Hi, I was doing a little patching on my floors today and I thought it might help some people out if I did a small write up. I should start by saying that my jeep has 178k on the body and its showing its age. I bought it for $1200 a few months back and soon realized that the floors were almost completely rusted out. I'm not posting this as the best way to do this whatsoever, but more of a cheaper alternative for a bare bones DIY kinda person. I dont mind spending $60 bucks or so (it's about what it cost me) and it seems to do the job.

Supplies

1. Sheet metal
-I used 14ga steel, it's what they had in the "scrap bin", the pieces were about 8 1/4" wide by 25" long. the rear seat section wasnt too bad so I'm not going to worry about it much for now. I got a heck of a deal $20 for all I wanted

2. Black RTV Auto Sealer
-I got it from NAPA for around 7 or 8 bucks and you'll need a caulk gun as well, I just borrowed a friends. (Be careful if your borrowing someone elses it gets messy real quick)

3. 3m Rubberized Undercoating
-NAPA again, 7 or 8 bucks. I bought two cans, I love this stuff

4. Rivet Gun and Rivets
-I bought my rivet gun from Ace Hardware for about $10, but make sure you get one with different size adapters on it. You be very happy to spend the extra couple of bucks when you realize you need them. As far as the rivets go, I used ones with a longer "sheath" part. Sorry I dont really know my rivet terminology, but they were 1/8" dia.

5. Cut Off Wheel or Hacksaw
-Anything that you can use to cut the metal to the correct size, unless you can have someone do it wherever you buy it.

6. Drill and 1/8" bit (or 2 in my case)

7. A Jack

8. A Small Rubber (flexible) Spatula, like for cooking brownies to clean the bowl


Patch Prep.
-Cut the metal to the correct size for your application. On my 95 XJ I wanted to my width to be pretty much flush with the frame rails for a clean look, 8 1/4"W X 25"L.
-After I cut the first piece I applied the 3m rubberized undercoating so it could dry while I was preparing the second piece of metal for the passenger side. I only coated one side of the patch.
-After I had both pieces cut and prepped, it's time to drill the holes and line everything up

Drilling.
-I'm sure I will catch some crap for doing it this way, but it was the fastest for me and I didnt care much about my carpet. I didnt pull it up from the inside at all. This whole project start to finish took me a little over 4 hours, cutting and rubberizing included. I could imagine at least another 1/2 hour for each side taking apart all of the plastic, sorry, It's not a show jeep by any means and I dont have elec seats to worry about drilling through wires.
-A great tip that a friend gave me was to drill the holes in the metal before you line everything up under the car. It makes like much easier. I drilled the holes 1 1/2"- 2" apart from each other and about 5mm from the edge of my prepped metal for the rivets with the 1/8" bit. It also helps to make a circular motion after you drill the hole just to open it up another .5mm or so just so the rivet can fit in a little easier.
-Once the holes are drilled in your metal its time to line everything up and drill the holes.
-Tip: Make sure you put the side thats already rubber coated UP, towards the inside of the car so you dont have to tear up your carpet afer your done to treat the bare metal of the patch so it doesnt rust out in a week.
-This is where the jack comes in very handy. We used a regular floor jack with my jeeps stock jack on top of it to reach the underside of my jeep (3" lift and 31" tires)
-Make sure you know where your putting your patch, then put a small bead of the RTV on the outside of the holes you drilled for the rivets to seal it from the inside.
-Once you have your sealer in place, use the jack to position the patch in place. I raised the jack so it just lifted the car a little bit to make sure the patch is nice and tight to the parts of the floor that you are attaching to.
-Once its held in place with the jack, drill through the holes that you already made in the patch so you go through the floor (or rails) of your jeep, this is where the rivet will hold the patch to the car.
-It goes very fast once you already have the holes drilled in the patch because your not trying to measure and drill through two layers of metal all while upside down under your jeep.
-Drill out a few holes at a time and the fill em in with the rivets, it looks really cool once you get it in there. I felt pretty proud as I saw my progression.
-You will definitely have to reposition the jack a few times just to push up the patch closer to the floor. Make sure the patch is tight up against the bottom of the car so the rivet goes through both layers.
-Once you have all of the rivets in, it's time to seal that puppy up.


