Welp, I will say first of all the previous owner "original" was a complete *******.

The windshield had obviously been leaking for a long time. He had tried every imaginable type of goop to stop the leak to no avail.

I decide I am going to cut out the windshield and replace it. I went ahead and cut it out, cleaned up the frame and had a new one bonded in. I went with the newer integrated molding type vs the aluminum trim.

Now that the major leak is solved I will pull the carpet out and rhinoline the interior since the carpet is totally saturated.

I dismantle the interior only to discover the PO must have spilled a gallon of used oil at one time in the rear of the rig. Under the carpet was an oily, gooey sticky nasty mess that worked it's way to under the rear seat. UGNNN


I also notice a massive amount of rust under the driver / passenger carpet. UGNNNN again

I wash out the floorpans with a hose *why not at this point*, take a wire wheel and carefully start grinding down the paint and rust.

When all was said and done my biggest rust hole is about the size of a quarter but there are several dozen pinholes that I can see light through.

I took degreaser and scrubbed the whole floor and cleaned the oil crap out. I then took some rustoleum paint / rust stopper stuff and sprayed everything down.

I plan on using some quiksteel to fill in all the pinholes then rhino line the whole interior.

I know this isn't the right way to deal with the rust but in my opinion is better than holes letting water through from underneath as you drive.

This is mostly a trail / utility rig so doing it this way is a-ok in my book.

I guess the moral of my story is, even though this rig NEVER saw salted roads in it's life it still rusted due to neglect so even if you are looking at a one owner, washington state rig you still need to check for rusty floorboards especially if you see ANY signs of interior leaks.

Thanks for listening!

 

So your *****ing about the PO using goop to try to fix a leaking windshield and your fix for rusted through floorpans is covering it with goop ? Fix it however you want I just dont understand why the whole story about the PO not fixing things correctly.

 

So your saying the Jeep is that bad all over its not worth the few bucks to fix it properly and not have that rust again in the floor boards?

I found out many years ago if you start doing things half azz on a project it will continue till all you have is junk, I don't care what it is from cars to a tool bench. JMHO

And as with all things YMMV good luck.

 

Just ranting about the PO being a cheap dumba$$ and wanted to let other PACNW people know that just because the vehicles native to this area doesn't mean it's exempt from rust.

If the PO had just had the windshield sealed properly when he noticed there was a leak then I seriously doubt I would be dealing with this now.

Rusted out buckets are pretty rare in this area. Generally cars will go decades on our roads with no rust.

If you consider grinding off the garbage and packing PINHOLES with jb weld to try and keep my interior dry insufficient then I get it.

I totally understand about not doing things right and the potential issues this may cause but the way I look at this rig is that to me it's 90% off road fun vehicle and 10% to haul crap in so my grinding off the rust, patching with JB, rustoleum then Herculining the interior will be fine for years to come.

I am not willing to go through the work of cutting out floor pans and all the work that goes along with it for what I am discovering is pretty minor rust for these XJ's. It sure appears that the vast majority have NO floor boards left so I am fortunate.

Fortunately we don't get much snow and they don't use salt on the roads.

 

Yeah, that's not bad. Bad is when you can put you foot through the hole and kick the front tire. Cut the rotten area back to solid metal and weld in some fresh sheet metal of similar thickness. Some folks don't weld and use panel-bond adhesive instead. If you have a big area extending up the sides along the door and the trans hump, buying the pre-shaped pans can make life easier. If you plan to do this yourself, an air nibbler is a awesome and fun tool for trimming out the rot and cutting the new metal to shape. Nice clean cuts and you're not running a grind next to your fuel lines. I sealed and smoothed the welded edges with the 3m auto body sealer caulk and then used the Harbor Freight bedliner on both sides of the repair and the entire floor. The HF brand is basically the same as the duplicolor bedliner. Just don't get it on your hootus (really old funny thread, ask google) and expect it to smell for a few weeks.