Floor repair

Have a 94 with a hole in the passenger floor under the seat and some more general rust in other areas. I am considering my options as far as patching and wondered if someone could confirm what the circle with an 'x' in it to the right of the grinder wheel is?

Not my floor, just a picture I found that showed the item in question.




The area around this x-circle is rusted and needs patched so I need to know what I am getting into. Also wondered how the seats are supported; just by the sheet metal or is there some sort of backer underneath? I felt around but didn't feel or look to hard as I was paying more attention to the actual hole.

They make replacement floor panels that fit pretty darn good. You'll have it finesse them a little with a hammer and grinder to make them fit.

The seats are supported by cross members underneath, be careful not to cut through them when you cut out the old floor.

The circle with an "x" is just a sealed plug in the floor. If it's just rusted around the plug and is a small area, you can remove the plug, clean the area with a grinder, cut a patch big enough to cover it with some overlap, apply some seam sealer between the patch and the floor and screw it down.

If the whole floor needs replaced, get the pans without any holes in them (ask me how I know), lay them in on the old ones and mark around them with a sharpie. Cut the old one out about a 1/2" below the marked line so you have an overlap. You'll have to cut the spot welds holding the old panel down either with a spot weld cutter or you can grind them out from the top if you're careful. Drill new holes in the new panel where is sits on top of the lower supports (where you removed the spot welds) so the new panel can be welded back down. Stitch weld everything back in taking care not to over heat and warp things, seam seal all the joints top and bottom, paint it or coat it with whatever you choose.

You'll have to drill the holes in the panels for the seat mounting bolts before you weld the panels in, but that's about it. All those big holes with plugs are really unnecessary.

You can fix it with just regular sheet metal if you want, but if you have large sections to do, it's well worth your time to buy the replacement panels because they're preformed and fit pretty close.

Google xj replacement floor panels and you can find some reasonably priced panels.

Thanks for the info. Right now I'm only going to do a patch. One large hole on the flat near where the transmission tunnel comes down; it's about 3x6 inches. Right above where the exhaust runs underneath. Then around the plug it is starting; couple small holes. My concern with the plug was that it is above the frame rail and I didn't know if it was securing the floor somehow. Now that I've looked at it again I see what you are talking about.

I've already taken a wire wheel to the inside. I'll get under it this weekend and see how the underneath looks and put the wheel to it too. Then I plan on treating the metal in and out with some sort of rust stop and then painting/undercoating after I get the patch welded in.

Thanks tigmeiste for your insight... I am beginning a complete floor pan front and rear replacement... had the misfortune of storing my XJ in an instant garage on ground not pavement and did not note the drainage of my area. Over the winter the ground was always wet and now my floors are shot... :doh: I found a source for complete floor pan front and rear... $685 for both delivered by freight so looks like its going to be a busy spring... :repair:http://www.naxja.org/forum/member.php?u=60496

Put the passenger side up on ramps today and took the wheel and a brush to the underneath. Cleaned up all the loose rust I could see around the holes as well as where ever I could see on the floor pan which wasn't much. A little bubble rust here and there along the pinch seam; might be something to keep an eye on. And then I put Rust Reformer on everything I could get to inside and out. I'll put another coat or 2 on over the next 48 hours and see how things look. Then I need to get my patches cut out and fitted. What gauge is recommended for patching the floor? I was thinking 18 ga galvanized and I would prime and paint the underside before welding it in and then undercoating the whole thing underneath and rolling the floor with bed-liner once I get all teh rust treated.

96JerseyXJ said:

$685 for both delivered by freight so looks like its going to be a busy spring... :repair:http://www.naxja.org/forum/member.php?u=60496

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unless you are getting an entire perfect floor +install, you are being ripped off. I just bought both front floorpans for about 100 bux.

lunchbox643 said:

unless you are getting an entire perfect floor +install, you are being ripped off. I just bought both front floorpans for about 100 bux.

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I would like to get that source and compare to mine, can you post the link?

