Oh, has bimmerjeeper been around again?

 

He's probably still under his Jeep grinding away at that bolt with a sanding disc.

 

Unibody Nightmare Story?

It was a night a lot like this one, not too many years ago. Rumor has it that Old Man Wither's had finally had enough of those meddling teenagers rampaging their jacked up XJ buggy through his abandoned amusement park. They say when he finally caught up with them, by the light of the moon, he tore that XJ body to shreds leaving only the uniframe and the driveline components remaining.

Now, I don't know if it's true, but they say that if you listen carefully on a night like tonight...you can still here the sound of a far off roar. Like that from a 4.0 at around 3000 rpm. Searching the hill sides for its lost body parts, especially around the vicinity of Vincent's U-pull-it yard.

Ah shucks, but it's just a tall tale from around these parts. It's probably just people's over active imagination. But just in case, stay here while I go by myself to check the fuse box under the dash. I'll be back in a minute....

 

ROFL!


This forum needs a Like button!

 

No kidding!!

 

I currently have the popular steeringbox crank in the frame. Wich i hope i can fix bu this weekend. But there was a crack wheni first got it anyways.

 

Not much of a unibody issue. But taking the floorpans out is a b**** without good tools lol. So much spot welds and rust. Kinda sucked when i first got it and went to drive home my seat went right through the floor.

 

Well, you're right, LucasYost, what you found is basically all there is.

My Jetta is a unibody... the transaxle bolts to a subframe which has special rails that it attaches to (which end under the front seats). The only longitudinal structural members are the rockers, which aren't even that noteworthy (ask someone who's ever jacked up a MK4 VW in the wrong place before). ALL of the structure is in the body assembly.

XJs are not monocoque unibodies like cars are. XJs use a unitized frame construction, which is a hybrid between body-on-frame and a monocoque. The uniframe assembly is constructed of overlapping sections of 16 gauge steel (officially called "frame sills"). This is NOT the same as a subframe. In fact, the XJ's uniframe has all the same qualities as an independent frame (entire driveline and suspension bolts to it), except that it's lighter and there's no top! The primary frame sills are U shaped and have the body welded directly to them (mostly the floor).

Because of this design, the uniframe has very poor torsional rigidity. This makes the body actually necessary - not only does the floor complete the box shape of the frame sills, but the body itself provides lateral and torsional strength.

The torsional issue is the big reason that people incorrectly refer to the XJ as a unibody platform, as it manifests problems like doors not lining up after offroading, including the rear hatch. This is also why replacing rocker panels with 2x6 box steel improves the rigidity so much.

The achilles heel of the uniframe design, and why it was so cheap for AMC to build, is that the whole vehicle is spot-welded sheet metal. These are more susceptible to wear over time, and absolutely more susceptible to rust. Rust is the #1 XJ killer.


tl;dr throw some stiffeners on it and wheel it 'til the engine explodes


awesome

 

 

Bless that tool when i was told about it lol. Made life so much easier when hunting for a pan at the junkyard. Cant complain for the price as well. 25 bucks for the whole pan from the front all the way to the back seat brace wall thingy. Just cut right through the unibody frame of junk yard jeep and into the transmission tunnel. We were not letting that piece go lol. Also i was shocked at how Flexible the jeep became after we tore that whole piece out the door wouldnt close and the roof was starting to crinkle. Then again the weight of a transmission shoved into the back seats werent helping much at all. But all in all For casual off roading if your jeep is a weekend warrior it it should be fine.

 

Added to my Tools wish list on Amazon.

 

Same here.

Ive always punched them, drilled a pilot hole, then used a drill bit slightly bigger than the spot weld. pain in the rear end.

My life is about to get easier. thanks

 

There's one that's very similar but has just a pointed tip instead of a proper pilot bit. Avoid!

 

Also what is the story with bimmerjeeper?

 

Here's your bent unibody photo. The window and door frame bent until they snapped breaking the air bags and arm/ribs/back of the driver.