Every time we post a picture or video of our Jeep Comanche, we get questions about it. What hood is that? What suspension are you running? Where did those fender flares come from? And, lately, can I still buy some of the JcrOffroad parts that are on it?

We originally built this MJ for SEMA quite a few years ago. When we bought it, it was gray and someone had already completed a 1997-and-up interior swap, which gave us a good starting point. From there, we pretty much touched everything.

Since we've recently brought several of our XJ and MJ products back, it seemed like a good time to walk through the truck, talk about what's on it, and answer some of the questions we get every time it shows up online.

Yes, We Built the Hood
Let's get the most common question out of the way first.

The hood isn't something you can order. We built it.

It started as a stock Comanche hood, and we added a hood scoop from what I believe was a 1969 or 1970 Mustang. We also designed and fabricated the hood vents here at JcrOffroad. It's probably the single thing people ask about most when we post the truck, so unfortunately, there isn't a secret part number I've been hiding from everyone.

Up front, we're running our Vanguard Winch Front Bumper for the XJ and MJ, which is available again. We paired it with a Warn VR EVO winch, Factor 55 thimble, JcrOffroad fairlead, and Baja Designs lighting.

Suspension, Axles and Steering
Underneath the truck is where things get a little less off-the-shelf.

We're running Falcon shocks from TeraFlex along with TeraFlex SpeedBumps and their adjustable sway bar system. We had to make custom mounts to adapt the sway bar to the MJ.

As for the coils, I honestly don't remember what they are. Sometimes when you're building something like this, you have a pile of coils, start trying things, and figure out what works best. That's pretty much what happened here.

The Comanche is also running TeraFlex 60 axles front and rear, RCV axle shafts, TeraFlex steering, and a West Texas Off-Road Redneck Ram.

The suspension itself came together with some help from Ironman 4x4 Fab. When they heard we were building the truck, some measurements were taken, a suspension was basically drawn out on a napkin, and that eventually became the custom front and rear triangulated four-link underneath the Comanche.

The truck uses aluminum links and has a ton of adjustability. Ironman also supplied the transmission skid plate and link system, while Adams Driveshaft handled the driveshafts.

Some Old JcrOffroad Parts Are Back
This truck has several pieces from our older XJ and MJ product line, and we've recently started bringing some of those products back.

The MJ Roof Rack is available again, and one question we've heard is how you can connect a rack to both the cab and bed without causing problems as the truck flexes.

The Comanche is a little different from a traditional body-on-frame pickup. The bed is hard-mounted, so there isn't a huge amount of movement between the cab and bed. There is still a little movement, but there's enough flexibility built into the rack to accommodate it.

We've also brought back our MJ Rear Bumper, which is available as either a DIY version or fully fabricated, powder coated, and ready to install.

The rock sliders on this particular truck aren't currently available. If enough of you yell at us about those, maybe we'll have to reconsider that one too.

The Rest of the Exterior
There's quite a bit on this truck that you won't find in a catalog.

We adapted a TJ fuel tank and TJ fuel tank skid to fit underneath the bed. MagnaFlow obviously doesn't make a bolt-on Comanche exhaust for this particular setup, so they sent us a box of stainless components and we fabricated the exhaust ourselves.

The bed is completely Rhino lined, with the fuel filler relocated into the bed floor along with the spare tire.

Then there's the paint.

We knew from the beginning that we wanted the truck to be orange. Pete and I originally picked a burnt orange color from a MazdaSpeed3, but on the day the truck was being painted, we changed our minds in the paint mixing room.

The color we ended up with is a Mercedes color that was also used on a Smart car. I believe it's called Midnight Orange Metallic, or something very close to that. Depending on the light, it shifts between orange and yellow and has a ton of mica in it.

It was annoying to paint, required a lot of coats, and was extremely expensive.

It's also still one of my favorite colors we've ever put on a vehicle.
The fender flares are another part we get asked about constantly. Those came from our friends at Notch Customs. They're fiberglass cutout flares, so quite a bit of the factory body gets trimmed away during installation. The payoff is a lot more tire clearance. We're running 35-inch tires with roughly four inches of lift, and the combination works really well on the MJ.

Inside the Comanche
The interior has a lot of custom work, but one of the goals was to make everything look like it belonged there.

We're running Corbeau XJ seats and modified an XJ overhead console by shortening and recovering it to fit the Comanche. There's also a six-speed NSG370 transmission from a TJ with a custom shift knob that has a little personality of its own.

The switch panel controls the front and rear lockers along with the nitrous system and purge. The nitrous is triggered through a microswitch once the engine reaches somewhere around six or seven pounds of boost.

A's Design Works handled the custom interior finishes, including the HVAC controls and dash. The look was modeled after a McLaren interior, which is probably not something you'd normally expect to hear when describing the inside of a Jeep Comanche.

There's no traditional radio either. We have a CB, which dates the build a little now that everyone has moved to GMRS, but I still like it.

A 4.6-Liter Stroker, Supercharger and Holley Standalone
The engine setup is probably my favorite part of the truck.

We're running a 4.6-liter stroker with a Boosted Technologies supercharger, controlled completely by a Holley standalone system.

Getting there took some work.

If you've spent much time modifying the Jeep 4.0-liter platform, you know there isn't a huge amount of factory tunability available. Once we combined the stroker with the supercharger, we needed considerably more control over timing and fueling than the factory system was giving us.

The Holley changed that.

We used GM/LS-style sensors wherever possible because many of them were already supported by the Holley system. The original Jeep computer is still in the truck, but it's primarily handling the charging system and factory gauges. In a few places, that meant doubling up sensors so both systems could get the information they needed.

It's been a great setup.

I wouldn't call the Comanche fast, but it has torque everywhere. Combined with the six-speed manual, that makes it an incredibly fun truck to drive. It's been a few years since we put everything together, so I'd have to dig back through some notes to remember every sensor and detail, but if you're thinking about building a boosted 4.0 or stroker, the Holley standalone setup is something I'd absolutely look into.

And Then There's the Pizza Story
There's also a little bit of lore behind this truck.

When we built the Comanche for SEMA, the whole build had a theme. We turned it into a pizza delivery truck with one simple promise:

30 minutes or less, anywhere in the country.

We had a pizza topper on the roof and graphics on the truck. At SEMA, we made miniature pizza boxes, hand printed them, stuffed T-shirts inside, and gave them away from the booth.

Apparently, we did too good of a job.

The hospitality company responsible for food service at the show thought we were actually serving pizza. They assembled a group of people and came over to confront us because they had the food service contract and we weren't allowed to hand out pizza.

We had to explain that there wasn't any pizza.

They were T-shirts.

None of it was real.

That was a fun show.

Years later, the Comanche is still here, and now that some of the JcrOffroad XJ and MJ products on the truck are coming back, we're excited to see people building these Jeeps again.

If you have questions about the Comanche, any of the products we've brought back, or even some of the custom work on the truck, reach out and ask. If I don't remember exactly how we did something, I'll dig back into it and try to figure it out.

And if there's another JcrOffroad vehicle you'd like us to break down like this, let us know which one we should do next.