1987 Comanche Long Bed Complete Rebuild.

Hello there! This thread is for my Comanche's build. This thread is a work in progress. First a little about myself, and than a lot about my rig.A little about me! Im almost 30, ive recently had some major hand surgery to reconstruct some tendons. Unfortunately they didnt turn out perfect and there is very little strength in my left hand. This makes turning wrenches difficult at best! Thankfully I have a slew of family shade tree / home shop mechanics to help this project along.The rig is a 1987 Jeep Comanche Laredo Long Bed 2WD Dana 35 rear 3.55Tan interior, awful red paint job covering up factory gold. thankfully very very little rust on this baby. a Florida Jeep. I picked it up for 950 dollars. Back in March. Had it Towed home ( the tires weren't safe to drive very far ) and over all i thought I picked up a decent ride. However. I really should have looked a little harder before I leaped. Because this thing has been a J.E.E.P.I spent 150 dollars and slapped some used 30x9.50r15s on there that were in pretty decent shape. they have another ten thousand miles or so before they will be May-Pops. Every thing was hunky dory for a few days untill i heard this awful sound trying to turn the jeep on. Starter wasn't engaging the flex plate. replaced the starter and it worked fine for a few months. until same problem. starter wouldn't engage the flex plate. that means the starter was just a symptom of a larger problem. i looked under there and it looked like the motor was separating from the transmission. The decision was made to pull the motor out, do a complete rebuild and hope when it was all back together, I would have a brand new truck to last many years. So far so good!The donor motor from my brothers dead 1988 xj went to my local hot rod machine shop. the machinist was like "WHOA I never get to work on these anymore. " He said that these blocks rarely need anything major. so I paid him 300 bucks to line hone the cam journals, mill the deck, hot tank, and hone the cylinders. and he gave me his stamp of approval to rebuild it. I might have paid a few extra dollars but the other machine shops in town suck. I go to PARTSCO in Gainesville FL. Worth Every penny to have an experienced machine shop do the work right the first time.Phase One : EnginePhase Two : ExteriorPhase Three : InteriorPhase Four : Running Gear / SuspensionSpecial thanks, all of family and friends who helped out with elbow grease or chipping on parts!