Programbo

For the past month or so I have been smelling exhaust strongly in my Jeep and when I crawled underneath I saw the floor over top the catalytic convertor was rusty and soft when I pushed up on it so I figured a small hole had eaten thru..I removed the passenger seat and pulled up the carpet and discovered my "small hole" was about 3 feet long and a foot wide!..Basically a completely rusted out area that ran above the Cat. and all the way up to near the firewall following the path of the exhaust pipe..Oy!...I have a bunch of semi bendable sheet metal in the house so will try and patch it up tomorrow as best I can with that and exhaust putty just to get me moving without being fumigated

98 JeepJeep

that sucks.....sorry to hear it.

tampaviking

You gotta love that sound absorbent pad they put underneath the carpet along the pass. side

ltlgreenXJ

pics? that sucks man.

jeepride

Rusty floor boards seem to a common thing in this model of jeeps good luck with your repairs.

Programbo

Well my repairs didn`t go quite as I planned as the rust extended up to the sides leading up to the gear shift/console and it was hard to get the sheet metal to conform to the curves and bends properly..My brother has a drill and pop-rivet set and I could have done it that way but he was out running all day and it was getting late so I just did a quickie repair to stop the fumes for now. Basically I cut away most of the rusty areas and edges then I cut sheet metal to lay across the flat bottom area which was 80-90% of the hole. Then I got some flexible vinyl floor tiles with the sticky backing and covered over the sheet metal and that seemed to conform to the walls and stuff..Finally I put like 3 layers of a heavy duty "outdoor" version of duct tape over it all and laid the carpet back down..I drove around a bit afterwards and didn`t notice any exhaust fumes. I'm sure it won`t last forever but at least for now I can drive and not get gassed.

solderjunkie

Whatever it takes

I've used license plates, road signs, appliance-steel (cut-up washers and dryers), and lots of fiberglass matting and resin.

I used whatever was available back then... but I have nicer-looking repairs now that I have fab-shop experience and a good MIG.

XJ Stryker

Sounds like what I went through with my rig

Check out my build link at bottom with pics!

Programbo

Nice job...I do actually have access to a welder at work so if I was motivated enough I can take the time and do it more properly...Trouble is I could only do it on a Saturday when we are open half a day and I`d have to move quick..But your pics did give me some ideas as far as the rubberized coating