it's peeing oil all over the place. Hopefully once that's done we can go riding again. She's so sweet. Wife's car situation is decided for the next 5 years, so it's time to start looking for that small block. Yeah baby.

Update 02/15/08: BIG thanks to my man Larry (the real biker) for my custom one-off shift knob. I had some drama with one of those stupid off the shelf universal jobs. Those are garbage by the way, any way you cut it. I tried to make it work but ended up trashing it. Anyhow, Larry is a master fabricator. He makes averything from billet shift linkages for Harleys, to shift knobs, to the trophies that'll be handed out at the Speed Awards on Speed Channel. He hooked me up huge with a billet ball that's flared out at the base, polished it, drilled it out and tapped it to thread right onto my factory shifter. Very, very sweet. It's funny the things about this truck that I get all excited about. Anyways, I'll try to take a picture of it and throw it on here this weekend. Thanks again Larry, you're the man.

2/20/2008: 1,000 Hits on Car Domain! Thanks!

2/25/2008: 77,000 miles. Still sooooooo sweet. Replaced the lower dash panel (I named it that, I don't know what it's really called) with one I'd pulled from a J.Y. Cherokee. Painted it black first b/c the gray would have been ridiculous. Now I have an ashtray! I don't smoke now, but who knows... It might be cool again someday. Like most things baked in the Carolina sun the old one was brittle and cracked in a few places. The new one has suffered the same fate but it is less obvious than the orig. Also, American Motors was determined not to let me drink and drive but WHAT DO THEY KNOW? So, in an act of complete defiance, I built myself a cupholder over the weekend. I even emblazoned it with AMC and Jeep logos, just for spite. HA! I shall drive and consume multiple beverages regardless of your attmpt at control AMC! You have no authority over me! Okay, I'm sorry. I love you AMC. Lets agree to disagree here...

Saturday morning coffee run to Circle K = impromptu photo shoot.

Recently I decided to put the old Gran-Pappy centers on my new wheels. They don't work perfectly but as you can see from a distance they almost look ok. Up close is another story. At least they are black. :) I haven't found Cherokee centers for the right price yet so they'll have to do for now.

Update 3/22/08: Do for now, but not for long. I just scored a set of aluminum wheels from an old Cherokee owner (young guy, old Cherokee) for $40.00! I'm so pumped! The clearcoat is shot but I'm not sure that I'm not going to powdercoat them anyways. So it's just a matter of time until I decide if the wheels will be soda blasted and powdered a nice charcoal or black color, then whether or not those old Uniroyals will do or if I need some nice, new big rubber. We'll see... Anyone want to venture a guess as to what's the biggest tire that'll fit on my new 15 x 8's?

Update 4/15/08: Happy Pay the Government Day! I said scru da man and bought a fiberglass camper shell for my truck instead. Ha! How ya like that Uncle Sam? Didn't pay your sorry arse any tax on that transaction either. It was covered in mildew, dirt, was inhabited by some wasps and what southerners call "dirt daubers", and is generally just really in need of a good bath. I'll post pics of it soon. Oh yeah, it was cheap. Nice.

MINI COMANCHE... This would be so fun to drive. You can see more of my minis here:Saturn01's(That's ME) minis! Check it out!!

Mini Comanche V.2.0

Update 4/16/08: Here's one for my buddy 89 Eliminator.

Update 4/17/08: And another for Wade.

Freaking Update 4/23/2008: Changed my oil the other day. No big deal right? Well I made the mistake of buying the oil and filter at the trashy Walmart closest to my house because it's cheap. Their newest filter ref. guide and their shoddy little five button computers only go back to 88 and 89 respectively. Off the top of my head I couldn't remember the filter number for the Comanche so I went with the corresponding filter for the '88 model. I think you know where this is going. Plug's out, oil's drained, hood's up and in one glance I knew the freakin thing was wrong. Had to go back to Walmart (two trips in one day is two too many). Couldn't cross reference the AC Delco filter number with the Fram number (or it could be that they didn't stock it) so I couldn't do an even exchange. Ugh, grr. Not Wal-mart. Not next time. Thanks for letting me vent a bit.

Update 12/18/08: We're over 86,000 miles. Still going, strongly needing attention. Got a "fuel delivery" problem right now.  Hiccups all the time, wants to stall (miraculously does not though), idles like it has a huge cam, and stumbles from time to time if I corner hard.  I think there's an issue with the rubber pickup hose in the tank.  Nuts.  Rotated my tires at lunch today, put on the newly painted Cherokee center caps that I got from the friendly neighborhood junkyard for $10.  They were shoddy looking but I was painting them anyways.  Guess what color...... yes.  Black.  I used truck bed coating so they'd have a plastic looking texture.  Turned out ok.  Babe's still getting me to work so I can't complain too much.  Oil change is due, and so is a bath.  Never went through with the tailgate painting, but who knows.  It's gonna be a boring winter. 

