When the Jeep Gladiator debuted at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show, it sparked a renewed interest in the Jeep pickup that preceded it: the Comanche. Though some liked the new Gladiator, others panned the awkward rear door shared with the Wrangler, the strange look from the rear three-quarter angle, and above all: The lack of a long-bed, regular cab model. “That’s not a real truck, that’s just a Wrangler with a tiny bed. The Comanche is so much better!” was the type of sentiment you’d commonly see on the internet around that time. Even today, many diehard Comanche fans loathe the Gladiator, but some have changed their minds, in part, because the Gladiator has given back to its forefather. Here’s what I mean.
The Jeep Comanche is actually quite similar to the Gladiator in that they are both truck-ified versions of a four-door, high-volume family off-roader. I often tell people that the modern Jeep “XJ” Cherokee is not actually the new Cherokee, but rather the four-door Wrangler. And if that’s the case, then the modern version of the Jeep Comanche is the Jeep Gladiator. Both are compromised, not built-from-the-ground-up pickup trucks. And both have their dedicated fanbases.
The Comanche lived a reasonably long life, hitting the market for the 1986 model year and continuing until 1992 — that’s seven model years, which is more than the first-gen Grand Cherokee. Still, the issue for current owners isn’t model-years, it’s volume. Per Good Car Bad Car, Jeep only sold about 175,000 unibody-ish trucks between 1985 and 1992, and with every Comanche (like its XJ sibling) struggling to handle any amount of road salt without fading into brown powder, the Comanche has become quite rare today. (By comparison, Jeep sold 2.8 million Jeep Cherokee XJs — that’s over 15 times more).
Jeep Comanche Rear Bumpers And Taillights Are Unobtainium
If you ask any Jeep Comanche owner about parts availability, their reply will likely be: “Depends on what half of the truck you’re talking about.”
The Jeep “MJ” Comanche’s front half is exactly the same as the Jeep Cherokee XJ’s. Same engine options, same cooling system, same doors, same hood, same fenders, same body structure — it’s all the same. But at the B-Pillar, things change.
If you need Jeep Comanche front-end parts, that’s no problem. Even interior components — sans maybe a bench seat, the cab-back trim, and the headliner — are totally interchangeable. But the bed is hen’s teeth, and what’s worse is that so are the taillights and rear bumper.
My former boss at Chrysler used to talk about his dad’s minty 1992 Jeep Comanche. “Yeah, someone hit his rear bumper. We cannot find a replacement,” he told me for the entire two years I worked as an engineer. I’m not sure he ever did find a replacement bumper. They’re simply unobtainium, which is why you see forum posts like “Poll: Does your MJ have the original rear bumper?” and the post “NOS Factory rear bumper” in which the person who found what appears to have been the final New Old-Stock rear bumper on earth celebrated by writing: “Ohmygod Ohmygod Ohmygod Ohmygod!!! My hands started shaking.” That’s how rare these bumpers are.
The taillights are also insanely rare, since they’re made of cheap plastic that degrades in the sun, and since they’re Jeep Comanche-specific units that were never reproduced. That is to say: If you get hit in the rear of your Jeep Comanche, you’re pretty well screwed.
Jeep Gladiator To The Rescue
I never thought a Jeep Gladiator would make for a good parts donor for a Comanche, largely because of how enormous the Gladiator is relative to the Comanche. But I was wrong. First, before I get to the rear bumper mod, I’d like to show you a 3-D printed Wrangler/Gladiator taillight adapter. Check this out:
Why struggle to find Comanche taillights when you can just install cheap, ubiquitous JL/JT taillights? Here’s a look at the 3-D printed adapters sold by ZimmZakIndustries on Etsy:
I obviously prefer the look of the original Comanche taillights, but I applaud the ingenuity:
While Comanche tailights are hard to find, the rear bumper is much harder, which is why I was so thrilled to see that someone found a solution that actually looks pretty dang good! Behold the Jeep Gladiator rear bumper-on-Jeep Comanche mod:
“When it comes to the Comanche, there aren’t a ton of options for bumpers” Steve McKiernan — purveyor of the Instagram page Second Chance Jeeps and Grand Rapids, MI-based radio producer — told me over DMs. “I had read in a Facebook group that some people were considering trying to modify gladiator bumpers to install on a Comanche, so I figured I would give it a try.”
“It really wasn’t that difficult at all,” Steve, who cut the rust out of his 1988 Jeep Comanche as a COVID project and who this past summer did 2wd-to-4wd conversion, told me. “I had to cut down the factory bumper mounts and weld a piece of angle iron to them and drill some holes in it. Then I had to notch each end of the gladiator bumper. Other than that, it was pretty easy.” Here’s a look at the notches Second Chance Jeeps put on the Gladiator bumper:
And here’s a look at a cut and welded factory Comanche bumper bracket:
“It fits up great!” Steve told me. “The width of the bumper was perfect. I just had to notch it because the Comanche rear end is a lot more square than the gladiator.”
I agree; the final result actually looks quite good — almost like it was designed that way:
It’s a slim bumper, which is what the JT Gladiator needed to prevent its departure angle from getting out of hand. On the Comanche, it just works, and surprisingly it’s not too wide at all.
What are the odds that the new Jeep truck’s rear bumper would work so well on the old Jeep truck’s? It is a gift from the Jeep gods themselves.
Wait so this was the introduction to the article of later today? I see what you did here lol nice truck btw
A Comanche article so I’m here for my obligatory “I still really miss my ‘90 Eliminator.” Even if it was a 2wd automatic, great little truck. But like most, more rust than I could do anything about.
