- 16 hours ago
Truck U - Season 21 Episode 12 -
Comanche Throwback
Comanche Throwback
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00It's been a minute since we worked on a Comanche, but today we have one in the shop for some sheet metal replacement as well as corrosion and bed protection.
00:08We'll also take a look at where the last Comanche we worked on is currently at.
00:16Hey, welcome to Truck U. In the shop we've got today something we haven't had in quite some time, and that is a Jeep Comanche pickup truck.
00:22Now, these were built in the mid to late 80s going into the early 90s, and this is the last of the two-door trucks that Jeep ever built.
00:30You know, one of the things that's cool about it is from the front to the back of the door, this is basically all Jeep Cherokee.
00:37So if you've got one of these old trucks, man, parts and pieces are easy to come by because there were so many made.
00:42When you start looking a little bit farther back, well, not so much.
00:45Yeah, the issues start with the cab corners back there, also on the floorboards on the inside.
00:49Some of that metal, it's just a little bit different, a little bit more challenging to come up with.
00:53Then you move back to the beds, which are notoriously thin on the bottom, so you want to make sure that that's good and strong.
00:59That's one of the things we're going to be looking at to try to reinforce that.
01:02First glance, you know, your first impression, it doesn't look pretty, right?
01:05But there's potential here, and what I mean by that is, like, all this rust here, this is all surface rust.
01:09I'm not falling through and, you know, hurting my hand.
01:12This is all salvageable, and this is the hard part of the vehicle to source is the bed.
01:16Now, you get up front, you've got this front fender here.
01:19Well, this might be a little questionable, but the good news is that you can find these just about anywhere.
01:24So, we worked on one of these before, maybe a couple times.
01:27We've been doing this for a long time, so sometimes the memory's not quite what it used to be.
01:31I don't know if it was three, four, five, six years ago, but you remember?
01:34It's been a minute.
01:35It came in, and I want to say it started out orange and ended up blue.
01:40Yeah.
01:40Okay, yeah, I know what you're talking about.
01:41Then the owner was like, you guys get it to this point, get me this, this, this, this, send all that home with me, and I'm going to finish it up.
01:48And do you think it ever got finished?
01:49Probably not.
01:50It never does.
01:52So, there's supposed to always be people like, you know, it'd be nice if they send us pictures or videos of them enjoying the vehicles once we get them done.
01:57Here's what I'm going to do to that today while we're working on this thing.
02:00I'm going to contact him and see if I can get a picture of it in its current state.
02:04So, we'll see what's up.
02:05Okay.
02:05All right.
02:11We got the headlights and the bezels and the grill and everything up here in the front out of the way so that we could get that front fender off, and that is over there off to the side.
02:34Now, we're at the point where we can kind of take a look at where we're going to go because today it's all about fixing rust issues, right, and another issue as well, which you'll get into in a second.
02:44But anytime you're doing that and you're thinking, man, who am I going to go to?
02:47We're working with the guys from Classic to Current Fabrication.
02:50We love working with them.
02:52And let me tell you why they call it Classic to Current because they have got metal replacement parts from all your current stuff on a lot of different vehicles going back to like a 1932 Model A.
03:02That's pretty cool.
03:02Yeah.
03:03So, I mean, if you're doing a project on, let's say, like a 1967 whatever, and you're going, ah, you know, there's some rust there, and that's beyond really what I want to do, I'd rather just find the metal and replace it.
03:13But who do you call?
03:14These are the guys you call.
03:15Yeah, for good reason, too, because what they do is they take on, you know, some of the eclectic vehicles as well, like this Comanche, right?
03:21You know, it has been produced in, what, over 30-some years.
03:24Yeah.
03:24But there are some parts and pieces that are unique to it.
03:26I know I said from the beginning that, well, from here to there, it's all Cherokee.
03:30Well, I kind of lied to you because the rocker panel isn't, but you know what?
03:34They make a part to replace it as well.
03:35So they've got, you know, a fix for all those hard-to-find parts and pieces you need.
03:38Now, one of the things we discovered when we pulled that front fender off is an issue right here.
03:43And it's kind of common on these vehicles.
03:45Basically, the paint's being worn off because it's hitting against the tire.
03:48So what's going to happen is, over the course of time, you're going to want to put bigger wheels and tires.
03:52You're going to have more of a clearance issue.
03:54Well, they've got a fix for that as well.
03:55So you can go ahead, and there's four little spot welds you can hit with a grinder to take this panel off.
04:01And now they've got a replacement panel here that'll go up in a place.
