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Floor replacement project

R

Rod Knee

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Grand Jct., CO
In getting ready to replace my rusted out floors I've been doing some reading and found out that the "95 and younger XJ's have a seat reinforcement bar that runs perpendicular to the long direction of the vehicle for both front seats. So my question is, are any of the preformed floor pans offered by places like Raybuck and c2fabrication best to use on a "96 Cherokee with this reinforement bar in mind?

Also, I have zero experience welding. What type of welder would be appropriate for installing floor pans and at the same time easy to learn and use on this specific project. What type of precautuions should be taken that a novice welder might not think of (such as perhaps brake line removal)?

My other option is to use a structural adhesive such as 3M 8115. Has anyone used adhesive had good results to report or conversely, noteably bad results?
 
I'm getting ready to do a couple patches, I'll do a howto writeup. 110v .023 or .030 wire, and jump around so you don't warp it.
 
I have replaced XJ floor pans. The floor pans are the same early vs. late, the only difference is the 1999.5 and newer seat crossmember has been added. A few years ago you could still buy the seat crossmember from Jeep, or you can cut it out and re-use it. You can also make do with angle iron or steel tube.

I used unibody structural adhesive and sheet metal screws with excellent results. Unibody structural adhesive is used for factory original body assembly on many unibody vehicles. Welding an option but will be a pain in the butt, especially for a novice welder.

Raybuck patch panels are thicker metal, and larger in size/coverage, than most of the other brands.
 
I bought the raybuck panels (which are the same the Quadratec panels) left and right front. Rearward of where these panels go the rust is not too bad so we are going to just patch those areas as needed on either side of the jeep. The passenger side cross-member is not available but the driver's side is available which I thought a bit odd. Not so sure I want to put my old rusted cross member back in...that would sort of be counter productive. Part of me wants to just leave the passenger seat out and rig the XJ up so I can sleep in that area, but another part of me says I need to do something about that cross member for structural support. Going to have the panels welded in at a body shop.
 
The 1995 has the seat crossmembers. At least my 1995 has them. My 91 didn't have them.

Mark
 
1999.5 and newer, front seat crossmember has been added.

You can also make do with angle iron or steel tube.
 
As I mentioned above, the driver side cross member is available, at least for now, but I got the impression that the supply of them might be drying up after talking to the wholesaler I bought mine from (Wholesalemopar.com). The cross member for the passenger side is reportedly unavailable but I suspect there is a pile of them somewhere but since they don't show up on anyones spreadsheet they dont exist for all intents and purposes. So anyway I bought three of the drivers side. The space on the passenger side is longer than on the drivers side so we are going to cut and splice two of the available cross members and make one functional passenger side cross member. They aren't that expensive, about 35 bux each including shipping...
 
BTW, I see no compatibility issues at all with the OEM cross members and the Raybuck/Key/Quadratec (same/same/same) floor pans. There is another thread somewhere where doubt was expressed as to their compatability
 
Also BTW, my jeep is a "96, I don't know that the availability or lack of availability of cross members applies to all years. I think the 95 and 96 are the same
 
It looks like they got them in 1995. It's easy to tell, if the bolts on the front of your seat are vertical, then there's no cross member. If the bolts are horizontal, there's a cross member. My 1995 has the crossmember, and I'm pretty sure my buddies 1994 doesn't have them.

Here's the damage from wet insulation in the 95. This is a socal jeep, go figure. It also has a rust hole in the passenger rear corner of the roof???? The silver panels are from the 91, which had some rust on the surface but it will come off with a scuff pad. I'm going to treat all the surface rust, and use a couple panels I cut from the 91 to weld in some patches. I can almost stick my pinky finger through the holes, it's SOOO Bad. :)

http://wolfenet.org/gallery2/v/Jeep/95xj/DSC04786.JPG.html
 
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Beleive it or not, some of the different brand floorpans have a slightly different thickness to them, as well as shaped slightly different. I went with the raybucks, after reading mostly positive reveiws, compares to some of the others.
I ended up making a new crossmember by bending the metal in a cheap brake, and welding the side tabs onto it.
 
The front seat cross member was phased into use approximately midway through the 1995 model year production cycle.

Raybuck floor pans are indeed larger in coverage, thicker in material, and are more correctly stamped than most of the rest of them. Mine fit perfectly with no hammering needed. Cheap parts are cheap for a reason.
 
OK, the guy at the body shop that is doing my welding says the thing to do is apply etching primer to whatever bare metal there is after the welding and finish grinding is completed. However, I have already purchased rattle-cans of Zero Rust which according to directions, is intended to be applied directly on the metal so as to effectively pull oxygen out of the metal which is how it inhibits rust development.

Anybody have any opinions as to whether a primer applied prior to application of the Zero Rust is a good idea or not?
 
Called ZR today and talked to a knowledgeable rep. who said do not put a primer on before applying ZR. The product works by pulling oxygen off the metal surface and putting a layer between the metal and ZR would defeat the purpose of using the ZR.
 
Rod Knee said:
Called ZR today and talked to a knowledgeable rep. who said do not put a primer on before applying ZR. The product works by pulling oxygen off the metal surface and putting a layer between the metal and ZR would defeat the purpose of using the ZR.
Click to expand...
Problem is that you won't be able to get coverage on the areas that cover the unibody frame. If it were me, I would spray those areas with a "weld through" primer first. Eastwood has some that forms a strong rust barrier when heated
 
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