Hey great article,fun stuff. I am wondering though what has happened to the silly stuff. Don’t get me wrong all the articles on the site everyday are informative but I must have missed the silly articles. Best food to eat in a car, shower spaghetti. Top Gear didn’t succeed because doing the same old car talk, and Autopian hasn’t succeeded on basic coverage. Let’s see some silly. I know DT has a family but hey find a new person of interest. Hire an intern and pretend to abuse him. Let’s have a good laugh. IMHO
I guess there is a stock of take off’s from the mall crawlers out there. Maybe a heap behind 4 wheel parts or similar place instead of the normal service or flat bed places you find take offs of other pickups.
The bumper thing is neat, but it’s pretty much a flat and straight bumper, so I would imagine there a myriad of bumpers in this style that could be swapped over with about as many modifications as the Gladiator bumper requires.
GOOD NEWS! Comanche taillights are now being reproduced too!
I really like the gladiator bumper on the rears
Are they?!
Looks like Oracle Lights are making LED replacements. https://www.oraclelights.com/blogs/news/mj
3d printers DT. Have a small child explain it to you
Yup! Key Parts, they sell them on Ebay (Factory style ones, not LED- the lens only, or the whole light). You can get the all red, back, or silver trim. They also just started reproducing the tailgate handles.
As the owner of a Comanche and active member of the Comanche Club forum, I can agree with much of what was said in this article. There are certain MJ specific parts that are very hard to get. Beyond factory tail lights and rear bumpers, rear springs are challenging as the Comanche runs spring under axle with much longer springs than an XJ which uses a shorter spring over axle setup .
The awesome thing about owning a Comanche is it is a rare vehicle with awesome parts support due to the 2.8million XJs made. Estimates say there are about 18k Comanches still road registered. What is even more awesome is aftermarket parts support has never been better, Key Parts makes all the important body panels, there are now some after market direct fit tail lights, and most anything aftermarket XJ fits and MJ. Westin Fey makes a nice rear bumper for them, my 1990 Comanche Eliminator has one and it works great.
BTW I’m buying a Comanche tomorrow.
Wait, what? I didn’t expect you to just drop that truth bomb on us from out of nowhere.
It better be a rust-free Southwest example.
More on this TODAY.
Hey DT have you ever considered letting the Autopian members do a search for you to get your best options?
Have you offloaded the J10 yet?
THIS IS THE CORRECT QUESTION!!!!
I’m reminded of those Geico “young homeowners turning into their parents” commercials. David needs a car collector version of Rick. Mercedes too, for that matter. (Love you both!)
No those are awful. I assume many people left GEICO after being insulted. Not as bad as the marketing director of Hud Light causing billions of dollars lost but little league version
…
DAVID
Have to wonder how many of each are buried in the scrap piles out back from the truggy builds over the years.
Rusted and unusable
Now, that’s what I call a bumper crop.
having owned a ’87 4cyl Commanche I love seeing this! Keep em going!
also I like the 3d printed adapters, the tail lights look decent! and the bumper looks great, I wonder where they are getting the new stock?
Love to see this.
3D printing will save the classic car market.
What the OEMs won’t give us or have long abandoned, bored engineers looking for a side hustle will.
I’m working on a add-on for my truck to give it a feature that it didn’t come with from the factory. Figure if I want it bad enough to spend some of my free time and energy on, then maybe a few dozen others will as well. Getting real close to releasing it.
I 3d printed an overhead console for my project car!
And speaker mounts!
And dash parts!
And I’m going to have to figure out quite a few more soon.
It’s great fun owning a 3 model year car… From a brand that hasn’t existed for almost 40 years…
Great way to adapt parts. The 3D printing is great.
Now convince them to try using the Gladiator bed for short builds instead of chopping down the increasingly rare Comanche beds.
The ubiquity of 3d printers is a boon for modifications like the taillights. Though they’ll definitely want to paint them to protect the plastic from UV degradation.
Yes! Asa would be a good option too
It may be petg. It prints almost as easy as PLA, and holds up well in outdoor and moderate heat applications.
Both somehow make the Commanche better looking, IMO. Modernizes it a hair. Mix that with a color matched front clip from a later XJ and we are in business!
The timing of this article is remarkable. I recently swapped the OEM taillights on my Gladiator for flush-mount LEDs. Why? To make it look more like the Comanche!
For the amount of work they are doing to get this stuff to fit, it seems odd to call them a genius by using Gladiator parts. They could have used parts from a ’24 Bronco and they would have fit just as well…
Dang it. I miss the old stick-shift, straight-six Comanches. I’d like to love the Gladiator, but somehow it’s both too big and too small.
It’s the reverse-TARDIS effect of modern “utility” vehicles. They have less space on the inside than the outside would indicate. Lots of bulk and intrusion into the passenger and cargo space.
It isn’t just utility vehicles. A compact sedan from 20 years ago manages to have both more rear head and leg room than many midsize sedans of today. No wonder everyone started buying crossovers.
I feel like we hit peak packaging somewhere around the year 2000 and into the 2010s. It had gotten a lot better before then, especially with the Japanese imports showing the way to building smaller cars with better interior room.
2000 Chrysler LHS Had both a massive Trunk and a very spacious interior. to me that was the most space for a vehicle envelope that I have ever experienced.
Those had what a buddy of mine called “six body trunks”. He was into ’60s Oldsmobiles, which had similarly sized caverns out back.
I think for me it is the rear overhang and failure to give it a midgate. If any vehicle is best suited for the transformer on the fly lifestyle. a Wrangler based truck is.
This is why I own a 90 Comanche Eliminator, it’s a 6 ft bed 4.0L 4×4 manual truck. I like the Gladiator but I don’t want a vehicle that large with that small of a bed. If Jeep would make a 2 door Gladiator with a 6 or 6.5ft bed and a stick, I’d put my money where my mouth is and order one immediately.