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Oh gosh... the perfect thread for me. Just joined the forum today. I'll post a post on this eventually with my full story but in a nutshell spent $4800 to fix rust on my Selec Trac 2-door Upcountry package model XJ I bought in poor condition (because I was too emotionally involved and didn't want to search for another rare 2-door).
- replaced both floor panels
- both lower rear quarter panels
- rocker panels
- undercarriage rusted areas cut out, new metal welding in
- entire undercarriage resealed
So are you happy with what you did, or does the wording "too emotionally involved" mean you would try to stop yourself if you had a do over?
I don't regret a thing actually. Very happy. Feel like now I have a 2-door Select Trac with an amazing condition floor. Should last a long time. If it was a more available 4-door standard model I would not have done all that work. Would have kept looking for a better donor Jeep with less rust.
I just realized that I never actually updated my post to say that I decided to fix the rust. I had a person who runs his own restoration shop out of his house. He said he was working on redoing all the floors on a mid-eighties Z-car at the moment. He asked what my quote was for, and when I told him $1800, he said that just based on experience, he usually turns up a lot cheaper. He said that if my estimate was $1800, he could probably do it for $1200-1400. He did a house call estimate a week or so ago, and offered $1800 for installing my rocker panels, pulling a ding out of my front fender, and repairing the rust on all four doors plus the liftgate, then putting everything he fixed in primer so it should hold while I learn how to paint.
The reason I went to fix it was that I have so little in the car financially at this point, and everything powertrain seems so strong, that having this all done for just around $3500 including the Jeep itself and all the little work I had already done seemed like a decent idea.
It was helped by the fact that I want to paint mine a color not offered, so there was no such thing as finding one closer to what I wanted.
I got my jeep back from the rust repair guy today. He did an amazing job. He said he was surprised at how clean the underside was when he got into the job. He charged me $1800, and fixed the rockers, doors, and a rust spot on the liftgate. He covered it all in primer so I could have a little time to work before I painted. I'm really happy with the results. He looked under the truck and said the only thing he found was a broken exhaust hanger. He gave me a new one for free. The 'before' pics are around somewhere, and here is now. This was a cut and weld. These aren't covers of some sort.
10-20-2018, 05:46 PM
