03GRUNT11

Whats going on Gents?! My name is Eric, I am a former United Stated Marine. Decided to get out last year in August to carry on with my life outside the Corps. Didn't really have a plan, just motivation to do something different and unique. I found JEEP CHEROKEE'S!!! I bought my 1995 XJ Country Edition off my old man for $1,000 w/ 185,000 on it. It had been in the family about a decade and well maintained throughout the years. I have never been much of a gear head like my brothers were growing up, but I was always into building things with my own two hands out of wood,metal, and FIRE!!! So anyways, I bought the Jeep and started doing some general Preventive Maintenance. It is an extremely clean vehicle for its age and as far as rust goes...so I thought. Started to dig a little deeper like under the carpet and BAM!!! found some good ol' rust eating holes in the rear floor pan around the wheel wells. So I decided to look into floor restorations on Jeeps via Google...and THATS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN!!! I WAS HOOKED!!! A Frickin endless ocean of knowledge and information on fabrication, modification, DIY, Junkyard Budget Builds, and Homebrew....The list goes on and on and on. So I spent the next couple days tweaking out over the fountain of knowledge and eye candy education... then I went to work...

Heres some of the rust rotted sheet metal on the passenger rear side
Got some heavier 16g sheet metal to cut and weld in the cut out areas.
First section started

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Here is the first section completed and onto the second

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Heres the Passenger side rear cut out and ready to start gluing in some patches.

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This time I started from the hardest area first.. which was down in the corner of the dogleg up along the wheel well... the curve and bends there had to be pounded and beaten into shape and tac welded in place... fun stuff!!!


Right side completed... Now onto primer and then HERCULINER!!!

lookin2wheel

Welcome aboard Marine. There are lots of military guys here...Im one. In the Air Force working on A-10s. Bomb loader by trade. Anyways back on topic. Looks like you got lucky in that its just the floor sheet metal and not the "frame" rails. Off to a good start and good luck with the rest of your build!!

03GRUNT11

All the welds were cleaned up I prepped the interior: seam sealed the entire thing NOT TO MENTION THE ENTIRE BOTTOM ALSO ..forgot to mention that...and primered it for HERCULINER Role on Bed Liner to go on the whole floor pan instead of carpet.

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Now the Herculiner is in....

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Once all that was done I could throw in the front seats and start working on the fun stuff!!

odgreen

Welcome to the sickness! Looking good!
And also thank you for your service!

Gatchmo5710

Good start!

03GRUNT11

Thanks Brother!! Yeah I lucked out... Colorado isn't too hard on vehicles when it comes to rust.. I'm glad I didn't end up like some of the gents rigs i've seen in these forums... having to replace the entire floor pan and frame rails in some cases up there in the Rust Belt. The pics are still coming... I've been documenting most of the build for the most part.. mostly of what I added not so much the install aspect...If there are questions on how I did anything feel free to ask...after all, thats how I did all this, was through these forums and all of your members and users and suppers..YOUR KNOWLEDGE IS PRICELESS, THANK YOU!!!:gun smilie: SEMPER FI!!

03GRUNT11

Well..after the interior restoration was done... I turned my 1995 XJ Country Edition from Stock:

To This!:

6.5" Rough Country Coils up front, 6" Custom ALCAN Spring Leaf Packs in the rear, Rough Country Shocks, Homemade front lower shock BPE/Shock Extensions, Advanced Adapters SYE, Rugged Ridge Drop Pitman Arm, Homemade Custom Adj Track Bar, Rough Country Upper and Lower Control Arm Drop Brackets,Rough Country LCA, Perofomance Header and whole new exhaust, 6 Degree Shims, 33x12.50R15's on Black Mickey Thompson 15x10's, and thats about it for now... I have pics of most of this stuff installed but I'm getting lazy lol..too much typing...my eyes are burning

Kamaran

Nice looking jeep and thanks for serving!

You should of braced those frame rails while you had the chance lol..I would of drilled a few holes through the frame rail & then got some U channeled squared stock and pushed it inside the rail and welded it in, and then rosette weld the holes you drilled!! You could of plated the tops of the shackle mount to which would strengthen it. No worrys though!
Great looking build so far!

03GRUNT11

Yeah theres a lot I have learned over the last 5 months of this build, lots of "should have's or could have's" that didn't lol. Hey but thats what its all about, learning the ropes, and I have a lot of fun doing it. I've become very well acquainted with my new friend XJ here lol... SOB tried to kill me a few times, but thats just the way it goes sometimes.. I did however double plate the front leaf spring mounts for added strength as you suggested, they were rotted pretty good, so I took care of that...as far a the shackle mount, I didn't even think about that.

Kamaran

Haha you sure have a nice jeep though! They try to kill us every now and then lol.
Mines been doing trying that with its recent case of death wobble. 70mph and death wobble in the fast lane gets hairy lol..