Sealing
-By now you should have the patch riveted in with a bead of RTV sealing it, somewhat, from the inside. Now it's time to seal it form the outside.
-Using the caulk gun and RTV run a bunch of small beads around the edges where the patch meets the car. This is also where the rubber spatula comes in very handy. About every other bead, I used the spatula to push the RTV into the corners and make a nice smooth evenly coated surface. Very similar to putting grout in between tiles.
-Almost done! After you have your edges all sealed up and dried time to rubberize. Tip: Make sure your not wearing nice clothes for this step. You can mess up your clothes in any of these steps, but this is by far the worst, way worse than RTV.
-Spray a bunch of light, even coats over everything. Make sure that you let them dry in between application. I put a small heater blowing on them to speed up the process a little bit. You can spray the rubberized undercoating just about anywhere you want metal to be protected and it also doubles as a sound deadener, bonus!
-By now you should be seeing how your work is paying off. You can go back and add more coats of rubberized undercoating as much as you want, just make sure that you apply it to a clean surface.



Hopefully this helps some people out or give them the courage to give it a shot. Sorry I didnt take more pics, I didnt think to until I put the rivets in. I want to say again, I am not at all saying that this is the best way, or even a "really good" way. It is most definitely a cheap way and it's not too difficult or time consuming for your average mechanic. For my personal situation, my jeep is a second car that I drive in the winter time so it's not my gem. I have seen a ton of nice looking jeeps up here and it's great to see someone really put some time and effort into it, but I was just looking for a quick way to make my jeep a little "nicer" and definitely a LOT warmer This is my first write up, let me know what you guys think.

 

Looks good and I'm sure it'll hold up fine. Welding would have been better, but it's good that you did what you could with what you got. Just wondering if the section you did is under the driver's door. That's kinda what it looks like, but it's hard to tell. My floor is pretty much gone and I have some metal to weld in. Also, about how long did the whole process take? Good job!

 

Yup, thats the drivers floorboard. I bought an arc welder a few months back, but I think I still have a few more months of practice before I'll be able to weld anything on the car, and I really wasnt looking forward to pulling out the carpet to weld. The whole process took me a little less than 4 hours. I didnt get the passenger patch put in but it should only take about another 30-45 minutes just to put up the rivets and seal it up. I definitely cut a few corners, but I figure in 3 to 4 years or so when that patch might need to be replaced I'll have much bigger problems to worry about. Thanks for the feedback!

 

I was planning on doing that same thing except mig welding it in. Doesn't look too complex and I should have enough metal to do it. Maybe I'll tackle the repair on the weekend. Was 8.25" x 25" the exact size piece you used? It looks like it fits real well.

 

Very nice write-up. I'll remember that when I start fixing mine this spring.

 

Thanks Bimmer! It really needed to be done on my jeep and about 1/2 way through doing it I thought "man, this is a lot easier than I thought it was going to be!" so I figured I'd share my experience and hopefully help out some people in the process. It really helped having the electric grinder with the metal cutting wheel just to trim the patch to fit so well. Good luck on your project.

 

looks good!

 

i got at least 2 or 3 spots im gonna have to patch up, but i plan on ripping out all my carpet and herculining everything, this seems a lot easier than welding the patches in, and im thinkin this would be easier without any carpet in.

 

Yes, I used 8.25" width, you can go any length, but that one is 25" long. I would recommend measuring your own before you cut, but it should be close to if not the same as mine. I think on the passengers side I'm going to try to find a piece that will cover as far back as I can get, I think it would look much cleaner having it go back farther. I also plan on adding a second patch on the drivers side going as far back as possible just to make it all look uniform. I bought two more cans of rubber undercoating today because I figured I might as well cover the rest of the underside while im under there. I just do it at night so it can dry overnight before I drive with it. I like the idea of the herculiner, I link it looks great. I'm sure it would be easier with the extra room.

Feel free to post any pics you guys might have of some diy patches. It's always good to see the different kinds of ideas people have.

 

I was just asking the dimension to make sure I had enough metal. I planned on measuring everything first. I was gonna to do this tomorrow, but we got snowed out again. I guess it'll have to wait a little longer.

 

Looks like you did a pretty good job man.

96cherokee113-You can gain some strength on your fix it you can tie your new panel in to the rocker & tunnel (if you have any good metal left)... just something to think about before you buy your steel.

 

I already have the steel. It's probably 12" wide by 30" long so there should be enough to tie it into the rocker with. I'll give it a try after the snow clears up and see how it goes. Who knows how long I'll have to wait, though.

 

You have 100% helped me on taking on my floor rust. Tommarow i shop ace hardware and autozone for supplies a whopping total of like $160; i have on store credit and a bit of a learning curve. Thanks guy.

 

Thats what this site is all about! You will not regret it. My only regrets are that I just bought a welder and now I've got one less thing to use it on hahah.

 

I've got another thread on replacing the cargo area metal with a new sheet and herculining it. If you've got the cash and motivation to do it, its well worth it too. It's so nice to get rid of the constant breeze from all of the holes I had when I first got it hahaha