Project "BlacknBlueBallz"

[BIGSLVRXJ]

Hey guys,
Thought I'd introduce my newest project to the list. It's a 1990 Comanche Eliminator. 4.0, AW4, NP231 with 150,000 miles. I picked it up for $500 and drove it home with no swaybar, no shocks, a loose trackbar, front brakes only (and had a caliper lock up while driving), and loose steering box bolts. This has been kind of a slow project as winter was crippling this year, but it's coming around. Here are some pictures of when I first picked it up...

I proceeded to do a 97+ front end conversion on it and afterwards it looked a little something like this...

I then needed to get it into my heated garage and get some feeling to the brake pedal since the previous owner had botched the rear brake lines. I had to have a little help lowering it in since there was absolutely zero pedal.

So the list of things I've already done...
Swapped out the old disconnect Dana 30 for a non-disco unit
Swapped in a brake pedal and booster from a 95 XJ
97+ front end
97+ console and visors
Solid diff cover for the D35 uke:
96+ valve cover
Converted to open cooling system with all new hoses, thermostat, water pump
Deleted EGR valve, replaced intake/exhaust manifold gasket, simplified vac plumbing, homebrew intake
19lb Crown Vic injectors
Added 2" lift spacers and 30x9.50 15 tires

Still to come
97+ front bumper
97+ doors (pass is on already)
Smooth the rear flares down and 97+ flares on the front
A rollpan for the rear
97+ windshield
97+ seats (possibly)

Lots of window tint, tire shine and some blue paint

Let me know what you guys think.
-Collin

 

[Fore Wheeler]

Re: Project "BlacknBlue"

looks like an awesome truck. I REALLY like the late model front clips on those trucks.

how much different are the late model doors? I've never had them side by side.

 

[kmanxj5050]

Re: Project "BlacknBlue"

looks sweet!!!!!

 

[BIGSLVRXJ]

Re: Project "BlacknBlue"

looks like an awesome truck. I REALLY like the late model front clips on those trucks.

how much different are the late model doors? I've never had them side by side.

Thanks Dan. Late model doors are an easy swap. They bolt up the same at the front, all you have to do is unscrew the old striker and bolt the new one in it's place. If you want to have power accessories you have to experiment with wiring, but the physical swap is very easy.

looks sweet!!!!!

Thanks

 

[XJ&CHZ4ME]

Re: Project "BlacknBlue"

looks good man, now post up some current pics of Yellow Snow with the trick front bumper!

 

[XJ&CHZ4ME]

nice title

 

[FlexdXJ]

When you get bored with it Collin, put me first on the list to buy it!

 

[BIGSLVRXJ]

nice title

Funny Tyler, I was actually going to call this thread something along those lines, but didn't know if the gods would go for it. Apparently you know how to pull all the right strings, I like it!

 

[FlexdXJ]

Funny Tyler, I was actually going to call this thread something along those lines, but didn't know if the gods would go for it. Apparently you know how to pull all the right strings, I like it!

Does Kaitlin know you're pulling Tyler's string?

 

[89eliminator]

neat. i like comanche's

 

[XJosh95]

Lookin good, man! I've thought about doing the same thing, but never put much effort into it. From now on, I will read this thread as if I were typing it and live the MJ life vicariously through you.

 

[BIGSLVRXJ]

Lookin good, man! I've thought about doing the same thing, but never put much effort into it. From now on, I will read this thread as if I were typing it and live the MJ life vicariously through you.

I like it Josh, I wish more people would live vicariously through me. I have actually kicked around bringing it to Winterfest; I'm just not sure if it would make it.

 

[IllianaXJ]

It would make it home with me

 

[BIGSLVRXJ]

Well I am bringing this back from the dead. I still have this MJ but it hasn't gotten too much attention until just recently. I use it primarily for hauling scrap, and it gets the typical "hey man, can I borrow your truck" when one of my friends needs to move something.

Last year I painted it Rustoleum Hammered White and did a SOA conversion




Here it is next to my friends stock MJ



I also switched the original 1990 4.0 out for a 1996 Grand Cherokee 4.0. The newer motor actually has more miles on it but runs like a dream and has lots of power.


Fast forward to last week. I got sick of jumping in and out of this thing at 5" of lift so I sold the lift parts (and SOA rear axle) to a friend of mine that has an MJ (the blue one pictured above). I also picked up a set of TJ MOABs with 245 75 16s.


I plan on lifting the front 3" just enough to clear the 245s with flares and the 97+ end caps. The back will likely stay where it is now.

For the moment I am still running the Renix electronics but my next project on this is a 97+ dash and wiring. I already have the 99+ intake so basically I'll just be looking at swapping the flexplate and possibly transmission as far as drivetrain goes.

This thing is so useful to me, it will not be leaving me for a long time. I always plan to have at least one XJ and one MJ and this will for sure be the MJ. Let me know what you guys think.

-Collin

 

[XJosh95]

I think it's looking sharp! That white is really nice. Gives it a very new look. Keep up the good work! :thumbup:

 

[BIGSLVRXJ]

I think it's looking sharp! That white is really nice. Gives it a very new look. Keep up the good work! :thumbup:

Thanks Josh, I actually may paint it the newer Jeep Pearl Green Amethyst or whatever it's called, I miss my old green 99 XJ, but I do like the white.

 

[FlexdXJ]

I need another MJ!

