Looks good. I hope you're good with a hose, you'll want to hose the entire inside out after wheeling in some mud or during the winter salt months. If you plan on abusing them tie them in to make the unibody last.

 

Thanks! I was worried about all the rot, but we found a way to make it better. I will be closing off the ends, and tying them into my unibody stiffeners eventually. At least the hard part is done for now, and its 100x better than what I started with.

 

Ugh... If it isnt one thing..........

On the way home the other day, I noticed some off noises coming from my steering... So i had my wife turn the wheel while i was under it. My freaking unibody cracked allowing the steering box to flex when i turn the wheel. I guess its time to look into how to fix this.. Im guessing pull the box out, and weld in some reinforcement on the inside and outside of the unibody.

Heres what it does...



This is a picture of my unibody. The black part on the right is the IRO steering box spacer.

 

Hot Damn! time to clean up the area and plate it all.

 

Well i finally got around to plating my steering box/unibody. I braced it on the inside and outside, so hopefully that will work. My welds are horrible, but im still learning, and it still has to be better than it was, and the box isnt flopping around anymore.

I also upgraded my hauler trailer to LED lights, and fixed some wiring that the tree rats got to last winter. Finally for the first time since ive owned it, all of the lights work! I also replaced the jack since water got in the old one and froze, and made it super hard to turn up or down.

 

Those welds are too cold, they'll crack right off with any real stress. Probably first time off road.

 

I wouldnt doubt that. Im no welder by any means, if you couldnt tell lol. If it breaks off, ill just get to practice more. At least I already have the templates for the plates i guess.

Both of the plates are also sandwiched in with the steering box bolts. They are just for bracing, so even if they do break at least the steering box will stay in place.

 

Well my father and I went out for a little day trip to the Park Jeep Adventure Day weekend. My dad is friends with the owner of Park Jeep (the dealer that was putting the event on), so it was fun to meet him and hang out. It rained most of the day, which made for some super sloppy conditions, but it was still fun as always.

All in all it was a great day. I only got hung up once, but that was the only hiccup. The Xj performed well as always, although i developed some sort of a knock in the RF, that ill have to take a look at before the Crawl for the Cure in a month...

The only bad part was when I got home to wash it... I noticed that I can see almost all of my carpet from underneath the jeep. The rot seems to have gotten the best of it, and now my floors are toast. I know i can just fix it, but this is getting to be the most frustrating vehicle ive ever owned. Im just tired of fixing it all the time, when I hardly ever even drive it...... Im going to be bringing it to the Crawl for the Cure in a month, but im not sure what direction im going to head with it after that.

 

Do it. Rip out the carpet and get to those floors. I'm just starting to cut them out in my build thread. It feels super rewarding to start hacking out this diseased metal. Though it looks like I need to cut out the rockers, too. I was gonna rivet the floor, but maybe I need to buy a welder...

 

Ripping the floors out and restoring all the rotted metal made a true night and day difference for my appreciation and reliability for my Jeep.

 

Welp, she gave me a good 3 years, but now shes off to her new owner........ It was a sad day, but the new one should be in the garage this weekend! Ill have to start a new thread for that one

I really should have asked more for it lol. I put it up on Sunday evening, and got a message 15 minutes later that said, "Ill take it. Can I pick it up tomorrow?" And just like that, it was gone....

 

Coolness. Update THIS thread with a link to the new thread...

 

How much did you sell it for? Why did you sell it and now are gonna buy another one?

 

It was getting to the point where it was getting more rotted out than I wanted to deal with..... I put it up Sunday night for $2800, and it was gone less than 24 hours later. The guy messaged me and said, "Ill take it. Can i pick it up tomorrow?" And just like that, it was gone :-(

Heres a small teaser to the new one. Ill update it more once i take delivery of it, hopefully this weekend.

 

HMMM. curious to see more of that front bumper, I have yet to see one tucked in so nicely. I was planning to do the winch behind and under the grille but...... that looks slick from this perspective.