Note for those sleeving the frame rails

Just a note for you guys that are sleeving the frame rails. Surprisingly enough, there are places that need it worse. I've done my rails and I backed off a ledge at Moab and dropped the front bumper onto the ledge pretty hard. I now have an inch gap at the bottom of the front fender where it meets the door and the roof has a nice wrinkle in it. The frame rails where they go up and over the front tire are not as strong as they appear. I bent the front of mine up almost an inch and you can't see any wrinkles in it. The metal just stretched I guess. Things moved enough to break my windshield.

Now my big question is do I power ram it back into alignment, add some bracing and go run the Best of the West before doing a body transplant or do I do the transplant now. My biggest worry is that it will fold in half at the worst possible time. I hate to do a nice clean straight body and trash it the first outing.

Any opinions, experience????

I doubt it will acually fold in half. If it does take lots of pics.:laugh3: I would brace where you think the weekest area is and wheel it till the doors don't close.

That's why you sleeve it from the front bumper all the way to the rear bumper . I'm doing that, but I'll never do it again. What a pain. Just brace the one you have and/or turn it into a tube buggy.

Any chance you have a cage? The ideal way would be to power ram it back into place then run some tube gussets from the frame rails(some what plated) back into your cage to give it some suppost rahter then just add more steel.

Buy a truck...

As for the doors closing. The first time I knew it was bent was when the wife was complaining about the whistling noise on the way back to Moab fromt the trail. When I stopped, the two passenger side doors lacked a half inch in meeting the frame at the top. Just as some background. This is the rig I rolled two years ago on Moab Rim. It knocked the top down far enough to take out the dash. I pressed the top back out and painted it. Most people would never notice it, but it seems that it took some???? of the strength out of the unibody. What I am thinking of doing is to get it back somewhat square, cut out the rockers, lay in a piece of 2x6 box and weld it in as well as gusset it to the frame rails. The problem is that the bending came from more forward where it is harder to gusset and straighten.

Does anybody have any experience with unibody's that are tweaked up front? Did you have any luck straighening it? Did it last????

Anybody in Colorado have a frame table I can put it on to try and get it straight again, if only for a few months?


FAMOUS LAST WORDS......my next rig is going to have a cage :laugh3:

The front area your talking about is part of the collapse zone built into the body to help you in a front end collision. A got bodyman should be able to straighten it but it will loose some strength. Contact me if you want it done on the cheap.

I've done body work for years but I just don't have the anchors in the cement to allow me to do the pulling. Where do you recommend going?

On the cheap is the operative word right now. I just found out my job is going away in a couple of weeks, so I am out looking for more contract work. It used to be if you were an engineer you pretty much had a guaranteed job. That has sure changed from 30 years ago.

I would think that after all the hell this chassis has been through, it is time to retire it. XJ's are pretty much disposable... how many times do you wash a paper plate?

I would think anything you do to it now, will be somewhat futile. I agree that it probably wont fold in half, but this does bring up a strong argument for an exocage, or atleast an internal cage with stringers running through the firewall to the front frame like in a pro-stock car. or throw it all on top of a YJ frame with a streched wheelbase..

The real issue is do you think it would hold up through the best of the west series?

old_man said:

The real issue is do you think it would hold up through the best of the west series?

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Of course it would........and if it doesn't? Who cares!!!!!

Tom, you can't hurt it anymore than it is. It's also very easy to SAY move everything over to another chassis, but it's much more difficult (read time consuming) to DO.

You can have a frame shop pull it if you can find a friendly one who will just do the hours to pull it, and then you reinforce it. Short of you hitting it that hard again, there's enough structure there that it shouldn't bend any more. If you look at the frame just behind the track bar mount, there is a spot at the point where the frame starts to widen considerably, which I found to be a weak point. This spot is forced to absorb a lot of twisting, and would be a place to look for a crease. Another potential spot is further back from there where the top of the frame intersects the firewall, it may be pushed in slightly there. This is only my opinion, based on observing weak points prone to cracking.

I think we should all have anchors in our garage or driveway floors so we can periodically pull against them to do a little amateur frame straightening. How strong of an anchor do we need, I wonder? Maybe.....

Tom, is this the beginning of an excuse to not make it? CO style...........

old_man said:

The real issue is do you think it would hold up through the best of the west series?

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Now its work hardened? :d Maybe not...

If you still have good clearances, radiator, engine mounts.... Id say just run it. I wouldent spend time welding to it untill you get it straight.
The cage wont help the front unless you run some fender bars tot he front bumper if I understand how it bent..

If the front frame is that bad you could cut out your fender wells and front fram and build some 3/16in box frame rails and run some internal fender bars that tie into the bumper at hood height. That would be ideal, but alot of work.

Id just keep it bent.

Well the sh!t starts already. There are basically only two excuses I might have for not going. I am going to be out of work here real soon, so if I get another contract and they won't let me go.....or.....I don't get a contract and thus have no money.

That got me one year and the other year I was having my neck restrung. Talk about plating a frame. The titanium plates and screws were $6000 and you should have seen the bill for labor.