So I knew my jeep had rust when I bought it. It came from PA after all. I really like this jeep so I plan on fixing. I Would like to hear from people who have done the job as to how bad it was to do, where they got their parts and any tips or tricks I should know about before trying this myself.
The uniframe is solid so I think it should be OK structurally for a while. None of the holes are big enough to fit my hand through and they are scattered around in seemingly random places. Where the rear seat belts bolt down is no good, that's where the worst of it is. It also has some around where the filler passes through the cargo area under the seam sealer and a similar spot near the right rear cargo tie down. There is some more around but that's the bigger spots. If I plan on putting in full floor pans am I ok to put it off for a while? Or will that cause some problems I haven't thought of?

 

Dumajones just replaced the floors in his 95 XJ. You could pm him

 

I just replaced all my floor pans front and rear.. My back cargo was in good shape,,just my floors were shot.. A pan Job is not easy and it will take a lot of prep cutting and Skills(welding, knowing how to use tools, your brain lol). BUT it can be done. I can't think of any tips that makes the job easy. Its a pain no matter what.
But if I did have a tip..It would be dont give up.

I picked up all my parts on fleebay. You have to hunt around and look at the pans. Some guys offer great pans that have a lot of material to work with for cutting and fitting.. Some sellers offer little thin pans that really dont give much material to work with.

Here is before I worked on mine.




after..





Post up some pics on what you are dealing with,, as to get a better idea. But I will say this if you have rust get on it.. Rust will take off so fast eating everything.

 

here are some pics. The rockers are gone as well but their getting some affordable offroad sliders put in. Rear lower quarter panels were "patched" by the PO so ill probably do a comp cut there.

2 from the cargo area near the tiedown


the left side of the cargo area near the filler

drivers floor inboard ot the frame

left rear seat belt mount

right rear seat belt mount

inner quarter near the filler. there should be something there right?

also near the filler. this is where your factory spare tire carrier bolted but from underneath.
that's pretty much it. other than small stuff that's not all the way through yet

 

I would like to say easy just need to get some good sheet metal..Patch it up. But you really need to clean up every area that has rust to see exactly what you are dealing with.. Might be small, might be big.
After all the cleaning and inspecting you will know what you need. inspecting and cleaning up the rust is a big part of this kind of job.
After you have inspected/cleaned . Cut out all the cancer, use cardboard to make templates cut the metal from the temp tac weld the patches and use auto seam sealer to seal it up..

This stuff rocks for seams..

You really need to clean and get a better look at what metal is dead and what is good.

 

I guess I wont know how bad it really is until I get into it. Looking at yours makes me feel better about what I got! They must use a lot of salt up there.

 

Yeah you wont really know until you clean is all up. I let mine go to long. I knew it needed it but I kept putting it off.

And yes they spray that liquid salt crap everywhere where I live.

 

Been doing my 2000 cherokee pans as I'm replacing all 4, fixing some rust holes in the inner rocker panel (door sills is what I call it) and general sanding some surface rust. I bought all my pans from fixmyrust as the have the Key Parts ones which are thick and fits good not to mention their price beats everyone selling Key Parts. If you got to replace the front seat crossmembers best price I found was 85 for both from Hawely Perormance.
hers is some of my pics from last weekend....don't know why pics are at top of my post instead of bottom...

 

The biggest problem with these XJs is not salt on the road but rather they leak from about 5 different places, and it soaks the carpet causing the rust from the inside out.

 

Rust is a bi1ch. I had rot all along the edges of my trunk and around the filler.

Make sure to take a screwdriver or chisel and knock back all the bad metal until you reach solid metal that you can't push through with a screwdriver. Cut it all out.
Making templates of the new metal is a good idea - I had to do this around the filler neck (my rust was MUCH worse than yours from the look of it) and I got new sheet metal and cut it using a jig-saw with a metal cutting blade. It was slow and painful but allowed me to get new metal that fit perfectly in place.

Be careful with the rear area in your picture (below the tire carrier).. I hadn't realized this, but on my XJ (95) there's very little that stands between the outside and the inside of your trunk. On mine, there was rot right behind the wheel that allowed water and salt to get up into the trunk (hence explaining the massive rot that went almost all the way to the rear seat). Make sure that that is sealed up nice and tight. I used to be able to close my hatch by firmly pushing, but after sealing up my trunk I now have to open one of the rear doors in order to get the trunk to close completely.

There is a major concern if you have rot in the rear of the vehicle and that is the exhaust fumes will enter the cabin and can possibly kill you. Don't put off the repair- it's a safety issue and as previously mentioned - rust spreads way too freakin' fast if you don't address it.

 

Your right about the rust. I redid my 67 mustang and I was finding hidden rust in spots I thought was perfect ....just the XJ I new it had some there but its worst than what I thought...lol. Hey your pans turned out great . What did you use to paint them with? I'm thinking about using Majic Tractor, Truck & Implement Enamel in black as some of the body and paint forums have good reviews about it.