The Comanche

[BigSki]

I just saw where you guys were at -10* ambient last night... it's a bit too chilly to be in the shop w/o any heat!

[losikid]

Originally Posted by BigSki

I just saw where you guys were at -10* ambient last night... it's a bit too chilly to be in the shop w/o any heat!

It wasn't too bad...it was sitting on the trailer last night when I got home (I went to my parents house in grand junction) for a week for christmas. 8+ inches of snow had dropped while i was gone. So I unloaded it off the trailer and swept off as much snow as I could in -8* cold (according to accuweather). Then pulled it into the garage, fired up the propane heater on full blast, started a hobo fire in a 55gal drum, and opened up the house (heated by wood) to the garage. We got it cookin to about 70* in the garage to melt the rest of the snow off so I could work on it today. But the concrete was so cold out there that the water froze to it once it melted off the jeep.

But I've burnt through $20 worth of propane last night and this afternoon
...

Only had a hoody and gloves on during this entire adventure...should of thrown some warm socks on though, my toes were painfully cold.

[losikid]

Ok, so I have finally gotten around to designing the cage for my jeep. Now I intend to chop the roof off along the window line and weld the top of the door frame and B pillar to the cage and do a custom window solution.

Here's a cage with out any real dimensions, just some random numbers that seemed right

I think I made the cab a little short (front to back) in proportion to the rest of the dimensions. It seems a little squished.

But here's some renderings. I'll probably spend hours staring at them and change it all up. But, here's the first go. (I really want to see if i can export to solidworks and do stress simulations )

The main intention of this was to start brainstorming roof idea's...I don't really care about how the cage looks under all the sheet metal, as long as its strong. I think I got the window slope wrong, so the brow is all bunched up in a way I don't like.

[losikid]

I bought a Dana 60 for the front of my jeep about a week. Finally got around to getting it out of the bed of my truck...It probably will be awhile before I have enough money to swap it in. I'm also looking for a rear sterling with disk brakes on the cheap if anyone knows someone...

[JokersWild]

Hey that's no way to treat your bicycle! Lol

[losikid]

Originally Posted by JokersWild

Hey that's no way to treat your bicycle! Lol

You're right, we tossed it into the muddy part of the yard and put my dana 60 there instead.

[losikid]

Change of plans, I'm putting a kingpin 60 under my jeep.

I just bought a 85 f-350 for cheap. I'm gonna pull the axle and part out the rest of the truck

[Boover]

Awesome MJ! Really like what you've done so far with the bob and tube bed. Really great fab work. Gives me good motivation to work on my Grand!

[bigsal39]

i would kill for an mj! sadly in western ny they went the same way as the cj, and the fsj's....rotted into nothing.

[losikid]

Well, I finally got some time to work on the comanche...So I decided it was time to start the cage.

Got the windshield pulled out....wasn't very easy.



Pulled off the fenders and grill


Started stripping the dash...still deciding what todo. Keep it stock and fix all the broken stuff? Swap in a dash from a newer Cherokee? Or build a custom dash, buggy style?



Also pulled all the interior panels and headliner


And Got the carpet pulled (Vinyl floors are going in after the cage is done)


Unfortunately there is some rust, so I'll need to figure out what todo about that

[losikid]

So, I've decided on a tube dash...

Also, last night I started to cut the roof off. I'm just cutting the roof of and going to integrate the door frame into the new cage and go with a plastic window



Now, there was many reasons why I decided to chop the roof off and go with a tube roof/cage instead of an internal or exo cage. One of the main decided factors was that at some point in the near future I would need to address my roof being slowly torn off by just going out an wheeling. And my rear window not sealing....the tears in the roof grew every time I went on a crawling trail and after seeing the tears on the inside supports under the headliner I made up my mind that the roof was coming off.










I finished cutting off the roof today but my camera batteries are dead. So I'll have to get pics later

[losikid]

Ok, got the first (and hardest) tube bent....got it the first try and wasted no tube.

I'll have to get better pics when it's light outside. But here's some pics of it at night

[losikid]

Ok, I got lots of daylight pics. I may or may not bend the lower bend a hair more so it lines up better on my slider...but I think the door hinge will get in the way if I bend anymore.

The general idea is that the door tubes will be welded up to the entire door frame and frenched(welded) into the unibody behind the fenders. I overcut in some places on the unibody I guessed on where the tube would sit, so I'll have to make some extra little sheet metal pieces to fill in the gap. None of this will happen till the cage is all done. I plan on tacking the cage together then pulling it all off the jeep and welding it up outside of the jeep and paint as much as I can. Then weld up the door frame and stuff to the cage.

There was some extra pockets and layers to the unibody as I started cutting. So I am slightly concerned because I can't weld those interior layers to the tube and maintain what ever structural qualities it had. I don't think it'll be an issue though.

Oh, and I left the tube long because I don't know how (or if) I want the truggy/prerunner bed tubes to be made.

[BigSki]

Damn, that's the point of no return! Will it be street legal now?

[losikid]

Originally Posted by BigSki

Damn, that's the point of no return! Will it be street legal now?

It wasn't before...It'll still have plates though

Only time it gets driven on pavement though is from the trailer parking area to the trailhead (couple miles usually). Or if my dd is in the garage for some reason.

[bonosxr]

Very cool build have you ever looked into replacing cab corners? I've been trying to find where to get some mine are shot. What size lift is on yours? Been thinking bout outing a 6" on mine and retiring both the trail beater and the mj as a dd

[losikid]

Originally Posted by bonosxr

Very cool build have you ever looked into replacing cab corners? I've been trying to find where to get some mine are shot. What size lift is on yours? Been thinking bout outing a 6" on mine and retiring both the trail beater and the mj as a dd

No, I haven't looked into replacing the cab corners....

The "lift" is home brewed....I don't don't know what the end result is

[losikid]

I got the passenger door hoop in. Still need to trim a spot here and there to get a bit snugger fit. But it's in there for the most part.







Oh and in case anyone is wondering. The 40's are missing because I wanted to take my new kingpin dana 60 out wheeling and still kick ass (I wheel with rigs on 33's , most college students don't have jeeps on 40's at least not at my school)

I shoulda miller locked the rear end...

[losikid]

Got the lower window tube mostly done today...still have to tweak it alittle.

[losikid]

Ok, got some more work done on the comanche.

Cleaned up tubes with the flap wheel.
Trimmed off the door tubes...eventually they'll go down the bed some how. But they were getting in the way, so I'll just splice into them later.

For the windshield, instead of trying to make all the angles work so I could use flat pieces windshield material (I'll probably go with poly carbonate), I've decided to just use one big flat pane. So I am going to put a 1" tube along the dash area and be the bottom of my windshield frame. I'll cut out some sheet metal, weld it on between the gap created by the lower 1 3/4" tube and the 1" tube. And the top of the frame will be 1 3/4". I'm still not sure if I want to add a brow to the upper windshield frame/tube, so i haven't made that tube yet



I also started on the tube that'll span the rear window. I originally planned on adding a couple bends to follow the window frame better. But due to the height of the door tubes, I had to go straight across. I'll end up cutting out some sheet metal to fill in the gaps and seal up around the rear window.