04:04So essentially, you're removing all of this.
04:06So now you've got plenty of clearance to put as big a wheel and tire as you want.
04:09And, you know, it's like, why didn't the factory think about that early on, right?
04:13I don't know.
04:13I don't know.
04:14It's solving multiple problems.
04:15But real quick, before we want to go, too, I want to say something cool about the business, right?
04:19Because it's a family business, a lot of military in that family.
04:22These guys started in Detroit, Rock City, and they were all into cars, and they were into that stuff.
04:27And what they noticed over time, and they were kind of into other parts of the vehicles.
04:32And it was all about this, you know, finding metal for rust problems.
04:35There was a void in that.
04:36And they're like, hey, you know what?
04:36Let's step in, and we can solve those problems.
04:38And I don't know if they have addictive personalities or whatnot, but next thing you know, they've got all these different pieces and parts for all these different vehicles.
04:44So I like it.
04:45I do, too, man.
04:46It helps us keep vehicles like this on the road and looking good.
04:48All right.
04:49So as you said, this piece is coming out, but we've got to move a couple more things behind it before we get to that.
05:08So now it's time to remove this panel.
05:15You know, when it all comes down to all the spot welds we've got to get through to get it off.
05:18Now, the real key is taking some time and doing it the right way versus butchering it up.
05:23Because when it comes to putting the new panel in, it makes it a whole lot easier and it's a lot cleaner look if you just kind of, you know, be a little smart about it and you have a kind of a thought process.
05:31So what I've decided to do is you've got spot welds all through here, then you've got them here, and then it'll align basically on the underside.
05:37So there's a couple different ways you can do it.
05:40What I like to do is basically take a really pointy and sharp drill bit and kind of find a center point for each spot we're going to go through and try and drill out the spot welds.
05:48Now, people can take a punch and do it that way, but sometimes you don't get deep enough, and then when you use the proper tool, it wants to walk on you.
05:54So if you take a really sharp drill bit and you use it almost like a center punch to give you a starting point, it gives you a good baseline to go with.
06:01Now, believe it or not, there is a tool that was made specifically for these spot welds to drill out.
06:07You can see it's got a center point to locate on, and there is your center point, and you're going to drill down just enough to break it through.
06:13The key is only to drill through the panel you're trying to remove.
06:16You don't want to drill through the backside because that's more work you have to go ahead and repair it.
06:20So I'm going to go ahead and put center punches, so to speak, all the way around the spots where I'm going to spot weld drill and then start drilling away and getting this panel off.
06:29It's a good time for you guys to take a break because this is going to take a minute.
06:37So you're going to do all the work, and I get to do the reveal?
07:04I'm a giver, dude.
07:05This is great. I love reveals.
07:06It really wasn't that bad. It was about a half hour, 45 minutes.
07:09Now, keep in mind, this was the first time I've ever done this before on this vehicle.
07:12Now, I'm going to do the other side, probably do it in like 10 or 15 minutes because I know exactly how to get it done.
07:16Reveals are like cutaways, dude. Steel loves those things. Look at that. Boom. Let me file that.
07:22Look at all the room.
07:23You can see how much clearance we have now. It literally fits right where it needs to be.
07:27We'll fasten it here, and boom, done. Now we can put some rice and canes in this thing.
07:32So while you were working, I got a hold of my buddy that had the other one in here because we were wondering.
07:37It's like now he's going to be seeing this, and he's like, oh, man.
07:39Did you actually get him on the phone?
07:41Well, I texted him, and he texted back.
07:43He did?
07:43Well, when I came back over here to shoot this with you, I had like the blue bubbles, so he was writing something.
07:48I don't know what it is.
07:49Was he cussing at you again?
07:51Probably, probably.
07:51If we take a look back here at the side of the metal piece where that is going to weld to, I went ahead and ground that down, got it good and clean, smoothed out those spot welds and all that.
08:20I still need to do that up here, and once I get done with that, we'll hit it with some weld-through primer.
08:25That way we can weld through it, but it will be protected.
08:27Now, if you take a look at the bottom of this piece, you're going to see four holes right there, and that is where, let me put this in place.
08:33That's where the spot welds will go in, right, to hold everything in.
08:36There are more spot welds along here.
08:38They're already in there.
08:39We just got to punch them out with a drill bit, and it will actually weld that in from this side, and that'll give this a cleaner look right here.
08:46So, as Bruno said, it's coming along nicely, and it's not all that difficult to do.
09:09Dude, this is nice.
09:19I mean, look at it.
