I took my Jeep out on Sunday night to test my roof rack lights on an extremely dark, narrow road that runs between a canal and a lake. The road usually floods over in the spring when the canal and lake are at full capacity so you can't tell where you're going. I ended up swinging too wide around a corner and I got my XJ stuck in some THICK mud. I tried putting it in 4LO but I just dug myself deeper. I was now buried up to the turn signals ( and I have a 3 inch lift). Water started coming in the Jeep and I had 4 inches of nasty water in the driver's side footwells. I just spent the last couple days cleaning out the interior and I never want water in there again.


My question is, what can I do to make my Jeep's interior waterproof? I want to be able to have water past the rocker panels and not have to worry about getting wet. Should I spend tons on new weatherstripping or is there a different approach? Let me know!

 

Haven't done it myself, but try plugging up the drain-holes in the floor... and I know there's some other areas water gets in but I'm not sure where.

 

you can do a lot of work and upgrade to the thicker 97+ door seals. there is a writeup somewhere, probably on the jeepforum.com writeup section.

 

ONLY way to waterproof it, is to not, park it in that deep of water......

 

^^ This

You'll never be able to seal it up well enough to not have water come in

 

kinda hard to make an XJ into a boat.

 

I'm going to be upgrading to the 97+ front doors soon so I'll definitely have to do the seals aswell. The 97+ doors are thicker too

 

Weld and seal the doors shut and enter and exit through the windows and you won't have any issues. just make sure the floors are sound.

Also get the outboard motor bracket for your 2" receiver

 

yea, i agree that to make your rig completely waterproof is hard and requires some, lets call it, extensive mods... the next best thing if you really wanna do all this is to:
-rip out carpet and any plastic, etc. from the interior
-remove all rust and whatever else has lodged itself to the floor of your ride
-clean the surface with a cleaning solution- something like paint thinner will suffice. all your trying to do at this point is to get the flooring ready to receive its sealant. also remove the rust.
-if your so inclined, spray a rust sealant around any potential issue spots
-rubberized sealant, beadliner, etc... you have a couple of options on what you wanna use, but the cheap stuff seems to work just fine, too, so dont feel the need to spend a lot on it. the best bet is several light layers of sealant. thicker coats tend to be problematic.
idk, my .02, have fun and good luck! ALSO--- bed lining the interior will increase the temp on a hot day, and dont forget the drain holes or openings for things like the steering column, etc. generally there are rubber gromits (OEM) that you can get...

 

If you do ever manage to perfectly seal your XJ, you will have floating issues and wont get traction.

 

who needs traction when you can "swim"?

 

He'll need one of those propellers that fits in the hitch receiver.

 

i'm sure he wouldn't have any problems while floating in a pond if he had some swamper's. probably wouldn't be able to steer anywhere but might go forward?

 

I said that I want to be able to have water past the rocker panels and not worry about leaks. I didn't say anything about making my XJ into an Amphibicar .

 

Thanks for the ideas. I'll definitely start bedlining my floor and get new grommets for the drain plugs when I get the money!