Welcome back! Today on Shitbox Showdown, we’re deep in the rust belt looking at two unusual pickup trucks that both need some significant rust repair. Which one is more worth the effort is up to you, but first, let’s settle up on Friday’s Cadillacs:
Well now, that is actually a surprise. I expected it to go the other way. Several commenters thought the ute might actually be an old funeral flower car, but I have my doubts. It looks too rough around the edges, and I can’t imagine a funeral home wanting such a specialized vehicle in white with a red interior and roof. Seems too garish, too disrespectful. I’m pretty sure it was a homebuilt job.
Oh well, whatever. It lost. Moving on. Today’s choices are both unusual unibody pickups (well, one kinda is; we’ll get to that in a minute) and both are in need of a good welder to put them right. The good news is that they’re both mechanically sound, and complete, so once the rust repair is done, they should be good to go. Neither one was exactly a rousing sales success, but both have a bit of a following now, and I imagine the right person would jump at the chance to fix up either of these. Are they worth it to you? Let’s find out.
1982 Dodge Rampage – $4,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.2 liter overhead cam inline 4, four-speed manual, FWD
Location: Dayton, OH
Odometer reading: 75,000 miles
Runs/drives? It’s complicated
I’ve never quite understood why this car exists. Dodge already had a perfectly good captive-import pickup in the Ram 50. This Mitsubishi in disguise was a traditional body-on-frame truck, available with 4WD, so why bother making a front-drive-only truck out of your compact sports coupe? Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad Dodge did just that, because Rampages (and Plymouth Scamps) are cool little trucks. I just don’t understand the thought process.
The Omni 024 on which the Rampage is based came standard with a 1.7 liter engine from Volkswagen. By 1982, when the Rampage came out, Chrysler had shoehorned in the K-car’s 2.2 liter engine, and this was the standard engine in the Rampage. It still wasn’t a ton of power – 84 horsepower – but every little bit helps. The 2.2 had legs; it lasted well into the ’90s and powered pretty much all of Chrysler’s lineup at one time or another.
The 2.2 in this Rampage runs well, with a new carb and some other recent work. At the moment, the truck isn’t drivable because there’s no gas tank installed. The old one was rusted out; a new one is included. Lots of other patch panels are also included. Think of it as a big model kit, except you have to weld the parts together instead of using some vaguely citrusy-smelling glue. It is missing its rear window, and that might be a little hard to find. It also needs brake lines and the load-sensing valve for the rear brakes; apparently they’re rusted out too.
In addition to he rust repair panels, the seller is including two extra sets of factory wheels, another complete interior, and a bunch of other parts. With as rare as these things are, you could probably sell some of that to offset the cost of fixing it up.
1991 Jeep Comanche – $2,500 (or $4,000 with the plow)
Engine/drivetrain: 4.0 liter overhead valve inline 6, four-speed automatic, part-time 4WD
Location: Door County, WI
Odometer reading: 39,000 miles
Runs/drives? Yes, but…
Most trucks are built on a separate frame, and the bed and cab both bolt to that frame. The SUV variant is built in the same way, except the separate cab and bed are replaced by a one-piece body, but it’s still attached to a frame. But the Jeep Cherokee was designed from the start as an SUV, with a “unibody” design – there’s no separate frame. This complicated things when Jeep wanted to make a pickup truck based on the Cherokee. Jeep engineers had to add a chunk of traditional frame onto the back, so there was a place to attach a bed. The junction between unibody and rear frame is a well-known rust spot on these trucks – and it’s exactly where this one has decided to crack. [Ed note: I’d still rock it. -DT].
This Comanche spent its life in possibly the most selfless role we ask of trucks: a plow truck. More than that, a plow truck in northern Wisconsin. While the rest of us hunker down and watch the snow fall with our hot chocolate, these unsung heroes clear away the mess, moving the snow aside so we can go about our business. Obviously this little truck wasn’t a municipal truck; more likely privately-owned by someone contracted to take care of parking lots and such.
The upside of this harsh life is that this truck has hardly any miles on it, the odometer reads 39,000 and the seller says it’s original. Of course, the bulk of those miles were spent pushing a heavy steel blade along the ground at five miles an hour in brutally cold temperatures, so it’s not like they were easy miles. Still, the seller says it runs and drives beautifully, except that it’s about to break in two.
Repair on the frame is possible, if you know what you’re doing, and stiffeners are available to shore up the repair. It’s not going to be easy to erase thirty-two Wisconsin winters from the underside of this truck, but it could be done. There weren’t many Comanches around to begin with, and fewer still now; I guess the question is how badly do you want to save this one?
Rust repair isn’t everyone’s bag, I know. I hate it, myself. But I know some folks like the challenge of it, and being able to cut out an old rotten section of metal and weld in a new one is kind of like having a superpower. Someone with the talent could save either of these trucks. If you are that person, where are you going to direct your efforts?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
I would guess that the Rampage was produced to compete with the VW Rabbit pickup (Golf Caddy everywhere else) although that still seems like an odd niche.