09:20That's solid.
09:21It's one with the truck down.
09:22You can pretty much do chin-ups on this thing.
09:24And believe it or not, we still have a few more spot welds to go, but I think you get the picture that this is a solid piece.
09:29It's a 19-gauge steel, and I'm going to tell you something.
09:32Quality.
09:33So, this is actually made by the guys at Classic to Current.
09:36They make these metal parts, and I mentioned their breadth of product, all of the parts that they've got available, and some of them they source, right?
09:43Right.
09:43They don't have – there's not enough time to make every single part that they have available, but they work with companies, and the cool thing that I like about them is they look at everything quarterly, and they go, okay, is there any piece or product that we're sourcing that's coming back with a lot of complaints or that isn't fitting or something like that?
09:59And if there is, boom, they don't work with them anymore.
10:01That way, they keep the quality up.
10:03And I think it's safe to say that not every single company on earth does that.
10:06Yeah, I think that's fair to say as well.
10:08You know, other thing to keep in mind, too, is, like, this is for a Comanche, but this same product will work on your Cherokees as well.
10:15So, you can do the same project.
10:16If you've got a lifted vehicle, big wheel and tire, need some clearance room, this is the perfect solution for your Cherokees, too.
10:22All right.
10:22So, we talked about those source products, right?
10:24Well, this is one of them.
10:25It's that front fender we're putting on.
10:27And now, you can see this is actually a pretty nice piece, and while it doesn't look like it's fitting perfectly right now, the reason why it's not is because of the bumper.
10:35Yeah, there's a lip.
10:35There's a lip right on the backside here, and that's sitting on the bumper right there.
10:39Well, that's an aftermarket bumper.
10:40It's not the production one.
10:41So, what he did to make the production body panel fit, they actually cut it, and you can see right here.
10:46Right there.
10:46So, if you cut this right off, it would fit right on, and this gap would be perfect.
10:50The thing is, this guy's not going to use this bumper on this.
10:52Right.
10:52So, I don't want to cut this front fender and butcher this thing up.
10:55So, I say we just hand it to him like it is, so when you get your new bumper, bolt this thing on.
10:59So, another one of those source parts are the floor pans that you were talking about.
11:02You know, he mentioned something that there might be an issue with the floor pan being thin or having lots more rusted through spots.
11:07He hadn't really taken a look, so we're going to peel back the layers and see if we need to do a little bit of patchwork on the inside.
11:12We wanted to make sure we had the right product to put in just in case.
11:19So, we wanted to take a look at what the floor pan looked like in this truck, so we opened the door and couldn't see a thing.
11:24No, no, nothing except sound dampening.
11:27Yeah, there was a lot of that, but we understand why people put that in there.
11:29That's cool.
11:30So, we had figured we'd come down here and get super comfortable on the concrete, which is nice and cool.
11:34It actually isn't too bad.
11:35You know, the inverted look at the underside of this truck reveals basically looks like a patchwork quilt underneath where the floor pan used to be.
11:42Yeah, we were wondering if we were going to find any issue, and we certainly did.
11:45And it goes from about there to about there, right?
11:49So, I think structurally it's fine.
11:51There doesn't appear to be any holes or anything.
11:54No, but I really don't think it's the right way to do it.
11:56You know what I mean?
11:56I don't believe in some of the material he used.
11:58It might rot out pretty quick.
12:00It wasn't quite of the highest standard of what he pieced together underneath there.
12:03So, I say we hand him the new floor pan, and we say, gift from us to you, and you do it with your leisure.
12:09Oh, I like gifts like that.
12:11You like that?
12:11Yeah, I do.
12:12So, we need to go to break right now.
12:13We'll keep working on that.
12:15And, oh, I almost forgot.
12:16Before we slid down on our hair, I think I got some pictures of the Comanche.
12:21Oh, much better.
12:22Okay.
12:23I was getting worried.
12:23I knew you were wondering.
12:25Rightfully so.
12:26Welcome back to Truck U.
12:37So, now we can take a look at the bed of the truck, and we've been referencing the fact that we need to do a couple things.
12:41But I want to take just a second now, since we're working on a Comanche, and it just reminded me of the Comanche that we worked on before, right?
12:48We've been doing this show a long time.
12:49Like, this is the end of my 21st season and the end of your 19th.
12:53Right.
12:53So, we've done a lot of different projects and met a lot of different people.
12:56And after a while.
12:57I didn't mean to interrupt, but there's, like, a gap there.
12:59You're 21 and 19.
13:01Yeah, two-year gap.
