So i know i need 2 doors but do you guys think the center pillar is fixable ? OR am i f***ed

 

SAD!

 

Man that sucks. I think I would drive it and migrate my good parts over to another XJ. My fiance slid my dad's Buick Lacrosse into an I beam road sign at the B pillar and it slid the B pillar in about a half inch. The doors would absolutely not work without a frame straightener. It was going to cost $500 for a shop to straighten it. My dad is just driving his Grand Prix and has left the Buick parked. He loves that Grand Prix.

 

Yea unbelievably i guess now i need to find another xj ...going to be pretty hard mine had 150k on it

 

The bottom edge of the body looks bowed in. How bad does it look underneath? Unfortunately, the insurance will likely call it totaled. If they do, don't accept "bluebook" and insist on replacement value. Check the local ads and dealers for similar Jeep Cherokees +/- a few years with similar equipment and mileage. Have that in hand when you talk to the other persons insurance company. If you've done any upgrades, such as rebuilt engine estimate, new tires, account for that as well. They might even let you keep the totaled vehicle to part out in exchange for a small amount off the payout.

(https://vincheck.info/free-license-plate-lookup/ gave me the VIN number from the license plate)

 

Sorry to say but that thing is done for. Time to start looking for another one. Best of luck to you!

 

It's fixable but it depends on your time and motivation. Having friends or acquaintances that you can barter with for tools time or talent would help immensely.

 

Whaaaaat?! Hold on now. Piece of cake. If the B-pillar need to be pulled out a bit, which it probably does, just hook a come-along around a tree and gently work it back. The body measurements should be online like what a bodyshop would use. Or you could pay a bodyshop to pull it out if you have some insurance money. Something small like that they do in their sleep! Then replace the doors. If nothing else, drive it by a bodyshop and get their opinion. High end crash shops tend to focus on late-model insurance crash work which is mostly quick-churn insurance panel and parts replacement. They may be competitive (cause they usually employ south-of-the-border labor ...but it might not fall under their normal kind of quick-turn either. If you don't like what you hear, go to another shop, then a third (hometown shop). If nothing else to just pull out the b-pillar.

If it needs some rocker panel tweakage, just weld a strip of metal on the 'pushed-in' area and hook the come-along onto the metal ..and pull it out. Then cut off the welds.

Other than that, she looks like a 'clean machine' ready for another 100k!!

 

Im a Mechanic so i have majority of tools but i like what your saying lawsoncl and Jeepwalker gives me hope for my baby

 

Wasn't there another post recently where someone else had same thing happen to them? They are/where in process of fixing it and was posting some updates on it?

 

an inspection of the main uni rail on the side where it got hit is pretty much the be all and end all for repair, if it is cracked, or even deformed, its done for

both the turds that smashed mine managed to do this, and even though I fixed them both myself well enough to drive, not enough to be legal or safe on road
..got paid out by Insurance, an even though it was rip-off market value, I now own 3 x '96, with many spares, and the whole lot only owes me $2000

 

Well i was looking at the bottom of it on lunch and the main uni-rails look fine (ill post pictures tomorrow) but it would be nice if anyone has a link to something like this being fixed like country2 was saying.

 

God forbid mine ever gets stoved but if it does I will bust out the Porta power and buy a frame stiffener kit.

 

Here is the one country2 was talking about - https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/col...damage-253778/
And here's another, not the same damage but some motivation. https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/reb...-apron-226647/

 

Might be something helpful at the 21:00 mark and on here. Not sure, have not seen all of it but a similar kind of damage to a unibody.