brenenkw10

I have a 99 sport. I bought the thing about a 9 months ago and the floor pans were rusted out. shockingly no rust on the body or paint from the wisconsin winters. i originally planned on replacing just the floor pans but about 2 weeks ago a buddy of mine got in my jeep and leaned back into the seat causing the front two bolts that attach to the floor to rip out of. I looked at the bracket that that the seat was bolted to and noticed that the thing bracket is almost completely rusted through. my main question is if anybody has any recommendations on securing the bolts back into the bracket itself, and any recommendations on what i should use to replace the brackets in the floor. I'm not even sure the name of the floor bracket is, but i cant find a stock one anywhere. thanks

andrewmp6

The brackets your talking about are welded to the floor and no one remakes them as far as i know.Depending how bad the holes are left from when the bolts pulled through you could use some washers bigger then the holes.But if the floors are that bad i would think hard about parking it tell you can repair it right.

Jerry in Indiana

Check out this site for replacement parts----www.c2fabrication.com/collections/all/jeep+cherokee+2000

robertj

Not sure what Jerry is smoking, but that domain is being held by Go Daddy.

You won't find those brackets anywhere but a salvage yard. There are part numbers that will tempt you, and even some sites you can actually order them from. But in the end you'll get an "out of stock" e-mail.

Not sure where you live or if you're ever come back to this site, but if you're up North (aka salt belt) the brackets are bound to be rusted in just about any XJ you find. Salvage yards aren't really keen on taking the time to cut them out anyway, as they are a $10 used part at best. Mine were not so bad, and I was able to cut them out and then weld sheet metal to the rusted out areas. I had to weld a couple of nuts on the most rusted out sections that were replaced with sheet metal. Then I welded the "reconditioned" brackets back to the floors. I've seen guys fabricate them from scratch, and it doesn't look like it would be that hard of a project. They are just two bends (or four if you want to get fancy) and some nuts.

The biggest key is why did they rust to begin with? I'll tell you that 99% of the time it's because you're getting water inside your XJ. It comes in from various sources (windshield, cowl area, door seals, etc) and is tough to trace down. A lot of guys just rip out the carpet and that's probably the best way to keep it dry. The carpet acts like a sponge and keeps everything wet. At the end of this Winter, my new carpeting was damp, so I parked it in the garage for a couple of weeks until everything dried out. It's a garage queen now, unless I am driving it. This Winter (it's my Winter beater) it will get damp again, but it's no big deal as long as I know what's happening.

If you post pictures (again assuming you'll be back) it will help us give you a strategy on repairing said damage.