Update 4/28/09:  Last week I replaced both battery cables.  Those stupid cheap clamp-on terminals expose the wire to corrosion which then creeps down into the insulation on the cables and destroys any chance of a good electrical connection.  FYI, in case you find yourself at NAPA, you'll need the 40" cable for the hot side, 30" for the ground.  If only the clerk had known that to start with maybe I wouldn't have had to make multiple trips to get what I needed.  On Sunday I replaced the most common vacuum line that fails on these trucks.  It runs inside the right front fender beside the battery and into the vacuum "canister" inside the front bumper.  That should have fixed the non-functioning heater controls but it only seemed to partially fix it.  It could be a coincidence but it seems to have had an impact on my rough idling condition too.  Here's hoping that it's a thing of the past. 

Went crazy last night with semi gloss black paint.  Got some of it on the wheels, some more of it on the tailgate.  It looks  pretty cool.  Got some touch up work to do on the wheels.  Just around the very edge of the wheel.  Did what I could to keep paint off of the tires.  I couldn't live with myself if I was riding around with paint all over my sidewalls like an idiot.  The semi gloss of the wheels contrasts nicely from the truck bed-coating that I used on the centers.  All in all I think it's a good look for my "muscle truck."  I love the feeling of freedom that I get by changing my truck on a whim.  Sometimes it's nice to drive something new that's something old.

Note:  The car club logo is a joke.  It's also an old and inside one at that.  Thanks to Chris for bringing up old crap...  In high school we used to joke about starting our own car club.  Back when I actually had a pretty nice truck...  We wanted to call it "Hazardous -----".  But we could never come up with a word to go with "Hazardous".  We even screwed around with a logo like the one on my window.  So one night at about 10 o'clock, not long after Chris had started his new vinyl signs business,  I get a knock on the door.  Outside i find Chris and my brother Ricky with two you-know-what-eating grins on their mugs.  They had planned a "sticker and run" but apparently either didn't have the cajones to pull it off, or couldn't stand not being there to see my face when i found it.  Now I just can't bring myself to scrape it off.  So I'm the founding, and only member of the newest, most unorganized, and consequently the most exclusive car club in Charlotte.  Yes, thank you.

 Update 4/30/09:  I picked up two universal interior lights to replace the brittle, broken, non-functioning original Jeep ones.  Got them from Advance Auto parts for  $3.69 a piece (I think).  Was a little worried about  how to mount them until I re-read the post by blhtaz on the Comanche Club forums.  Not suprisingly they were the exact same lights and his installation technique was easy to execute and clean.  It is very nice to have lights in the interior that work ALL the time instead of SOMEtimes.  I find that if I fix the little stuff that makes my truck more complete then I am more likely to excuse the bigger stuff about it like the lack of A/C and P/S.  I recently slapped on a very simple very inexpensive, very basic looking all-black faux leather steering wheel cover.  The old Jeep steering wheel is rubber and has a tendency to get sticky and or greasy in the heat or if your hands get wet somehow.  It was one of those things that made me crazy before.  I'm not wild about the fatter steering wheel but it's definitely an improvement and another little thing that makes it easier to live with every day.  I guess sometimes it's the little things that make the biggest difference.

Update 8/25/09:  Wow I have been neglecting my girl.  I have been a little preoccupied with my new toy.  Ever since I bought the Chevy, the ol' JT has been relegated to hauling duty and the occasional substitute 3rd vehicle role.  She's even been loaned to the inlaws for moving duties a couple of times.  And they just don't appreciate her like I do.  Anyways, still running awesome.  Best ever really.  We had to replace the clutch disc a few months ago.  A little careless driving resulted in a couple of broken springs in the disc.  Here's the happy side effect:  there was something terribly wrong with the clutch that was in the truck.  The one we installed in December of '07 has been problematic from the beginning. (never buy a clutch from CarQuest)  See, the vacuum leak had caused the truck to idle rough and stumble when trying to pull out.  AND the clutch would chatter and buck when hot.  So, you would need to be soooo smooth with the throttle to pull out, which was impossible with the stumbling and you see where I'm going...  So with the new clutch in place, and the vacuum leak fixed, the truck runs better now that it has since I've owned it.  It's glorious!  Replacing only the disc was a gamble but it has paid off tremendously.  Best $40 I've ever spent.  Now if I can just devote some more time to riding around in her and showing her off, maybe her self esteem will get a boost.  I owe her that at least.  I had flirted with the idea of a custom center console but after a little effort, well, very little effort, and a little more time to think better of it, I decided to work on repairing what was in there so that it worked the way it was supposed to.  The old plactic one had the tab broken off of it where it bolts to the arm on the trans tunnel so it would move when shifting.  So I attached a small L-bracket to the inside of the factory shift console and put another screw into the metal tab or arm that comes off of the tunnel and it is holding still now.  And it's worlds better than the garbage I was trying to build to put in it's place.  Glad I came to my senses.  So my truck is getting a rest these days, but I'll keep on loving it.

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I am not done. Hard to imagine there could be more but this truck is destined for greatness! I shall continue. Stay tuned.

Page One: My Truck
Page Two: SCCA Comanche RaceTrucks
Page Three: Playing and Hauling in the JeepTruck 
Page Four: Our Other Jeep
Page Five: Offroad Comanche Racing