I’m abstaining today since I live in Oregon so I don’t need to put up with rust bucket project cars.
The way I typically vote is manual over automatic, 4X4 over 4X2 and truck over car.
This one blows them all up. That said, I went Jeep.
Sorry, root – this can be built straight without a frame table. A lot of work, but I’ve seen it done.
The Rampage is interesting, but it’s just not trucky enough.
Hmmm… which overpriced heap of shit do I want… I’ll go with the cheaper heap of shit. And the seller can keep his plow.
That Jeep will be much nicer to drive given it has the 4L I6. That old Rampage, even though it’s stick, is still a disassembled rusted out heap of shit that is worth $500 to me.
Of the two I would take the Rampage. The Comanche is a better truck but 39000 thankless miles plowing In Wisconsin is a recipe for rust and probably will destroy the transmission is short order.
The Rampage is hot garbage but a 2.2L Turbo will fit just fine on there.
I didn’t vote for the Rampage as much as I voted against the Comanche. What a pair of junkers.
Good grief, Dodge slapped a rear-brake load-sense valve on the Rampage? Does Dodge have some sort of weird hang-up with those things? My year-2000 diesel Ram 2500 pickup had one. Of course, it rusted and leaked brake fluid. And, of course, the part was NLA. Also, of course, I lived in a state that required safety inspections. So the shop that was working on the truck to fix it and also replace rear axle U-bolts (a typical maintenance item in road salt country…) declared it unfixable and that I might as well junk it. I found a delete kit, which they didn’t want to do because it originally had the valve, but agreed to put on only because the truck was being taken out-of-state.
It’s a nifty device to reduce the annoyance of locking up the rear wheels when the truck isn’t loaded and to put less of a load on the front brakes when it is loaded, but they’re also prone to rusting and leaving you with an unsafe, serious brake fluid leak. I’d never even run into them on the Ford and GM pickups I’d driven for years, and never once even thought about wanting or needing one. And the Dodge does fine without it so… What was even the point of installing one in the first place beyond sounding good in the brochures?
Tons of trucks have them. Usually see them more on 3/4 and 1 ton. My CUCV had one.
Chevys had them for years and years. The Comanche actually also has one.
MJ all the way.
Wow! This choice is a real Kobayashi Maru. The only way I would buy one or the other is with a high-caliber gun pointed to my head, and then it would be the Jeep simply because it is cheaper (keep your plow seller dude).
Comanche no question.
Plow trucks get the snot beat out of them. It needs everything replaced.
The Rampage is way overpriced, but at least just has standard issue rust, not plow truck rust and frame damage and abuse.
I voted Rampage since it is less of a disaster, but both of these project cars aren’t worth saving.
Both of these are too far rotted out to be worth more than $40. Not $400. Definitely not $4000. Forty dollars, tops. Neither of these can be saved.
Rampage, the back glass is NBD; it’s a flat piece. Local can cut you a new one very easily and affordably. But that much rot? That means the floor pans are gone, as are the unibody rails from the inside out.
Comanche is a unibody, as mentioned. You cannot weld those rails, especially not there. Period. Any body shop that says they’ll do it, run the hell away from. The only way to repair it is all new unibody rails (unavailable) after drilling out the old ones (which requires a frame jig – NOT a rotisserie. Different tools.)
Why exactly can’t you weld those? Just about every single XJ rock crawler has significantly sketchier frame welding.
You can gusset and weld them.
You can make things amazingly straight without a jig or frame table.
Is that wreck worth that effort? Not even a little.
Well it’s about eight grand less than a rust free comparable Comanche, so are you sure it’s not worth fixing?
Yes.
I don’t know how you value your time but I’d rather pay.
And there are MUCH less rusty ones out there for less than 10k.
Buy one frim the south or wear with mechanical issues; so much easier to deal with than building a new body.
I’m not sure how much I value my time either, but at like $20 an hour, $8000 pays for 400 hours of labor. I don’t know how long it would take to fix all this, but, like I said, this legitimately might be worth fixing.
An automatic high output short bed 4×4 bucket seat Comanche with a straight body is a very very difficult thing to find, and very desirable. Yeah you can get Comanches for less than 10k but not a holy grail one like this.
Do you really only value your time at $20 an hour? For that sort of labor?
And have you factored in the tooling you’ll need?
Looking at that MJ I think 400 hours is a START on what you’d need to get that to a reasonable condition. But that is before we start to deal with all of the mechanical issues you are going to have to deal with from all the corrosion.
Maybe I just go old, or I’m too fussy but I am 110% over dealing with horrible rust bombs. Last Jeep I bought was rustier than I want to deal with and it has now become a pile of parts I sell and a pair of axles I keep… Maybe.
I assure you, you absolutely fucking cannot. Anyone claiming otherwise should be made to go over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel, because it’s equally as safe. By the time you have visible fractures, the entire unibody rail is already fatally compromised. Period. It is more rust than steel.
