Hey Everybody,

New here with my 2-week-old-to-me 1995 Jeep Cherokee XJ 2-door Sport. Just broke 100k, original paint, original interior, etc etc except for a 3 inch lift that was there before I bought it. It had only one-owner for 99.9% of it's life, up in Virginia. This think looks immaculate, still with the original owner's sales receipt from 08-1995 in the glove box. Runs and drives like a dream (but needs new shocks) and a clean CarFax. The 0.1% owner had it for a few months, added the lift, then sold it. Kinda suspicious to me, which leads me to my question and attached pics.

I did look under to body before I bought it. I'm no expert in that field, but looked OK to me. First time it rained, I saw a leak coming from the top of the windshield. It had a small crack in it anyways, so I paid $280 to have it replaced and re-sealed. Not wanting to leave the rain water ion the floorboard, I peeled the carpet back, only to find some rust on the floorboard, which is paper-thin in some areas. Not the biggest deal up front (it looks like it can be patched and repaired) but the rear had some more serious rust, including the area where the front leaf spring mount attaches to the body/frame rail. The holes were not there when I bought it, but the rusty material was so thing that it fell-out when I pulled up the carpet.

See attached pics. You can see sky looking up, right in front to the leaf spring. Ideas? Fixable or part-out? This XJ was supposed to be a beach-buggy for me any my family, but if it is unsafe and will collapse on or off road, I don't want to take that chance.

Looking up from the passenger-side, front leaf-spring.

Looking down from the inside of the ground. That brown stuff is primer I just painted on to the surface.

 

That is not a deal breaker. There are several ways it could be addressed, but it is not going to cause your Jeep to fail you.

 

So, that is not safety related? That leaf spring holds A LOT of weight. How to address it properly?

 

The leaf spring is not applying all the weight to the floor pan. Mine was rusted about the same spot I just cut it out and welded in some metal hardest part was forming it to shape as mine was in a bend.

 

Gotcha. I'm an electrical person, but not body/welding, for sure. Guess I'll take it in somewhere this week for an estimate.

 

I don't have the pictures on me but I had much worse on both ends of both springs. The spring mounts take most of their strength from the chassis etc. As you say, it's a lot of force so the floor doesn't do much. I did however put multiple spot welds from my repairs onto the mounts.

 

Thanks for your replies. Can I just clean, prime, paint, and bondo patch? Would that suffice? That was the original plan before I considered the possible structure and safety issues.

 

my 1998 xj had just a small amount of rust on the driver side floor pan....lol, I had some metal roof laying around and patched it. ain't really pretty, but it's under the carpet so it works for me..lol.

 

Nice. BTW, how in the h@ll did you guys get your front seats out of the Jeep? On each seat, the two front bolts backed out easily, but the rear two bolts seem stuck, to the point I was worried about breaking bolts. Loc-tite from the factory maybe?

 

No. Bondo is what you put on when you want the vehicle to look good until you sell it. It will last maybe year. It's crap.

The good thing about it is that it's really good at hiding rust, so it can get worse while it keeps you fooled.

 

What if I want to patch it (assuming the hole does not affect the structure in a bad way) What do I use then? Ugh. This beach buggy project is becoming a can of worms. So unfortunate because EVERYTHING else on the XJ looks and works like it is a relatively new vehicle. A simple windshield leak that went unattended wet the floorboards and rusted them!

 

Bondo makes many products. For a hole like that, I personally would use Bondo Hair (Epoxy with Fiberglass strands in it). But like I said, there are many ways to address it. Some would cut some bad metal out and weld some new metal in to take its place. I have a lot of rust like you have shown, and plan on ripping everything out this summer to deal with it. The floor is super thin on an XJ and it doesn't take long to crumble away.

If you look carefully at your picture from underneath, up through the spring perch, you will see that it rests most of the upward force on the bottom of the frame rail and at the top of the frame rail (where the frame rail has a fold outward). It is not getting strength from the floor material.

 

I'm a cut, treat and replacer so I would only recommend a proper repair. Even though the bad metal isn't structural, to me, it's too close to structure and you would want to stop it in its tracks. Although I think in the longer term as I don't want to return to a job twice.

 

Gotcha. I have looked inside (and outside) of the frame rails, and they are solid. No issues. The floors have rusted from the inside out, it seems, due to the windshield leak, and wetting the floors of the cabin. Actually, there is one more small hole in the floorboard in front of the driver seat. I did not see it when I first externally inspected the XJ because ithe hole is over the frame rail. If safety is not an issue, then I likely will plug and seal these holes so no more water comes in from the outside, while stopping rust as well. You know what they say, "with time and money, anything is possibe". But is it worth the money...

 

damn with all my spot welds should of done solid beads. My welding still needs more practice.
I did all 4 pans on mine but the drivers side was the worst was not hard just time consuming as I did mine after work and on weekends...When I started was 92 degrees out side and was 43 degress when I got all done and put back together.

heres is my drivers side