New member from Western MA here. Bought a 2001 Cherokee Sport to use mostly as my hunting rig. She's not pretty, typical rusted out rocker on the driver's side, bottom of the driver's door is roached, but she runs like a top and shifts pretty well. Been slowly doing work on her to get ready for the state inspection. Thank god she's emissions exempt because the CEL is on for an evap leak. Replaced the gas cap with a new one from MOPAR and light came right back. Oh well, not worried. This weekend I put all new front brakes on her, pads/rotors/calipers, and also put new U bolts on my leafs because one was broken clean off. Also remove my rear sway bar because a: the bushings were all roached, and b: who needs it anyways? I'm not towing. Even though I've done that work I still have a pretty substantial thud type noise coming from the rear when I hit bumps. Pretty sure it needs new springs and shocks. The leafs are pretty flat. Other than that, I'm glad I bought the one I did. It has been completely unmolested and other than the rot on the rocker and door, there's no other rust that concerns me. Of course, there's rust, but no rot anywhere else. Planning to just bring her back to life slowly but surely as I use her to get out in the woods.

 

Welcome to the madness! Sounds like you're getting it done!


A tip on the evap leak - old plastic and rubber tubing can be patched up with a dose of liquid electrical tape. It will seal small leaks quite well.

You might want to re-think that rear sway bar. It ain't just for towing. It's not your first priority, of course.


Fluid Film will slow that rust down a bunch.

 

get a spray bottle mixed with water and oil and spray the whole underside down that will definitely slow down the rusting

 

Yeah, the sway bar is definitely Loooooowwwwww priority. I plan on spraying fluid film inside the rocker after I cut out the rot. Already have a slip on style rocker to go on to fix that, and once installed, gonna spray it down with bedliner to keep it from rusting. Also sourced a door from a junkyard, complete, for $100. Only thing wrong with it is a small dent. Gotta re-bleed those brakes though. Pretty sure I still have some air in the system even though I'm using a vacuum bleeder. That'll be a good after work project, gonna hook the bleeder up and do all 4 corners this time. Once I get all the suspension work done I'll be getting the whole undercarriage coated in fluid film. A shop down the street from me will do it with the black stuff for less than $200. Small price to pay to stop the rust and make sure the Jeep doesn't turn into a flintstones car.