I've got a 99 XJ that i want to rehab. I've been driving it for 20 years and haven't taken great care of it the past few due to life. It's not my DD anymore. One problem that jumps out to me is I've got some body rust in one section. Couldn't find any other body rust. Is this something I could fix myself? I don't know a ton about cars but have fixed plenty of small things around the house watching youtube videos. Can change oil and fixed a couple minor things on the XJ. Have ok tool collection. I watched this youtube and it seems like something I could tackle:
My biggest concern with the rust is i keep reading if you don't get every speck of it, your repair will just rot again in 6 months. Having never done it, not sure I trust myself to get it all.

Advice? Attached pictures.

 

If you can weld well, it can be correctly repaired. You will need to examine the inside to find the extent of the problem. It appears the rust started from the inside, if so there maybe much more rust going on from inside in areas that have not yet busted through the outside paint. So before starting the repair, an assessment need be done from inside, remove or pull back interior trim and headliner as needed to examine.
My guess is a roof leak, perhaps from the roof rack mounts has soaked the headliner backing, and thus held water against the interior side of the roof.
pulling back the trim and headliner will afford you the view to help determine the cause and extent of damage.
If you dont weld, a solution maybe to rivet a backing piece from the inside, followed by fiberglass. But you will want to remove all the inside rust first, and paint it as needed to prevent further rust.
First job is to remove interior bits to gain access so as to figure out the extent of damage, and determine if i deed the roof rack mounting is the source of water or not.
I believe there is some double wall construction there also, you may have to cut and bend the interior metal to access the inside of the outer metal skin

lettuce know what you find on inside!

 

What does it look like underneath?
Where are you the vehicles rust from the top down?

To do this properly you are going to have the tools and the knowledge to cut, weld, grind and epoxy prime sheet metal.
If not you are probably better off parting with it.

 

Oof. That's more extensive than I was hoping. I can't weld, but will open it up and see what i can find tomorrow.

 

Not sure tbh, attached some pictures mechanic took.

I've been in Florida the last the 10 years.

Really don't want to part with it, been driving it since I was 15.

 

Few more pics underneath

 

The bottom doesn't look bad I would get it cleaned and under coated so it wont rust , then maybe get the rust fixed one part at a time

 

You will not be able to repair that rust unless you have previous experience of rust repair, metal shaping and welding, which you say you do not have

unfortunately, a professional repair of that extent would run well into the 4 figures (imo), get a few quotes

 

Thanks, any suggested resources for this?

 

Ouch. Bigger investment than I was hoping obviously. thanks for your thoughts.

 

If only the exterior panel is rusted as shown, if the the internal bracing is fine, hatch hinge mounts fine, then this is a simple re-skin job. A donor jeep can be used to harvest the skin.
If this is indeed the only rust, it maybe worth doing, but if much else requires that level of repair also, then the effort to repair gets too much verses value of the body

you need to assess the entire vehicle bfore making the choice for correct repair of roof. pull down the rear of headliner and trim panel and see what is going on above the headliner. The underside views dont look
too bad

 

Because the rust problem(s) were not addressed sooner, I believe the rust is in an advanced staged. I would work on the different area to contain the rust as best you can and move on. It looks like it will be quite expensive to have it worked on professionally. If you work on the jeep yourself, try and remove as much surface rust as possible and try to seal off what you can not reach so air and moisture won't reach it.

 

I'd find a northern junkyard (where they rust from the bottom up) willing to cut the tail end of a roof off.
Then I'd make a matching cut on my Jeep and weld seam it back together with a backing panel.
Finish, prime and paint.

 

Thank you everyone for your thoughts. I took things apart a little to hopefully get a better assessment as suggested.

It looks to me like there are two primary rust spots:

1)








2) The second spot I may not have gotten as good of a look at:







I also went over the body again and the only other rust spot I could find was on the inside of a couple doors. Those I wasn't too worried about because it seems like if worst comes to worst I can get a new door? Here's the worst of that:




I also took a couple more photos of the underside to hopefully fully assess the situation as you guys have mentioned:






Finally, the best I could I looked above the gas tank, since I have friend who's XJ rotted there. It looked clean as best I could tell. Couldn't get pictures, could barely see with flashlight.

 

Overall, that's in really great shape underneath compared to my XJ!!

My advice is to get a $350 Chinese wire-feed welder, from Amazon, watch a bunch of videos and fix it, and get busy. You need to cut out the rust ..all of it (use a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a cut-off disc) and weld in new metal. The rust near the edge looks like it might just be deep surface rust, so that you might just be able to grind down, and/or use a wire wheel.

Cut out the rust holes area. Cut new metal ...bend accordingly ..over a table or take a piece of metal to a sheet metal shop and they can bend on their bending brake in like 5 seconds for a pro-quality bend. Go slooooow when welding. Cover all windows ..any hot grinding sparks or weld sparks will imbed themselves into and ruin the glass. So avoid that rookie mistake. Remove as much of the interior as you can and shield so you don't melt holes in your upholstery or start your vehicle on fire! LOL. Keep a fire extinguisher and water hose handy. You'll only start a fire if you do something stupid. Work slow and stitch weld here and there. Allow to cool after a few stitch welds so the metal roof doesn't get too hot. This is the biggest rookie mistake -- want to weld it up all at once and 'right now'! Take your time. If you overheat the metal it'll warp upon cooling and you'll be super-screwed b/c the roof might tin-can ...lol. On the fender dog-leg, that's a piece of cake and you can weld that all up at once. Same thing there...cut out and weld in new. Spray the newly welded in metal with a (remember that). Then do bodywork and spray paint. If you don't have an air compressor, just use spray can paint. Not ideal, or Pro, but it'll work for now.

It's not that difficult. Guys do that stuff in body shops all day ever day and home enthusiasts do it at home ...and have since cars were made. I was doing it when I was 14/15 years old. It's only difficult 'thinking' about it. The main thing is your vehicle is solid underneath ..has good 'bones'. A journey starts with the first steps. Buy a welder and some sheet steel and get started. It's actually really fun and extremely rewarding work when you get into it. You see your good results every day you drive it. Know you did an amazing craft with your hands. Learned a skill your drinking buddys are too lazy to do.

.