Not only that, but it is absolutely, 200% VERBOTEN, FORBIDDEN, DISALLOWED, INTE TILLåTEN, категорично заборонено!!
DO NOT FUCKING TRY WELDING UP COMANCHE UNIBODY RAILS BETWEEN THE BODY AND THE BED, AND DO NOT ARGUE WITH ME ABOUT THAT – ARGUE WITH AMC. They’re the ones who specify it, they’re the ones who declare it unrepairable, they’re the ones who designed and built and crash-tested the car. So when their manuals very, very specifically say that is an absolute no-go under any circumstances whatsoever? They win. They always win. Especially since one of the key features? Those unibody rails are specially heat-treated steel. You know, the stuff you can’t just slap some beads on at random period. There is a very specific procedure and process required to not turn the steel into limp noodle.
And any bend or fracture of the unibody at that point requires either taking the entire rail section out while on a frame jig and welding in new part (which includes specifications for drilling and overlapping to surviving rails,) or immediately branding the car unrepairable. Because the rest of the rails are just as bad or worse.
Collision repair manuals are not a new thing. I-CAR is not a new thing. That’s why you pay close attention and listen to them. It might have annoyed the service writers, but any time I had a suspect full frame or crunched rail? I went and got the I-CAR book and a senior bodyman. 70% of the time, it was fine with caveats. 30% of the time, they tapped with a hammer and turned the C-channel into an L-channel. You don’t want it happening on the lift, you REALLY don’t want it happening on the highway.
Watch this video.
Plow duty is hard enough on full size trucks with a real frame. There’s no good logic for any real plowing with a unibody/uniframe vehicle, especially not Jeeps first attempt at it. Don’t come at me with the distinction between the two. It’s an XJ forward of the firewall, and going back to the B pillar the only difference I’m aware of is a weld on reinforcement above the chassis rail in the cab.
The proper answer is neither. Spend more for a cleaner shell Comanche if you actually want one.
Yeah well if you want a 4×4 automatic High Output Comanche with a straight body, that’ll be about two years of scouring the Internet and then about $10,000.
Seems like you need to open up your search criteria beyond the most trafficked social media then. I’ve seen plenty for sale for less than that, including helping a friend buy a straight shell for like $2500.
But yes, if you go to a website where half the draw is paying a premium for a car someone bought from an estate sale to flip, and half the draw is the peanut gallery telling you why this combination of options is super rare and worth 2x the going rate, then budget $10k.
You paid $2500 for a shell and you think $10k is out there for a nice and rare optioned Comanche?
I’m talking Comanche Club and Facebook marketplace prices, not Bring a Trailer. I have never seen a semi nice Comanche go for less than $6k. One year only, very rare options? Yes, 10k.
See, you’re issue is you’re being fussy and hunting a unicorn.
Get a rust-free version of the chassis you want and ignore options and drivetrain.
Find wrecks, rot boxes, part-outs, and other problem children to get the rest of what you want.
This is probably the solution, but it still may cost some money and lots of time to get a really nice one. I’m a little out of date on both this and XJ prices, but when I bought my XJ almost 10 years ago, I wanted to find a 97-01 4×4, preferably with the full-time option, preferably with some power options (first XJ had no power anything, and rolling down a rear window or unlocking a rear door was really annoying). My wife wanted an auto, preferably in white. I wanted blue or yellow, preferable a 5-speed. We settled smack dab in the middle on a white automatic (that was actually by chance, we agreed to buy the first nice one we could). It took two years to find one that was rust-free, within a 10-12 hour driving distance, not modded to hell, beat to hell, or 250k miles on it. I looked at 2 dozen at least, had at least 10 sold the same day they were posted online before I could look at them, and still had to pay 7900 for one (at least with only 110k miles, so just getting broken in). But no evidence of off roading or modification, and had been owned by a jeep tech for a large part of its life and taken care of.
But there are a lot more XJs around. So I can believe finding a nice Comanche in relatively tolerable spec could take both time and money, even if you go this route.
From my experience with XJ hunting, most look fine in pictures and are way more ragged in person. Good from far but far from good. So getting one in good physical shape isn’t always that easy (the desert is great for keeping the body nice, just plan to replace every seal, piece of plastic, most of the interior, etc., at least from my experience with XJs in AZ)
My roofing buddy who taught me to weld also ran plow trucks in the winter. That was why he had multiple welding set-ups. He warned me to stay far, far away from a former plow truck—and showed me cracked frames, sludged rocker valleys, and destroyed steering boxes as visual aids to underline his point.
I still voted for the Comanche, tho: I wouldn’t have any real use for the Rampage once fixed. Think this is the first time I voted automatic over manual, too.
The Rampage is going to lose, but I voted for it anyway. My first car was a Plymouth Horizon, so I have a soft spot for these, plus the interior is pretty sharp. I also worry about the unseen damage being a plow rig has done to the Comanche, beyond the whole “snapping-in-two” bit.
I had the 2-door Omni with an auto. That car was way more fun than it ever should have been.