13:02There was another host for two years before you came.
13:03There was what?
13:04There was another host before you came.
13:05You tell me now after 19 years?
13:06Yeah, I thought you knew.
13:08You know, it's not a big deal, dude.
13:09It's not a secret or anything.
13:11I mean, it's okay.
13:12Just don't get emotional.
13:13Do you have any extra kids out there that you're not telling about either?
13:15No, dude.
13:15That's the only secret that I have.
13:16I find it hard to believe, but okay, go ahead.
13:18But regardless, we've done a lot of projects.
13:20Remember the Comanche project, Bruno?
13:22We're going back.
13:23We're kind of pulling back the curtain of some of the TV stuff, right?
13:25And you had an idea when this company that we worked with was a known additive to your oil and your fuel.
13:30And this Comanche had a really old engine in it.
13:32Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
13:32And Bruno was like, dude, let's run it through there.
13:34And see what works.
13:35Yeah.
13:35But then you fast forward.
13:37Actually, the dude that owned that truck, right, was around doing something, helping us with something.
13:41And we had this idea of doing, like, a road ranger truck.
13:44And so we go outside on the side of the road to shoot the bit, and it's raining.
13:48And so we have him come up to the truck.
13:51And Bruno and I, like, in real world, we're just like, this is kind of funny.
13:54Let's just roll the window down like a crack, you know?
13:56And he's out there standing in the rain, and we're like, should we help him?
13:59And we weren't even planning any of that.
14:01And then the bit was that he stole our gas can and took off.
14:03Because he did.
14:04Yeah.
14:04He actually, no, we got it back.
14:06We did.
14:06After some time.
14:07So, but then, that same Comanche showed up in here, and we did a two-wheel to four-wheel drive conversion.
14:14Yeah, it changed colors a couple different times.
14:16I think when it was, last time I saw it, it was, like, blue?
14:19Basically.
14:19He was supposed to finish it.
14:20That one Comanche was in the show, like, four or five different times.
14:23Right, right.
14:23So, and that's what reminded me of it.
14:25And the whole reason I'm bringing this up is because I got a picture.
14:28Look at that.
14:29It's beauty.
14:30But it looks exactly like we left here.
14:32Just like it left.
14:33Except buried in a different corner.
14:35So, earlier today, we were being sarcastic when we said that no work had been done to this thing.
14:39Lo and behold, we're correct.
14:42But, you know, I think we're starting to trend in the direction of this Comanche right now.
14:45And the fact that we need to get some work done on it.
14:48Like, in the bed.
14:49Like, remove this stuff.
14:51I see this, and I go, what's the rush?
14:53Because, clearly, if we don't do it, nobody else is going to do it.
14:59Oh, yo.
15:00Oh, yo.
15:00Oh, yo.
15:05Getting rough on it.
15:07The next thing that we are going to address is this bed.
15:11And what we're going to do is we're going to apply the Seymour 2K protective coating, which is a spray-on bed liner.
15:16And I think a lot of people might look at this and go, well, why are you going to do the bed liner before you paint the rest of the vehicle?
15:20And that's a fair question.
15:21Well, there really is a method to the madness, you know, the one being the fact that these beds are really thin, meaning the material they use, the steel they use, is really thin and it dents very easily.
15:30Now, believe it or not, this is probably one of the best-looking beds we've seen on a Comanche come in in a long time, right?
15:35You know, there's one little bit of a dent up here on the front side of it, but usually these have a whole lot of waves to it.
15:40You know, what we're going to end up doing is coating the inside of this, and the guy's probably going to take a bunch of parts and a bunch of everything else and store it in the back of the bed, which a lot of people do because it's like you're in a shop, you're in your garage, you don't have a lot of floor space, you pile stuff on the back of the truck.
15:54Well, if you don't have it coated, it's going to make this thing all wavy and wobbly, and it's going to dent it to death.
15:59So what we want to do is make sure we protect it so when the truck's all done, this looks just as good as the rest of the vehicle.
16:04The cool thing is this stuff is tough, too, because remember that one time we had just a little section that was treated with this, and it was about this big.
16:12And I remember, I mean, we were taking screwdrivers and keys and knives to that.
16:16We had a lot of fun.
16:17We, like, vented all of our frustrations out on this thing, and you wouldn't have even known we did it.
16:22So that's going to be a great product and a great thing to add to the bed of this truck.
16:25The only thing we have to do now is get it prepped.
16:27There's a little bit of cleanup that we need to do.
16:29Ah, just a touch.
