I am starting this thread rather late into my build, so I have some catching up to do.

I bought my first XJ in the fall of 2017; a lightly modded 2000 Sport. It was my daily when it wasn’t torn apart. I took it wheeling occasionally. It was fairly clean when I bought it, with the exception of a 3 inch rust hole in the rocker and the bottoms of the quarter panels.



My first XJ. 4.0 auto 4x4 on a 3 inch lift.


I live in northeastern PA and I frequent NY state, where salt is dumped on the roads anytime the temperatures drop below freezing. This accelerated my rust issues and created new spots that I had to keep up with consistently. Soon enough, the small hole in the rocker had rotted away a majority of the panel and spread to the inner rocker. The bottoms of the doors and hatch started to rot as well.

I began the painstaking process of replacing the rocker panels and searched the marketplace for a clean set of doors and a hatch.


A view of my rocker panel corrosion that I let progress for way too long


Ready for replacement

While hammering away at this job, I spent a lot of time scrolling through FB marketplace and Craigslist looking for a full set of rust free, white doors when I came across an unexpected gem.

 

This was a 98 Cherokee Sport 2WD model. I was lucky enough to be the first person to message the seller! I knew this was a sweet deal, and I really wanted those doors and rear hatch. My plan was to part the rest of it out, shell and all. I quickly made plans to go down and get it that weekend. I rented a dolly and then a buddy and I made the 5 hour trip to the PA/MD border.

When I got there, I was surprised at just how clean this thing actually was. It appeared to have ZERO rust. I looked at it briefly, noted the interior was a bit dirty but it was complete and even had an overhead console. There was some minor front end damage. The header panel was cracked and the driver fender was crumpled slightly, bumper tweaked. The seller claimed that the starter was bad, so I wasn't able to hear it run but I was sure the 4.0 was probably fine.

 

By the time I had it loaded up, I was beginning to think this thing was way too nice just to rob the body panels and part the rest out...

I had some time to think on it on the way home.

The body was 10x cleaner than the XJ I had owned for the past 3 years. But I had already done so much work on my old XJ; long arms, 4.5 inch lift, TUPY head, all the rust repair... I was in the middle of the biggest rust repair project yet with the rockers!

I wasn't sure what I was going to do yet. All I knew was that I was excited to get this thing home!

Loaded up, ready for the trip home!

 

That night I got it home and immediately wanted to investigate the "bad starter" issue. I thought with a little luck I might get it to pop off if I smacked the starter with a hammer. My buddy and I tried to start it first to see if it would crank whatsoever; nope. I noticed the battery looked a little cruddy. There was a strong possibility the battery was dead, and I had no idea how long it had been since the previous owner attempted to start it. I tested the battery with my multimeter. It was reading under 1 volt! Junk. So I swapped the battery in from my old XJ.

It started right up on the first crank. One of the happiest Jeep moments in my life!

We took it for a quick 5 minute ride around the block. The old 4.0 still had plenty of life left.

At this point I decided I wanted to keep this Jeep. There was no way I was going to part it out. But now I had two projects on my hands.



It's alive! The first startup! (grainy photo quality due to extracting this image from a video)

 

I decided that the new XJ was going to be the one I would keep. My old 2000 would be the 4x4 parts donor to convert this one from 2WD. I made room in the garage by moving the 2000 over. I was excited to tear into my new toy, so the rust repair job on the 2000 was put on the backburner.


Twins

 

I knew that I needed to drop the front axle and trans to get this ready for a swap. I invested in a DeWalt 1/2" cordless impact to help speed the process along. It made quick work of all the suspension hardware, and the front axle was out within an hour.

The tear-down begins!

 

One thing I really liked about my 2000 was the interior, the darker agate gray. It was 10/10 the day I bought it and I cleaned it meticulously to keep it that way. I was definitely going to keep that interior, so I made plans to gut both Jeeps' interiors (note in the pic below I had already swapped the dash and pillar trim).

Upon gutting the 98's interior, I came across a sad sight. Almost rust free, but not quite.

I decided at this point, considering how clean the rest of the body was, to replace this floor pan the correct way. No rivets, no shortcuts. I had just purchased a new welder and it was time to try it out.


I cannot stand rust. This was going to be replaced before I went much further.

 

Enjoying your progress.
One little thing in case you don't know.
I am thinking the A Pillars on the '98 are screwed in. There are 2 little caps on each one covering the screws.
On the '00 there are 2, pretty sure 2, clips behind them that go in slots in the body.
When I did my headliner I just had to pull the driver's side A Pillar far enough off to work the headliner out.
I was able to leave the passenger side untouched. Was able to slide the headliner out and then back in when recovered
But unfortunately one of those clips on the driver's side busted on removal. Hey 20 year old brittle plastic and all.
Also if the '98 is a screw in I have to wonder if the slots for those clips would even be there.

 

I was in the same situation with a Durango build years ago.. I ended up using the "parts" vehicle after my wife took it for a ride...lol... I see your new welder in the one backround pic, nice unit.. I've had my lincoln for years with no problems ever and I've used it hard... If that's the only rust it'll certainly be worth the effort you'll get years out of that one..After using the cordless impact you have to wonder how you got along without one !! I bought two 5ah batteries for mine and it definitely makes the jobs easy.. Great build thread looking forward to seeing the progress..

 

Welding new sheetmetal in is Cancer surgery done RIGHT !

 

Floor pan cut out


The air chisel chewed right through the spot welds and made peeling the floor pan away quite easy. I had used a hammer and chisel in the past for this…
Decided to dab some POR-15 I had left from a previous project on the inside of the frame rail.


I opted for a 1/2 floor pan from Quadratec. I laid the pan in on top of the frame rail and traced the edges of the rails with a sharpie from underneath. This gave me an idea where to drill holes to plug weld to the frame rail.


It took quite a while to get to this point, but all finished. It fits very nicely. I did get some help from a friend that welds much more often than I do. I also burned in a new seat mount!

 

Cool to see frame rails from this side - keep up the good work !

 

I assessed the minor collision damage to the fender mount by attempting to straighten out the crumpled metal.

I only got so far with this method. Just wasn’t enough clamping force to flatten it.


I was able to get pretty close by tacking scrap bolts to the panel and pulling on it with my homemade slide hammer (video clip of the slide hammer below)

 

Good luck in this project. Combing two XJ's into one. It'll feel great once it's done, but the best part is the process. Enjoy it!

 

Best use of a C clamp in wood blocking I've seen in some time!