Would it take that long? I am new to diagnosing rust (clearly) but I thought it would be quicker, like only a few years. Does driving it around speed up the process (even if it does not come in contact with salt) or is it something like once it begins, there's no stopping it?

 

Thanks everyone for the replies! I got underneath it again and started poking away with an allen wrench. Everywhere but the rear was pretty solid. You can see a big flake come off near the end of the video, but it was still solid when I kept poking at it. Does this mean I should look to sell?
https://imgur.com/gallery/HTNoxIC

Here are other pictures of other areas. I was concerned with the control arm mounting brackets as well but those look pretty good. Is it normal for the hole in the frame rail (second picture) to look completely rusted through like that? Maybe one of the past owners added a rust coating and it's been rusting from the inside?
https://imgur.com/gallery/w8g1w3i

 

I personally don't think the rust is very bad at all. I'm also in college for mechanical engineering. Last summer I rebuilt the motor and put a transmission in my Comanche, this summer I put a junkyard motor in a white Cherokee, and I just finished tearing down the motor to rebuild for my green Cherokee. I did all these motor projects working a full time job over the summer. Keeping the jeeps around may not be the most financially responsible decision, but I love them and they make me happy. Also, my roommate pays somewhere around $50 to store his vehicle at a storage place near school.

 

I agree the rust "seems" to be surface type rust from salt roads

You do not show all the tricky bits, which is basically seams in the thinner sheetmetal, if the vehicle has begun to eat itself from the inside out, to repair this can be difficult

this is what happens where Iive, right beside the Ocean, rust will destroy a vehicle unless many precautions are taken

just spent a couple of days repairing a few tiny spots of rust on the drip-rail, they would have eventually ruined the vehicle

some were not even holed externally, but when a die grinder bit was applied, it chewed out a much bigger holes, as the metal rust internally via convection

 

https://imgur.com/a/RcYbmMM

Hey everyone, I went at the frame with a wire brush and some rustoleum rust converter this weekend and found this spot by the rear tire. The sides of the frame rail looked okay as you can see in the second pic. It has since been sanded down the best I could since a lot of stuff was blocking it and then covered in the rustoleum.

Time to sell?

 

The rust isn’t terrible but in my opinion it’s not worth storing. At the same time I’m not sure it’s worth selling because you probably won’t be able to get a quarter of what you paid. There will still be plenty of Cherokees around in the future that aren’t rusted out but they will just cost twice the amount they cost when they were new. They’re already outrageously priced.