I needed a driver door, because mine was dented and rotted out. I started looking for a set, and discovered that finding nice doors for a 2dr was next to impossible. Finally a set popped up on marketplace 6hrs away. They were red, but that's ok since I plan to paint the whole jeep red. They were also manual and didn't have vent windows. But they were rust free and in perfect shape so I got them for $200.
My driver door.
My new driver door.
I decided to keep it manual instead of swapping over the electronic parts from mine, since that seems to be what people like best. I will be on the lookout for chrome mirrors, handles, and vent widows at local JYs. If anyone has any for sale, HMU.
My old passenger door was actually fine, but I wanted matching doors so I'm replacing both. If anyone needs a door, it's for sale.
Passenger door.
I also picked up this trim piece to replace my faded one for $5. I don't know why, but only the passenger side was faded.
Picked up a set of these stainless tail light guards for $15. They don't look super protective, but I really just got them because they look good. I think they are going to look great with the other chrome on the jeep.
I installed the passenger door today. I also replaced the front fender. I was able to pick one up new for $60 incl. shipping.
I installed Amazon Basics sound deadening in the doors and walls, and am very happy with it.
I modified the Laredo door panels to work with the manual window cranks. I also switched the cover for the switches from one to the other since I won't have any switches. I had and issue with the crank hitting the speaker cover. Fixed it by removing one of the speaker screws and screwing right through the door panel. It pulled it tight and looks fine.
I'm not sure. I am deciding between Colorado Red, and the original color (Dark Baltic blue). I want to paint it a popular oem color so it will sell well. I'm going to give Maaco a try. We have a really good one right near us.
What colors do you guys like?
Working on the rear passenger floor pan. Here are some pictures from the beginning of this thread. I have finally got back to this area. For some reason I alway forget to take a picture before I start cutting, so in this first picture I had already removed the seat bracket (In great shape) and started cutting the area behind it.
Unibody was perfect. I cleaned it up, painted, and weld-thru primer on the flanges. I also sprayed fluid film inside. I made a piece for behind the rear seat bracket since the C2C fab pan didn't go that far.
I decided to drill holes and spot weld the areas that overlapped as well as along the unibody, so it was like factory. I wanted to mark and cut the edge along the trans tunnel and do a butt joint, but I made a classic mistake and cut off too much material. 1/4" too short. Ended up welding little plates to fill the gap. I guess I am pretty happy with how it turned out though.
What do you guys think? What can I do better on the other 3 pans? Should I be grinding these welds? I plan in painting the whole floor with rustoleum primer when I'm done. Then either roll on bed coating or some durable enamel or epoxy.
I finished the front passenger floor pan. Decided to go with a different method for this one. I did a lap joints and spot welds. A lot easier to fit, but I think it looks messy and crude.
I think on the other pans i will do lap joints where to factory did, and butt joints where there was no joint originally.
This is what I started with. You can see someone else did a "repair" already. I is just a premade floor pan placed over the old rusting one, booger welded, and bondo for seam sealer.
Old cut out.
This area is messy, with self-tapper holes and booger welds leftover from the previous hack repair. I patched the rusted area along the inner rocker, as well as up the firewall a little. Wire brushed to metal, then sprayed with weld-thru primer.
Prepped the new pan. Drilled holes for spot welds, primer on the underside. These pans are from C2C fabrication. I really like them, and got them for about $75 each.
All welded in. If anybody is reading this, what do you guys think about this method? Potential for rust with the lap joints?
How do I keep the areas underneath with gaps from collecting junk and rusting.
Seam sealer under here? I plan to coat everything with fluid film underneath when I'm done. Just clean up and fluid film?
Seam sealer wouldn't be a bad idea. However as long as the welds are water tight just using fluid film would be fine. Dirt might accumulate but it wouldn't rust. Looks Good!
Thanks for the insight. Yeah, I'm seam sealing on the inside today. I will finish the underside where I welded when I'm done. I would like to use rubberized undercoating to give everything a uniform look, but that stuff doesn't play well with rust.
Maybe fluid film black would be a good option. I'm definitely not in a position to remove the engine/driveline/suspension to blast the whole underside.
I primed everything I've done so far with Rustoleum clean metal primer. I used brush-on because I really want this to last. They only sell it in white, but I had it tinted.
I also bought a new tool off the clearance rack at O'Reilly's. I love it already. I don't know why I didn't buy one months ago for spot welds. This thing turns a hour of hammering and chiseling into 10 min. of fun.
Rubberized undercoating definitely works the best when the underbody is rust free. And just an fyi Fluid film is also known to soften rubberized underbody coating. I'd strongly recommend fluid film at the very least. Just buy a gallon and a cheap undercoating gun on Amazon. I don't think it needs died black as it will turn black from road gunk.
Made a new bracket for the driver side bump stop. The old one was pretty bad. The frame was perfect underneath.
I also have been working on fixing some electrical issues that the po caused. A bunch of messy custom wiring for the fuel pump looked really bad, so I removed it all.
I found that the ballast resistor was bad, which is possibly why the po bypassed the factory wiring and made his own. I ordered a new ballast resistor from Quadratec, and a 3 prong weather connector from rockauto for at the fuel pump.
You can see here where the power for the fuel pump is run through a rust hole in the floor. (red wire)
