Well, I thought I was ready to sand the rest of the frame rails and begin painting them so that I could finally weld my floors in. But, with one more go over with a hammer for soft spots.. these two holes in the frame magically appear. Is it likely to just cut the bottom portions off and then weld another piece of steel in their place? Being the biggest one is right at the rear cross member and next to the shock mount.. it'd be a real pita to have to chop that whole section off. Here's the damage.

 

The last image is on the passenger side middle ways.

 

Well the good news is you have access to the internal structure.

Bad news is it's a portion of the uni-frame essential to structure.

If it were me, I would double, and then triple check the exposed portions for anything else negative...then re-evaluate. Sounds like you have some welding skills, if you're tackling floors...if that is the only area(s), then I would fish plate the inside after getting the cancer out, add stiffeners to the outside, and fish plate any exposed areas left. Overlap and reinforce the areas in question. Overlap by at least 6" on the fish plates, and try to get the internal sections as uniform and close to one solid piece as you can. Then once you get the repairs done, paint/rust preventative, and continue your floors. Once done, keep eyeballs on the areas in question, until you're confident the repairs are solid. Realize you may not get out of it what you put in it. Rust is a *****.

Just my .02

 

Well said. I didn't expect this much rust to come out of Tallahassee. Expected a good bit, but not near this. I had the luxury of learning to MIG when I was in high school. I started out on electrical conduit building electric car frames ironically for tech class. Really glad I did, otherwise I'd be screwed with this thinner stuff. I thought about cutting out the bottom portions that are problematic and weld new plates in place. Then going back and stiffening each side of the rail as you said. It would make more sense to fish the inside though as well being it's right at the shock support, I wouldn't want the weld to flex too much and crack. Great idea.

If time and money weren't an option right now, I'd attempt to prepare a square tube and independent body setup. But, I'll save it for another future XJ.

How do you feel about sand blasting it? A buddy of mine owns a local body shop around here and I know he'd give me a good price on blasting the whole frame. That way, it'll cut down on a lot of sanding and get in crevasses nearly impossible for me while exposing any nasty spots. I'm going to have PTSD from all this damn rust.

 

Do it. That way you not only prep the surface for welding/paint, but get the loose/hard to reach rust as you said.

 

Along with that you will find all the small rust pin/holes always do when you sand blast then easy to fill them with the mig welder.

 

So the sand blasting is done and well... not good.

As I posted in my build thread the frame rail has small rust holes all the way down on the driver's side from the center to the rear.

I know where a donor Jeep is.. would it be reputable to just cut the whole section of the bad frame rail and replace it with the one off the donor Jeep?

I'm having trouble finding 4wd Jeeps down here for a good price even with blown tranny's and engines. So, I figured a 2wd frame rail would suffice.

 

Get a donor and swap parts over to that body. I wouldn't even bother trying to salvage what you have. 2wd, 4wd, doesn't matter, just swap parts over.

Glad you did what you did, as you now know, why, when people ask about rust issues, most of the time the answer is get a donor. Again, with rust, it's what you DON'T see. As you have discovered.

Good luck in your hunt.

 

Well, I'd really like to have the 4wd, even if right now it may not be an option. However, this other Jeep is a 4 door, I believe 96 model. It is 2wd and has a blown motor. My engine runs fine.

How difficult would it be to swap the whole 4wd drive-train to the 4 door? By that I mean as how much of it do you think will be just bolt on?

Worst come to worst I'll just swap the 4.0 in the 2wd and ride like that until I can figure something else out. Not a good day.

 

All of your 4wd parts should swap over to the 2wd XJ you have everything needed with both of them. People do the 2wd to 4wd swap here quite often many times for the same reason.

 

What would be driveshaft difference? Being I have a 2 door and the 2wd is a 4 door? I would assume different. But we all know what assuming does..

Appreciate the advice.

 

Pictures of my rails. Not so bad looking as what I thought.

 

Yes we do, the 2 door and 4 door XJs have the same length and wheel base, everything should swap over without issue.

 

Much appreciated. I found a sweet local deal!

1998 Cherokee 2wd missing motor and trans. Body and frame are rust free and interior is in good shape. The sweet part is I just got it for $170! I will be doing the swap soon.