16:30Yeah, no big deal.
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17:44So Matt is fired up and can't wait to start spraying, but we're not ready just yet.
17:50Now I've gone ahead and scuffed everything, sanding it down so there's a surface to bite to,
17:53but we've got all this dust we've got to wash off first, then we've got to hit it with the prep stuff
17:58to go ahead and make sure there's any grease or grime underneath, we'll get it out,
18:02so this way when we spray on the protective bed coating, it'll actually bite.
18:06It's all about the prep work, like you said.
18:09And sometimes I do put the cart in front of the horse, guilty as charged.
18:12But you know, this stuff, like I said a little bit earlier, it is ridiculously tough,
18:16and that toughness is kind of a reaction because you've got a polyurethane and a polyurea hybrid blend,
18:22and when those two come together, like the mega powers, man, like I said, indestructible.
18:26So that's going to do everything that we want to do as far as, you know, the abrasion,
18:29the dent resistance, the resistance to weather and chemicals.
18:32But here's the key, you've got to follow the directions.
18:34And I know some people have troubles with that.
18:36But these directions are, they're on the box, for crying out loud,
18:39and they're ridiculously easy to follow, B.
18:42You take a look at that. We're mixing things, right?
18:44So when it comes to mixing, it's pretty straightforward.
18:46All you're doing is you're taking eight ounces of bottle B,
18:49and you're pouring it into one of A, and you're going to shake it for 30 seconds.
18:52Then you're going to let it rest for a minute, and shake it for another 30 seconds,
18:55and then use the whole contents of that bottle spraying inside the bed.
18:59Then when you need more, you simply put eight ounces into the next bottle
19:02and use that bottle completely.
19:03Once you get the first three coats down, the last one is basically going to be
19:06one to go ahead and kind of like a finer mist to get, you know,
19:09that texture down and that grit down onto the surface.
19:11Yeah, the first three bottles are going to be enough to do a standard six-and-a-half-foot bed.
19:14And then, like you said, you've got the last bottle there with the proper mix.
19:18You get that texture that you want, so I think it's going to look awesome.
19:22Sorry about putting up everything on the bed so soon.
19:25So let's get it cleaned out.
19:25Let me move this stuff out of the way, and we can get to wiping.
19:28Sounds good.
19:28Let's get it cleaned out.
19:58If you were to just look at this truck now from the side, like from right there,
20:06it wouldn't look like we did a ton, but we actually did today.
20:08We got a lot of things done.
20:09There's some big projects we took out.
20:11Anytime you're cutting out sheet metal out of the vehicle and replacing it with other sheet metal,
20:14that's a project.
20:15You want to take your time to make sure it's done right, and that's exactly what we did.
20:18Now we've got this big room, our big space here,
20:21and you've got a room for a big tire underneath this inner fender well.
20:23And one other thing we did was go ahead and protect that inner fender well that we put on
20:27with Seymour's Eco.
20:28You know, it's an aerosol application.
20:30You spray it on, and it bonds directly to the metal.
20:33So what it's going to do is protect it from rusting, from corrosion.
20:36It's actually also going to look good, and it gives you the opportunity to go ahead,
20:40if you want to, down the road, paint it.
20:42Any paint or automotive paint will go right to it and bond with it perfectly.
20:45That inner fender well looks good, and then right on the outside too,
20:48this new one right there, as soon as make some adjustments like that.
20:51Well, again, we're going to let him do that, but nice new fenders.
20:53Those are going to look great.
20:54And then the party continues, well, actually, onto the floor,
20:58which is another thing we kind of saw for him.
20:59But we got him hooked up, you know.
21:01And then the new bedliner in the bed.
21:03So bottom line is it's been a good day, but I've got a question for you.
21:07What do you think the odds are that this Comanche is going to make it back
21:09into the shop at some point and actually be finished?
21:12Just judging on that track record Comanches have had here, not very good.
21:15I'm going to take the opposite, dude.
21:17I think we're going to see this thing.
21:18It's going to come back, and it's going to be awesome.
21:20You're taking the over?
21:20Yes.
21:21All right, I got the ender.
21:21We'll see how it plays out.
21:22Now, I hope I'm wrong.
21:23Well, we'll see what happens.
21:24But I know this.
21:25That's all the time we have.
21:26We'll see you guys next time right here on Truck U.
21:28So I don't want to put money on it or anything like that.
21:30This would just be a nice thing to have it roll up one day.
21:33I like these drops.
21:34Hey, guys.
21:34Take a look at what I did.
21:35Nice.
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