[FlyingXJ]

I recently acquired this 1996 XJ from a guy in Cleveland who bought it on vacation in Alabama.
It has some rust in the floors but is other wise very solid.
The plans are to make a sort of mall crawler/ curb climber out of it. I already have my 93 XJ that I can use to bounce off rocks and trees.
I couldn't afford a real classic car (chevelle, mustang, fairlane, challenger) so I figured this would have to do for now.
It is an ex police vehicle so it does have the high idle switch and has been decently maintained.
The PO said it has 3.73 gears and a LSD in the rear but I haven't been able to read the tags or had time to pop the diff covers off to confirm.
The interior is well worn and will need reconditioning.
My grandmother has dubbed it Betty White.

 

[xj4life]

I couldn't afford a real classic car (chevelle, mustang, fairlane, challenger) so I figured this would have to do for now.

🤘 Love seeing an older XJ getting a second lease on life. Can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

[FlyingXJ]

It’s been a minute since I posted. I grabbed these cooper MT evolutions 35x12.5R17s for 195 a tire new from Discount now I just have to get going on my IRO 6.5in rocklink kit and stiffeners!

 

[greygoose]

That's awesome! I don't know how I missed your original post, but I will be watching this build!!

 

[aber61]

That's a clean ride for sure. Like the wheels.

 

[SHARPMACHINE]

Lots of great potential there.

 

[FlyingXJ]

Thanks everyone! I hope to get started on it some time this weekend now that I'm on days again. But we just had our driveway seal coated so waiting for that to dry!

 

[EERNGER98]

God is that a clean Jeep! Love it, and can’t wait to see how this progresses!

 

[FlyingXJ]

Well... it definitely looked cleaner from underneath. Frame rails still look good though... So I guess that’s an upside?

 

[greygoose]

Wow! That's a lot of rot for an Alabama XJ.

 

[FlyingXJ]

Wow! That's a lot of rot for an Alabama XJ.

I think there’s a water leak from somewhere. I pulled the vinyl floor out and the jute was just soaked. Which I’m sure is what did these floors in.

 

[SHARPMACHINE]

I think floorboards rust almost everywhere if there's a decent amount of rain and carpet to hold it in....

 

[FlyingXJ]

I think floorboards rust almost everywhere if there's a decent amount of rain and carpet to hold it in....

I figured with the vinyl flooring we would be all good. I was wrong. Plus the outer rockers looked so great.

 

[FlyingXJ]

How do I weld pans in if there’s no clean inner to attach to?! 😬 This will be my first time attempting to weld Then it will be welding in frame stiffeners from iron rock off road*

 

[greygoose]

Wow! That's a crazy amount of rot.

Sorry, I am not a welder, I can't help ya there. haha

 

[SHARPMACHINE]

You will have to remove all of the rusted out steel, then fabricate replacement pieces. If some of it just has surface rust, you can grind/sand it to remove the rust. Pretty important to get this part right or your efforts will soon be a waist of time. I do not leave carpet in my rig for this reason. I do run some large pieces (cut up my factory carpet) that can easily be removed. It helps with the floor heat in the summer..

 

[Mich Trailblazer]

This is not necessarily the right way to do it, but a friend of mine has done it to several wheeling rigs he has owned, where cosmetics is not a concern, but I think that since it is in the rocker-floor area, that is usually covered by something:

Get your replacement floor pan you want to install, so you can see/measure how much of a lip is on the edge of it to work with.
Do as Sharp Machine pointed out- grind/cut all the rust out.
set the replacement floor pan in place and measure from the pan lip to what is left of the rocker area.
Now go buy a piece of angle Iron in the dimension that you measured the gap.
Cut the angle to the length of the rocker
Weld the angle to the rocker
Now weld the floor pan to the angle and rest of floor

The angle iron is way over-kill but I have seen that it stiffens up the rocker area very well to where it can take some hits without deforming.

 

[FlyingXJ]

Thanks for the tips guys! I will most likely start cutting out what is rotted and check the rest of the damage. I bought new pans already. But I wasn’t expecting them to be in this bad of shape lol.

 

[Mich Trailblazer]

Other thing that will make this go good is be sure to get 0.23" wire for your MIG welder. If you have a MIG that uses shielding gas instead of flux core wire, find a local welding shop and go ask what 0.23" the local body shops buy. I did this years ago and found that with a good allow wire meant for sheet metal welding, things go a lot smoother- less burn through, less splatter, nicer looking welds.

Also, if you go the angle-iron route: start your weld bead on the angle and drag it over to the sheet metal. It puddles nicer that way as well as seems to distort or melt the sheet metal less.