 

[dakzimm]

I don't mean to revive such an old thread but since Collin sent me the link and I am now the current owner of this truck I figured I'd continue where he left off.

To start off, my name is Dakota. I've been on only a handful of times mostly looking for answers to my problems. I am much more active over on Comanche Club but now that I am continuing this thread I will be here often. I am an avid Jeep guy and currently own 3. I have a 1998 2 door XJ SE with a 3” lift, a few small upgrades, and that's about it. Its got 225k miles, been in my family 3 generations and been VERY well maintained with hardly any rust at all (I'm looking to trade this for a 4 door if anyone wants it).

My GF and I also have a 2006 Commander Sport with 100k miles. Nothing too special about it since it's her DD, and this will only be seen in the background of pictures.

And last but not least, and the reason I'm continuing this thread, my 1990 Comanche Eliminator.

This picture is from when I first saw it up on craigslist in September of 2016. I have a running build thread over on CC so I will be doing some copy and pasting for the next few posts.

 

[dakzimm]

It's been very cold here lately halting almost all progress on my truck. *This has gotten me anxious to do something related to the truck so I figured I would start a build thread to document my progress and share the restoration of this truck with you guys. *I'm going to jump into this build thread with some of the main work already done and not much as far as progress pictures to show because I didn't initially intend to do a build thread and I SUCK at taking pictures. * *So bare with me for this first bit as the few pictures I do have are not the greatest and progress will be slow until it warms up. *Without further ado, here it is as I first saw it on Craigslist in early September of 2016.

I had been searching Craigslist a lot looking for an MJ, to do a 97+ swap, that wasn't an absolute rust bucket, this is VERY hard to do in central Iowa. I had wanted an MJ to do this swap since I first started driving my dads and formerly grandpas XJ when I was 14, which I eventually bought from my dad (its in the background of some of the pictures).
For the last year or two I had been actively looking for an MJ as I was finally able to afford it. Luckily one morning, while on Craigslist before work, I saw the ad for this 90 Eliminator pop up. I immediately texted the guy and was on my way to see the truck not 12 hours after he posted it. This was the first MJ I had ever seen up close and to my surprise it was in pretty decent shape with VERY minimal rust for Iowa. He had swapped the 97+ doors, fenders, and front clip on the truck and drove it for awhile before deciding to do the full 97+ swap. He told me that after getting the truck torn apart he didn't really have the time to finish it and it sat in his parents garage for over a year before deciding to sell it. After looking it over we agreed on $1000 and he would include most of the parts necessary to get it running and would deliver to my house. A couple days later it showed up and here is where I started.

For awhile I was doing all my work outside and was storing the parts inside the cab and in the bed under a tarp. This became a pain quickly but I had to do it as storage space was limited for a time. Of course the floors had rust, mostly due to the accident it suffered at some point, but the body was actually fairly rust free. A little bit around the drivers cab corner and the rear wheel wells were really the only spots. You will see in the pictures that I have gone through and ground out all the rust and sloppily patched these spots on the body to get through the winter without the rust getting worse (I will be fixing this later). The rocker panels are absolutely solid with no rust at all and they are the originals as I can tell the factory welds on them are untouched. I was blown away by that as even my well maintained XJ has some rust holes in the rockers.

You can see in this picture the floor is buckled in front of the hole from the accident.

The dash and steering column are just set in place here.

The 4.0L was already installed in the truck when I got it with roughly over 120K miles and it ran great when he pulled it from the donor XJ is what I was told. The AW4 and transfer case was delivered a couple weeks later with a still good, or at least not seized, engine block attached (I will probably be selling this).

I was pretty excited when I saw the vehicle being used to deliver it was a retired military Humvee. His friend had bought it from Govplanet and got it registered to drive it legally. The thing was super sweet. It was also the perfect height to slide the engine, trans, and t-case directly into the back of the MJ. Sorry no pics as it was dark and I didn't want to be “that guy” taking pictures of his Humvee.


In early November I got super lucky and one of my friends had his 98 XJ finally kick the bucket. It had many problems and really just wasn't worth the time and money to fix so he said for $100 I could take anything I wanted. I took pretty much everything I could get off of it. The most notable would be the front end parts because they were in better shape than what came with the truck, the front part of the headliner to go in the truck, and some miscellaneous engine and interior bits for both the truck and for my XJ. The only things I wish I would have been able to get but couldn't were the factory skids, tow points, front driveshaft, and trans dipstick tube (the one in the truck now is bent very bad), and the axles. I tried for quite some time to get these off (minus the axles) but it was cold, windy, and in the middle of a Best Buy parking lot so I ended up having to leave them to be hauled to the scrap yard.

 

[dakzimm]

After about 2 months of owning the truck I finally had the interior almost completely done. The dash finally went in for the last time, only put that in and out a thousand times, and the carpet and plastics finally went back on and the seats were bolted in. *The interior is very dirty and needs a good cleaning still.

As for the rust on the floors it was mostly surface rust with the exception of the hole on the drivers side, but like I mentioned before, the hole was mostly due to the accident the truck suffered, which from what I can tell bent the inner fender a bit and shoved the wheel into the floor pan and it broke a lot of the old metal away, so in turn it was really not as bad as it looked because it sat in a garage for a while after that. I was able to salvage most of the floor around the hole and used a desktop computer side panel as the floor patch, which is actually thicker than the factory floor pans. As for the interior now the only parts left to install are the B-pillar lights, speakers, and mount the cable properly for the hand brake.