OP my vote is swap everything over to a good body. It will be less time and less physical pain.

 

It just so happened to get more salt in that area, that simple. I can only imagine how hard it is finding and preventing rust with a midwest car, it's bad enough everywhere else. Only way to own an XJ in the midwest is to find one with a mint frame, and never drive it on the roads when salt is out. That or power wash the underside every other day.

 

This. Seems like less work to fix what you already have, but it's gonna be less work to swap a drivetrain than pull out the interior, pay to have it towed to a welder, cost more than a broken down XJ would cost, find out it's worse than you thought, ect.

 

Start looking for one that needs a motor or trans and maybe an a Interior you have all the parts and what you don't you can save or sell and get back some money .

 

I'm all for saving junk and keeping it on the road but if you can't fix it yourself it's kinda hard to say saving it is realistic in the scenario

 

What would be a price I should pay for an Xj requiring an engine/ transmission swap? Also do you all have any knowledge about engine lifts, are there places to rent from?

Thank you for all the help

 

Too add on a little bit

For example, I’ve found a 98 with a seized engine, the guy wants 1000 which seems a little outrageous to me. Either way will my engine/ trans and transfer case be a direct plug and play into that vehicle? I’ve read the 97’s had some wiring issues they didn’t figure out till 98 and the 95’s and below lack the obd2 plug so I wouldn’t want to go that route either. Am I restricted to a 96 given these parameters?

 

From what I've seen Chicago prices usually are about $300-$500 more than STL, so $1000 for you might not be terrible, however I wouldn't pay that. Probably best to find a 96 or at the very least a pre-96. 97+ would only work if you swapped EVERYTHING over.

Basically keep it to pre 96

 

It's best to find an obd2, doesn't matter the year. any options don't really matter either since it's easy to figure small things like that out. the benefit is also that you still have all your current jeep stuff you can save for spares or swap over(axles ect) you may even luck out and find a jeep with just a bad tranny, then all you gotta do is swap that. worst case scenario you can't swap drivetrain yourself, it will probably cost less than it would have to repair the frame/floorpans on the one you have still. I'm sure there are people who would swap the engine for a grand.

 

If you can't find the right body, you can go ahead and have that fixed if you are willing to drop a couple grand on welding and body restoration. Given the amount of salt in your area, I'm sure that there are some folks out there that have the expertise to correct the rot. Almost everybody on this site has dealt with some kind of floor pan repair/replacement at some point on their XJ.

 

Yeah we’re gonna see, we have a trusted family friend who’s got a body shop and what not, he’s gonna take a look in the next day or two. We’ll see, my expectations are low.

 

Remember that ANYTHING can be fixed - if you're willing to pay enough for it. If you want to repair it, you have to decide if the Jeep is worth it to you to pay a ton of money more than what most folks would consider reasonable. So make sure you get ALL your options. Most body shops will tell you it's not worth doing and for most vehicles I'd completely agree with them. However, if you really, really want to save it, it can be done but won't be cheap and may require more than a standard body shop - meaning like a true frame specialist that can fabricate new uni-frame sections, straighten out body warp, etc. If you lived around here I could recommend such a person, so I'm assuming there's someone out where you are that could do it.

 

-nevermind-

 

Honestly, you can probably find a 96 or earlier 2wd Jeep for less than a 4wd Jeep. Find one that has as little rust as possible, and make one Jeep out of two. You may be able to even find a 4cyl jeep to swap everything. I know a guy who had a 4cyl jeep (2wd, 2 door) that was in really good shape bodywise, ran and drove fine. He couldn't give it away. Finally someone brought it who wanted the body, and was willing to do a swap on everything.

Assuming your drivetrain is in good shape, a swap is probably your best bet. It is odd to have that level of rust there, and the rest of the undercarriage is drastically better. I do not know anyone who rents engine stands, but you may be able to pick one up at harbor freight, or maybe something off craigslist. I know its not ideal, but you could always resell it later.

 

fwiw, i once bought a 92 xj with only 100k kms, so like what, 60k miles? it was in near mint shape. bought it for wait.... 100 dollars. all because it wouldn't start for the lawyer who owned it. it was just the nss...
anyhow, i didn't really need it, had 4 already, so i let it sit out beside the shop for a couple years. bad move. it rotted like crazy. frame wasn't cracked, but very very rusty. and body was starting to rot out.
i sold it to a guy in the club (for 200 bux) who was a paint/body guy. he said don't worry, i can fix anything. well guess what? he said he ain't touching this one, and took the low km motor out and sold the absolute spotless interior for more than he paid me.

moral of the story, sometimes you just gotta throw in the towel...