Without seeing your source my initial thought is no I am not.. these are complete one piece floor pans, both sides front and back for the passenger compartment and a single piece for the cargo area:

Front Floor Pan
http://www.discountjeepparts.com/product_info.php/products_id/23946

Complete is $231.95

Compared to full RH and LH floor pans as found at Sherman Parts
http://www.shermanparts.com/ecat/base/dropdowns.php?make=JEEP&model=XJSE&year=1996

Each is $129.99 * 2 = $259.98

Rear Floor Pan is $211.95
http://www.discountjeepparts.com/product_info.php/products_id/28548

I never did find any rear cargo floor pans except for this site My thinking here, it would be easier to go in as it is molded and will fit like original. Currently thay have 100 of the fronts and about 45 of the back pieces available. These come by freight with additional handling charges [$85 and $94 respectively] but I did check and they can ship to a depot where you can then pick them up instead of paying the extra $100 charge to have it delivered to a home address.

If you are interested in these the company is Off Road Motors 800-490-7921 and I was being helped by Jim at extension 105.

96JerseyXJ said:

I would like to get that source and compare to mine, can you post the link?

Without seeing your source my initial thought is no I am not.. these are complete one piece floor pans, both sides front and back for the passenger compartment and a single piece for the cargo area:

Front Floor Pan
http://www.discountjeepparts.com/product_info.php/products_id/23946

Complete is $231.95

Compared to full RH and LH floor pans as found at Sherman Parts
http://www.shermanparts.com/ecat/base/dropdowns.php?make=JEEP&model=XJSE&year=1996

Each is $129.99 * 2 = $259.98

Rear Floor Pan is $211.95
http://www.discountjeepparts.com/product_info.php/products_id/28548

I never did find any rear cargo floor pans except for this site My thinking here, it would be easier to go in as it is molded and will fit like original. Currently thay have 100 of the fronts and about 45 of the back pieces available. These come by freight with additional handling charges [$85 and $94 respectively] but I did check and they can ship to a depot where you can then pick them up instead of paying the extra $100 charge to have it delivered to a home address.

Click to expand...

The Sherman fronts can be had for $98 @ Rockauto and they have a different brand rear for $123. I do like the looks of that complete front you found though...

Edit: Just looked at the rear one you found; it is more complete than the one @ Rockauto, They have just the cargo area and doesn't look like it goes down to under the rear seat.

I agree, the sale rep confirmed your observation as well.. I know I am going with the full rear but am still tyring to get my carpet and seats out. The seat belt torx bolts are the issue now, I got an impact driver but its 1/2 drive and my torx is 3/8 drive. So I either have to get a 1/2 to3/8 adapter or pick up a 1/2 torx set... :confused1

One thing to remember, once you get the floor repaired, and if you put carpet back in (some of us do on our daily drivers), you have to take care not to let moisture get back in on the carpet and saturate it. I picked up my xj and the carpets were filthy. I steam cleaned the livin' crap out of them and I guess I got them a little wetter than I thought. It sat from June to December, through all the hot part of the summer and fall. When I got around to pulling the carpet out 6 months later, the jute padding on the back was still wet (and frozen being December and all). A litte surface moisture isn't going to hurt and it will dry, but if you get it really wet, the best bet is pull the carpet and let it dry and then re-install it. That's why mine were rotted out on the passenger side in the first place. Someone had spilled something on that side and it never dried. It had rusted from the inside out.

Here's some sites for replacement pans.

http://www.rustrepair.com/index-mf.html
http://raybuck.com/i-88824-1984-01-jeep-cherokee-xj-front-floor-section-driver-side.html
http://c2cfabrication.com/store/index.php?cPath=1_21_36&osCsid=7o9ptlqbf043de9f2tq2mqhf92
http://www.shermanparts.com/ecat/base/index.php
http://www.acmejeepparts.com/products/product_search.php?pg=2&cn=Replacement+Panels&c=41&cv=1000

Here's some of the best seam sealer I've used. Awesome stuff.
http://raybuck.com/i-68943-silaprene-adhesive.html:D

I got the pans from Raybuck with the holes in them, but I wish I would have got the cheaper ones from one of the other sites without any holes because I ended up plugging the ones that came in them.

thanks tigmeister for your insite, was planning on using lizzard skin for sound protection inside and maybe lizzard skin on the underside for heat protection. Either way I was going to do something to try and keep me from having to do this job again... :thumbup: