I started this a little over a year ago. I’m starting a thread to document most of what I have done.

This is a winter daily driver. During the summer it sits unless I need to tow my utility trailer. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to work.

Well over the winter before last, I had to keep my left foot on the uniframe rail to keep it from going through the floor. I had just finished putting all new brakes, hoses, and Nicopp lines. When seating the pads it stopped so quick I was afraid I was gonna rip the axles off, but it was still solid. Just rotting from the inside out.

So after my last trailer run, I removed the seats and carpet and most of the panels. 100% true that it’s 10 times worse than what you see.

 

After cutting out the majority of the loose rust. Sorry about the darkness, days were getting really short. All of the passenger floors gone. Front seat brackets shot. Drivers side tie plate broken. Upper uniframe and flanges at front seat feet areas gone. Parts of side rails under front doors gone. Outer areas under rear seat rusted pretty thin. Parts of rear floor gone. I decided to just rip it out and do it all, so I could fix and clean up the entire uniframe.

 

I knew it was gonna be a massive project, but for many reasons shared by the XJ crowd, it was worth fixing. Parts available at many levels for just about the whole thing. Easy to work on. The 4.0 will run practically forever if you don’t run it into the ground.

Plus I am an engineer for a steel shop for 25 years, I can fab and weld and have rebuilt rusty mounts and unibodies and all sorts of things. With the amount of repair needed, it was beyond replacement pans. And besides I wasn’t gonna spend that kind of money. So from work I bought 3 sheets of 18 ga for the skins, 1 sheet of 16 ga for the uniframe, and some odd 11 ga scraps for the heavier bits. All for around $250 or so. 3 ft x 8 ft sheets so I could slide them into my station wagon.

I couldn’t get the rear seatbelt bolts to budge, so I left them and worked around them. Pulled the gas tank and hitch from day one. I bought a cheap metal brake from HF, but found it easier to just bend parts in my bench vise. To remove spot welds, I just used a cutoff wheel to cut into and around the weld, ripped away the metal around it, then ground the weld flush.

I wanted to do the highest point first, so all the junk wouldn’t fall into a finished area. So rear it was. The rear uniframe wasn’t bad at all. Shock points were great too. I made a new fuel filler pass thru liner. Chipped away all rust scale until I was down to solid base metal. Wire brush, paint thinner, then 3 super heavy coats of Rustoleum professional. That kept any rust from wanting to come back through. I used nearly an entire gallon on the inside of the rear and mid uniframe.

I got the panel cut for the rear, up to where it folds down by the rear seat belts. And then it was just too cold to do much more. Hooked up the battery, put it into 4 low, and cranked the starter to move it maybe 30 feet into the garage. Done till spring. Thought I had a pic of that point but nope. Here’s all I got showing the inner rear uniframe which still looks good.

I left these cutouts for trailer hitch bolt access. I’ll cover and seam seal them when all is said and done.

 

My little rust bucket 5 speed Geo Tracker got me through winter. I used to daily drive it before I got the Jeep in 2015. So it’s been sitting since then, aside from moving it to mow around it. Had to rebuild the fuse box (common), replace alternator, and back vinyl windows (did it before). Then blew a brake line, so I replaced the entire brake system on that including Nicopp lines. I hate blowing out brake parts and bleeding, so I prefer to only do it once. After that it survived the winter just fine. The floor is a Swiss cheese tin can, but the frame is excellent. So someday I’d like to do some reconstruction on it too.

 

Aside from going to a few car shows and concerts, I worked on the Jeep every nice day I could. I did everything outside just in case I caught anything on fire, wouldn’t burn down my garage. I know from experience that any oil, seam sealer, or undercoat on the backside will often ignite when welding. So I was extremely careful and used wet towels and a spray bottle in touchy areas. So I had to work around the rain and cold, which we got plenty of this year.

To attach the panels to the uniframe, I drilled 1/4 inch holes every 3 inches or so, and plug welded them. Before welding I used an old end mill in my drill to clean the paint off the uniframe flange to get a clean weld. Also painted the backs of the panels before welding, as I wouldn’t be able to access them later.

The worst part was chipping the layers of rust from the uniframe to get to solid base metal. I actually had to get my wrist X rayed and take a break with a wrist/hand brace because I temporarily messed it up from all the pounding. But I eventually got through it all.

Had to cut out and replace the front flange areas, among other areas. I stiffened up the mounting for the leafs, the mounts themselves were solid. Only 1 spot per side on the bottom of the uniframe required cutting out a soft spot and welding in a patch. It was clear this Jeep rusted from the inside out.

The frame ties (rear mounts for the front seats) had bad spots and the driver side was broken (seen in original photos). I just cut out the bad parts and formed some 11 ga in my vise. Done. Passenger seat is now a thru bolt. Good enough.

I had to cut out and replace a good portion of the side rails below the doors. I just made up the inner part for now. The outer rockers will be done later. The focus here is to get the inside solid, sealed, and complete enough to drive.

The most difficult part was reconstructing the corners forward of the rear wheels, which radius both down and around. I left one rusted side so I could duplicate it before tearing it out.

Also what took some time was the rear hatch and taillight areas that were rusted. The gas filler area and wheel arches were fine. And of course any part of the drive tunnel coated with oil survived with flying colors.

Unfortunately I took very limited photos, as I worked hard all summer towards get this thing done. This is where I was in August. My welds aren’t pretty, just a Forney 140 running .030 flux core, but they are solid.

The front floor I bought up a little too far, but it’s good enough. I went back and hit all the seams so the spots were no more than 3/4 inch apart.

 

And here’s where I am as of today. We already got snow around Halloween, plus my summer car needed some ignition parts, so I was driving it for a week or two. Then last week we got a shot of 50-60 degrees, so I pulled the seats and have been working on wrapping it up best I can.

I bent up some front seat mounts out of floor pan steel. I tied them across, and welded then at the ends. Then at the areas where the seat actually attaches, I added extra attachment strips to the floor. I wasn’t gonna bother with weld nuts on the backside. I just located and welded on elevator bolts as studs. Quick and works great. I left a washer’s thickness for carpet, in case I put it back in later.

I ordered 4 quarts of brush on seam sealer from EBay, because I essentially got one free. Glad I did, I used 3 cans. I don’t know why I dabbed all the spot welds, but I guess just in case. I’ve used this before, and before paint is better IMO. Got some on another car from 2013 that’s still stuck hard over bare steel. After paint, if the paint comes off so does the sealer.

I’ll leave the hitch areas open until I pull the trailer and see if they need to be retightened. It’s just a 5x8, and I won’t pull any more with this short wheelbase 5 speed. What came out was square individual washers. Considering the (lack of) thickness of the uniframe, I’m sure this will work just as well.

 

I also worked on attempting to seal up the water leaks that started the rot to begin with.

Last month I sealed off the cowl with foil tape, to rule that out. Then it rained like a #%^*+ for almost all October. While the Jeep sat unused, I got a little water on the passenger side, but a lot on the driver side. I just kept old towels on the floors and swapping them out to dry.

After additional reading on here, I learned about the radio antenna wire. Sure enough mine was out. Rust stains led to that area. So I sealed around that.

Driver side, rust stains led to an area about 2 inches to the left of the clutch master cylinder, and somewhere above where you could access under the dash. The hood (I think) cable grommet was a little loose, so I sealed around that. But the only thing in the area leading from the rust stain was the underhood weld seam.

Then under the hood I removed all the brittle old sealant at the weld seams at the firewall/ fender/hood areas and resealed them. Also sealed up some unused screw holes in all locations. Hopefully this will take care of it, then I can work on the cowl area. The tape won’t last forever, however it surprisingly still works just great with it sealed up. I’m leaving the carpet out at the very least until all leaks are sealed up. It’s actually no not loud to me, and no louder than it was before with all the holes in the floor. For the most part all I do is drive 9 miles to work and back. If it’s solid it’s good enough.

Tomorrow I plan to get a good coat of paint on the floor. Hopefully more over the week, as snow is in the forecast for good this time. I also got a good coat of paint on the bottom this week. Would like to have a few more, but time’s running out and it’s still better than nothing. Will have to go at it next year when I do the rockers and lower rear quarters anyway.

Maybe I’ll get my new front shocks in too, to match the rears. I also put in a new tank, straps, sending unit and Bosch pump. I was able to straighten and chase the threads on the existing hangers, and paint them up good. I cut strips of 1/8 inch neoprene to use as tank to body insulators.

Getting both excited and relieved that I’m almost done for this year. It’s been not difficult but just an absolute ton of work. But worth it. Lots more years of life in it now. I’ll keep this thread updated as I do more.

 

Sealing up that cowl is gonna set you up for failure on your blower motor providing air through your vents. With winter coming up your gonna need that for the heat and defrost for sure

 

^Thanks. It was supposed to be a test to rule out water leaks. I expected it to not blow air. But during the dose of winter we had earlier this month, I was actually surprised. It blows heat just fine like it’s supposed to. Heat on the floor, or thaws the windshield.

 

1/3 gallon of Rustoleum Professional smoke gray. I hoped for a darker shade of gray, but it’s fine. I got all the reconstructed areas covered, and anything with surface rust. If I decide to leave the carpet out, I’ll paint the rest next year.

Once it’s had plenty of time to dry, I’ll plop the front seats and seat belt bolts back in and be ready for snow again. I like the Professional paint. It dries a lot faster, at least in my experience.

I also removed the rear wheels and got the rest of the frame and wheelwell areas coated in black. And then daylight ran out.

I’ll do the front areas when I do the front shocks. Hopefully while I’m off for thanksgiving. But if I don’t it’s not a big deal.

 

Yesterday - Seats and seatbelts in. Fuel and brake lines and wires all put back up. New front shocks on. I’ll take care of the rusty bits on the front frame and wheelwells next year, they’re not that bad. Same with suspension, axles, etc.

Today - Loaded up all summer’s worth of recycle stuff (that I’ve had to put off) and dropped it at the bins. More room in the garage now. Was the first significant snow this year. There are still a few sticky paint spots on the floor but for the most part it’s dry. When it’s only high 20s to mid 30s it’s gonna take forever. It rides a lot better with the new front shocks. Considering one was dead.

When I got home I noticed I had some water coming up through the rear lower quarter panels that are rusted out, so I stuffed a bunch of wood pellet bags in the openings to keep the water from spraying up. I’ll just keep a towel in there to dry things up as I go, and figure out if I got any more water coming in.

Will get to those lower quarters along with the rockers next year too. But the bulk of the work is done.

Got a couple weeks of going back and forth to work, before going up north for a concert. Will probably end up laying large sheets of pellet plastic wrap down to protect our belongings, just in case.

 

How many hours are you in on rust removal and welding alone?

Glad to see an XJ saved, but man, looks like a weeks worth of hours total.

 

Wow hard to say. Probably a couple hundred with the cutting and forming of pieces too. I do work a full time job, so in the time away from that when it was dry daylight, I worked on the Jeep part of last fall and most of the summer.

It was worth it to me. Even though there were days where I really didn’t wanna change my clothes and go out there, once I got going I really didn’t wanna stop. In the end I do enjoy it. It won’t win any contests but it’s solid and should last a long time, provided I touch it up as needed after each winter. Next summer I’ll mix some black with the gray to get a darker shade.

I like to keep something when I’m familiar with what I got. I could have spent my entire savings on another XJ and still be dealing with rusty floors and frame and who knows what else. I also could have spent over a thousand on replacement panels. Better to just make something workable myself.

 

Wow! That's more time than what I was expecting. But it does look like a quality repair. The amount of rust or non-existence of the floor would have turned most people away.

I'm the same way! There are days when I don't feel like working on my Jeep, but I know I need to make progress. After I get started working, I'm good to go.

I would wager to say that most XJs have some form of rust underneath unless it has already been repaired. It's a lot easier working on an XJ than say a new German car. Parts are cheaper, less computers to sift through, and everything is more accessible.

 

Wow great job, good to see one saved. How do you think the rust oleum professional will hold up compared to a "rust encapsulator" like POR15 etc?