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Beginning of 1993 Cheromanche build

dave92cherokee

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Lynchburg, TN
Posting this build thread for all those interested in undertaking this task but can't wrap their head around some of the issues involved. Thread will be slow at start but I will update when work is done and will respond to posts between updates.

Info on rigs:
1988 Jeep Comanche Pioneer 4.0/BA10/231 D30/D44
1993 Jeep Cherokee Country 4.0/AW4/2WD C8.25

Onto a few pics.
Here's the original MJ before any work was done. When I picked it up it was previously in water over the rockers. Alot of debris underneath but surprisingly no water in any of the fluids just some remaining water in the exhaust.
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Here's the XJ that was my DD, 97+ seats and console, 4.5" lift from old XJ.
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The beginning of the end and no turning back now.
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That was completed yesterday afternoon in 100* temps after pulling the engine and moving it to the otherside.

Here's the XJ stripped down getting ready for the knife. Fuel completely drained from tank, brake lines and fuel lines disconnected, exhaust removed behind cat., driveshaft removed.
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No turning back now on the XJ.
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After getting them both cut apart and the leftover pieces rolled into the back yard, Eric (trailratethis) and I rolled the front of the XJ back to the comanche. After some finagling to get them lined up pretty close we came out with this at the end of the day.
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That was the end of the day today. Further progress will be on hold as I have to travel for work for the next two weeks and while on the road will be researching more ideas. Future plans will be lengthened driveshaft, xj shackles and 1" blocks, ZJ rear coils, Brown Dog super poly mounts, and more. Any questions on progress so far or future plans or ideas please post to give others in the future all necessary info.
 
WOW! What are you planning on doing to add strength to the "backbone" , Hats off to you to have the marble bag big enough to do that!! Hope it works out for you!
 
WOW! I could have thought of a lot of other things to do with that XJ and MJ! Good luck though on your build.
 
this should be interesting, subscribed
 
When I decide whether to keep longer doors or short stock sized doors for the back will change the wheel base anywhere from 6-12". If I go short stock doors then the wheel base is ~144" so the wheelbase can be anywhere from 140-160". When I settle on the length of the doors and start welding the frames together after they're together I'm planning on using some 3" angle to weld to the frame to tie it all together and stiffen it up. The driveshaft will likely be a 1 piece shaft extended as I'm planning on it being a street only rig and it will be lowered a couple inches for better street performance. Depending on how long the shaft is going to be might look into some kind of carrier bearing to put in the middle of the shaft for extra support, but as it will be lowered and the shaft will almost be perfectly straight won't have any major angles to worry about.
 
crap that looks like a cool project good luck bud - gonna be like a quad cab pickup?
 
When I decide whether to keep longer doors or short stock sized doors for the back will change the wheel base anywhere from 6-12". If I go short stock doors then the wheel base is ~144" so the wheelbase can be anywhere from 140-160". When I settle on the length of the doors and start welding the frames together after they're together I'm planning on using some 3" angle to weld to the frame to tie it all together and stiffen it up. The driveshaft will likely be a 1 piece shaft extended as I'm planning on it being a street only rig and it will be lowered a couple inches for better street performance. Depending on how long the shaft is going to be might look into some kind of carrier bearing to put in the middle of the shaft for extra support, but as it will be lowered and the shaft will almost be perfectly straight won't have any major angles to worry about.

You will need a 2 piece with carrier for sure, trust me

Longer than 65 inches the shaft will cease to rotate true and will start to ocilate out of round and self destruct. I tried this and that's what happened at highway speed. It jammed up and split the diff housing in half
 
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Have fun with the roof lines. The Comanche cab roof has a different crown and is about 3/4" higher then the Cherokee.

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I would go for short rear doors by piecing the rear half of the Comanche door with the front half of the Cherokee rear door.

It's been done before.......no this is not a photochop
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You also notice that the Comanche's frame rail is pretty different compared to the Cherokee's
 
Actually the frame rails are identical until about mid-way back on the comanche cab and then they spread out from that point forward they are the same width. I'll prolly end up going with a shorter rear door just to cut the wheelbase down 6" or so. Thanks for the heads up on the driveshaft bcmaxx I'll be looking into that and getting some measurements tomorrow to see how long it'll be. Yah I'm planning on grafting the back of the MJ doors to the rear doors to follow the lines right, as for the roof I'm still working on that but have a couple of ideas for it.
 
Ambitious! good luck. What do you have in mind for seating? Quad buckets?
Too late for the XJ roof, but it might make your life simpler if you slice the remains of the Comanche roof right at the drip rails and leave the top bare until you figure out the floor/door openings. Then you can put the roof structure back without having to cut/shorten/lengthen etc. the roof pieces.
 
The best thing you can do is cut the last few inched from the Cherokee to terminate the roof ridges properly. From there you can cut the skin off the back of the Comanche roof so that you can clam shell it. You will still have the inner support to deal with thought. I just chopped mine down once the skin was off.

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The top of the Comanche has a flat flare to it making it a bit hard to bring down and rematch it back to both cab sections.

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I took a dolly and slap hammer to round it out and make it more 90° to better match it to both cabs after being cut down.

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I'm not a body work guy and there might have been a better way but this was the easiest I could come up with. It's not perfect but for me it's going to be on a trail rig so I don't mind it not being perfectly smooth.
 
It'll fold like a taco.
 
Subscribed.


Run a dual tranny!. You have more than enough room for it... and it would eliminate the driveshaft issue... and would make the truck that much more unique/awesome...
 
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