Have a chance to get this XJ for really cheap. The big unibody frame rails look OK, but there is rust on body floor? panels and there is a spot behind the rear wheel that is rotted through. Is this fixable or not worth dealing with? I am considering picking this one up, but I am a bit apprehensive about my lack of ability to repair this rust. Am I right to be scared or is this worth taking on?

 

Looks like very typical floor rust and in my opinion, your catching it at a very good time. Floor pans for these are sourced easily and while the surrounding metal still looks healthy your at a good point to fix them and seal then up good for a longer lasting repair

 

If you can't fix it yourself then you are going to be paying a lot of money to have someone else fix it properly. If it's cheap then it might be worth the effort and cost.

But if you want to learn how to do fix that kind of stuff yourself, I'd call this a perfect project vehicle.

 

Ended up picking this one up for $600, its a '96 with 155k miles. I think I got a decent deal, even though I also need to get it to run first. The big frame rails look solid with on rust at all.

Should I pull the carpets and coat it with POR15 from the inside? It looks like the rust is localized to the floor in the area around back wheels. The front looks pretty good.

 

Usually when someone asks if it's too much rust they already know the answer and are looking for encouragement to fix it...lol... It's not too bad, but you get in there tapping with the hammer you'll see most of the pictured areas will need more than POR 15... Good luck with the project...

 

If you want to fix the holes in the back using the POR15 + fabric method they show on their website, that's a good use for it... POR15 doesn't adhere very well, it needs rust or a good sharp tooth to grab hold of. It turns into a solid, plastic like sheet. Just like powercoat, if rust gets underneath it, you don't see it until the whole thing comes off as one big sheet.

For any other rust related issue, use Mastercoat Rust Sealer instead.

 

pull the carpet up and see what you have to worl with. There might be some surprises

 

Mine was worse, that isn't that bad.

 

yeah pull the interior carpets and pads, but honestly that rust appears to have started from the outside, not inside. Wire wheel or blast the exterior and see how pin holed it is or not. If only few pin holes, make sure metal is prepped inside and oit, as if there is rust through, BOTH sides need to be dealth with, brush paint with a nice two part epoxy like DP primer, then fill the pin holes with epoxy, like jb weld or such, then give it two more coats of the epoxy paint. you then should be good for a long time.

Warning... use extreme caution with wire wheel or blaster inside the cabin, dirt flies everyplace, and bits of wire thrown from the wheel at high speed with puncture fabrics and pit glass and plastic. Cover it all real well with heavy tarp. else you'll be pulling bits of wire off your rear end after sitting in the seats!

if upon rust removal you expose large holes, or big areas of swiss cheese like pin holes, then a patch can be made. patch can be riveted in place, edges sealed with a urethane sealer, and painted.
that is the easy way, with minimal tools that will give an ok repair for least money

Over all the rust dont look to bad, appears easily fixable.

I am no fan or POR 15, poor choice. if you dont go with two part epoxy paint, then Id try Rustoleum red primer after metal prepping, again three coats, but rustoleum takes forever to dry it seems, days between recoats, suggest heatlamps else it can be a week or two to get three coats done and dried You MUST have the prior coat FULLY dried before next coat, hard, not soft, really DRIED between coats. Same if you apply the jb weld on pins holes, allow to FULLY dry hard before the filling of pin holes.
Dont use Bondo filler here, it is able to absorb water, not good for this area.

 

I got this thing home and examined it a bit closer. The driver side looks a lot better and the stuff on the passenger side beyond the rot behind the rear wheel seems surface. I will start cleaning it up with some wire wheels and will see how that goes.
It also looks like this thing hit something on the front and was repaired in a kind of an ugly way. The vertical panel behind the headlights is a bit munched and the front crossmember where the bumper mounts looks like it was straightened at some point.
The frame rails all look good, both in the front and from the rust-wise. I guess I will have to learn to weld to fix all this.

 

Go for it, it takes alot of time and patience but you will learn alot. This is what I am dealing with right now on both the driver and passenger side.