Thanks, it's taken a while, and as I'm sure you know the "budget friendly rig" ends up costing a lot more than you tell the wife. Only have 2 regrets up to this point 1) should have gone with long arms right away & 2) I should have gone with a more aggressive tire & a 12.5 instead of my 10.5.

Nice rig! I have the same rust issues as you do, living in southcentral PA. I'm nervous about the cut & fold, and don't really like the way it looks. I'm thinking a rear JCR bumper is in my future, or hoping I can cut it up to the point where I can at least still use the rear bumper caps.

Love the build. I was stationed up in Fort Drum for 5 years and hated the salt! I remember rarely seeing any vehicle more than 10 years old living up there.

Great job on the rear cut and fold. Looks great!

Also, how are you making out with Chassis Saver and Monstaliner? Exact same route I'm going. It seems to be the best option out there.

Western NY is way worse with salt on roads. Thanks on the comment on the cut & fold. I really hate putting an angle grinder to the body. I think I'll tear out the thin aluminum in the spring & use thicker material.

Plan is (if weather holds out) to use the monstaliner on my rear quarters this weekend then install the bushwackers. As I was working on some of the rust spots, I found out that under the doors (rockers) are held together by the paint. I'll try to sand & use the chassi saver on them then monster line.

Next step may be to cut them out & weld on some 2x4 box. We'll see.

Finally got some more work done on the ol' XJ this weekend.

Saturday, started working on cutting the rear wheel wells so I can mount the rear Bushwackers.

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Got both sides cut & drilled, then taped off the body panels, sanded, cleaned & used the Monstaliner.

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Had a hell of a time finding MEK Solvent to clean the areas. Went to a local car auto body shop & they told me to use this stuff (Not the Blue Light). Hope it works out.

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Final Product, I used the Black Monstaliner, with it still being wet, you really can't even tell I painted it, look up close you can see the texture difference.
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Also, Since I took off the front Bushwackers to paint the front fenders, the hardware they included was all stainless steel, except for the washers. WTF, really. So I went to Lowes and picked up some stainless steel washers, along with new self taping screws to reinstall the plastic parts that are in the doors.
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Hopefully everything works out, I think it came out pretty good. We'll see how it holds up. Next thing to do is reinstall the bushwackers in the front & install (for the first time) the rear fender flairs.

Thoughts/comments?

Looks good. It's nice to see someone take their time to do a good job.

Thanks, I've always done the best work I could do, I hate to see any car/truck/jeep that's had a HACK job done to it. I wanna get my gears installed & axles installed so I can hit Whispering Pines with you guys. Don't trust the 35 in the rear Already snapped a 35 in my wrangler.

I don't blame ya there. We'll be going September 14th to WP.

Are you going to cut the rear flares where you did you cut and fold?

You've just convinced me to bed-line my xj haha. That job looks real nice.

Yes, I posted some pictures below....

Thanks, good luck, I'm really pleased with the Monstaliner I used. I actually also convinced my buddy to Monstaline his YJ tub that he is rebuilding. Only thing I'd advise on is make sure that you prep everything you want to line. Once you add the catalyst, the pot life is about 10 hours. There is still more that I want to line so I'll buy more in the spring.

Okay.... Had a bit of a mishap driving home from work a couple days ago. Driving down the I-90 through Buffalo the car in front of me hit a chunk of concrete the size of a basketball & this happened....

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That's the Transmission on my VW Jetta..
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Friggin insurance company gives me this...
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.... and ya, that's PINK....

Well nuff said on that, I had to throw my bushwackers back on the night of the accident as I drove the XJ for 2 days till I got the rental car. Here are the picts with the Bushwackers installed & the rears cut. I couldn't spend the amount of time I would have liked.
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Crappy I know, I'll get better ones tomorrow.

Here are the inner plastic parts I was talking about above. I monstalined the door jams so I took them out & reinstalled them...

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As I was working on the fenders I noticed this:

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That's my exhaust hanger that is rotted / broken. I picked this up today at Autozone. I'll see if I can't get it mounted up tomorrow.

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Only $3.00 so I couldn't go wrong. I'm also planning on reinstalling my rear bumper tomorrow & get some sketches over to my buddy who'll fab up my LED rear light buckets. I'd like to get them done before the fall gets here.

When you did your monstaliner, did you use the paint roller that came with the kit? The one showed on the website looks like it would have more texture than what you achieved with yours.

I used the roller that came with the kit. I did put it on pretty heavy & applied the second coat a bit sooner than they suggested. It was getting dark, threat of rain, & pot life is about 10 hours. I didn't want it too rough, a buddy did his YJ interior & he could never get it clean again.

That's what I'm afraid of. Too much texture then once it gets dirty you're screwed.