How To: Put new floorpans and patch holes in my XJ (really long)

Ok there are alot of pics, but I put this in this forum because I think it will be more helpful to users here instead of in the pic forum.

Well, I finished putting in the new floorpans and patching the holes in the XJ the other day, so here are the pics of the process in a How-To form. This is going to be LONG so hang on.

What you need:

New floorpans (I used Sherman Parts floorpans, cost $238 with tax)
An angle grinder with cutoff wheel, and grinding wheel
Chissel
Rubber Mallet
Balpine Hammer
Not sure of the name, but I call it a Spike hammer. It has a spike on one side, and a big flat round end on the other end. I think it is for body work.
Center Punch
Welder
Shop Vac for all the little bits
Screw driver
Box knife to cut up the old carpet
A drill with abbrasive wheel
Spot weld cutter (I used a big drill bit, but you have to be careful with a drill bit)
Drill bits for drilling holes for spotwelds, and seat bolts
Various sizes of hole saws for drain plugs
Safty glasses
Ear plugs
Dust mask, unless you want to breath in all the rust dust
Seam Sealer
Ratchet set
T47 Torx bit for the seat belts
T40 Torx bit for the rear hatch latch
Sharpie
UNPLUG your battery, I have heard that welding with the battery in could possibly ruin the computer, also it keeps the dome light from running the battery down, because this project will take awhile.



Now for the fun part.

First you need to take out your seats, spare tire, interior pannels and console (I left the Shifter console in, but it would be best to take it out). I didn't take out my seat belts until the end, because I am about to Herculiner the inside. I would recomend taking them out in the beginning, because they can get in the way.

Now that all of that is out of the way, it is time to take the carpet out. I actually found the horn button under the carpet. I saw it, and thought "what is this" then I realized what it was, now my steering wheel doesn't look empty. This is one of the times you need that dust mask, It probably isn't good to breath the all of the dust that comes up. My carpet was soaked, so I cut it into sections to make it easier, and so I didn't get as wet. There is some padding that is under the dash that is not part of the carpet, I took it out too. I also found some insulation stuff that was around the fuse box and in the same spot on the passenger side. I took it out so it wouldn't catch on fire.

Next I went through with the drill and abrasive wheel, to get all of the loose stuff up. You will probably want a dust mask for this part too. I also used a Ruber Mallet and Chissel to cut away the stock Seam Sealer (It is a little quicker if you heat up the sealer with a heat gun). Now you need to Vacuum up all the little bits. There was alot of stuff in mine, I think the previous owner hauld a dog in mine, there was ALOT of dog hair. I had to empty my Shop Vac a few times, but I was using a small one.

Here are the Brand New, Shiny Floor pans. I think this is the best way to go. the pans fit PERFECTLY. Only some minor modification was made to get the pans to form to the dimples on the back of the transmission tunnel (hince the two hammers you will need).



Here are some test fit pics before I got to cutting. To make the holes for the holes for the seat studs, so I could get the pans to slide in. I put a dab of Flourescent Orange paint on the tips and set the pans down on top, then drilled out where the paint transfered. Once I got them in, I traced the edges with a Sharpie so I would know my limit of cutting.





Time to start cutting. WATCH OUT FOR FUEL LINES AND OTHER THINGS UNDER THE FLOOR. I used an Angle Grider with a cut-off wheel. When I got to the non rusted metal, I used a drill bit to cut the spot welds, and a rubber mallet and chissel to break them the rest of the way. You will want to vacuum out your Uniframe rail after this.

The first casualties, the shiny, new looking metal was my first attempt at making my own floorpans.

Next I drilled all the spotweld holes, and the holes above the T-Case Skid studs. I traced the Uniframe rail from under the Jeep with a Sharpie, so I would know where to drill the holes (This took a while, I would recomend marking and center punching the holes before you start to drill. I drilled a few to hold down the side of the transmission tunnel, but I still welded up the entire seam. It makes it alot easier when you are not chasing the drill bit.







Now It is time to weld. You dont want to weld all in one spot, or the metal will warp. I started in the middle and worked my way to the front and back. When doing the transmission side I did alot of spotwelds in about one half to one inch lengths, and spaced the sections out so not to warp the metal.





Now before you start on the Passenger side, you need to put the grinding wheel on the angle grinder and clean up any big welds (I had a couple, they weren't real bad, but they weren't as flush with the floor as the othe spot welds.

Now its time to start on the passenger side. Heres is what I started out with. This is about what the drivers side looked like. Same cautions apply to this side as did apply to the drivers side. If you use something like a Sawzall to cut the floor instead of a cut-off whee, watch out for the exhaust.





Here are some test fit pics.

Now It's cutting time. As you can see in the pics you will need to Vacuum out the Uniframe rail













Now Its time again to trace the Uniframe rail for your spotwelds. Again, mark the holes with a Sharpie, centerpunch them, and drill all of your holes.





Now weld it up, I didn't get any pics of the Passenger side right after welding, but it looks like the Drives side.

Now that the welding is done I went through the entire floor, Front and back and painted down some Rust Mort (I got it at Orielly Auto Parts). This stuff STINKS. I painted it over all of the parts that still had some rust on them. This stuff really works too. It converts the rust in to a dark brown to black substance, and is hard like metal again. After you do this and it has dried the directions say to take a wet rag and wipe the floor down. This stuff only sticks to rust, and if you paint over it with out cleaning it off of the non rusted surface, your paint will peal in that area.

Now It is time to Seal all of the seams. Take your seam sealer and brush it around the edges of the floorpans where you welded. Clean the Seams first.





This area is fully patched and sealed now, eventhough it isn't in the pic. I just took a strip of clean metal from what I cut out and made the patch

Now it is time to patch any small rust holes that weren't fixed by the floorpans. I had a couple in the back to fix.

Here is what they looked like.





Now you want to cut out all of the rusted metal. Even though I put the Rust Mort down, These parts still needed to be fixed.





Then I made the patches and test fit them.





Now its weld time. Clean up the welds with the angle grinder when done.

Hey, guess what!! Its done. Now its time to clean up the mess, and I had a big one.









I backed out the Jeep and saw exactly how big the mess was.

Well this was my floor



Here is all of the little metal, rust bits, and dirt that fell through the floor while working.



All swept up and ready to be thrown away



Now It is time to do what ever you are going to do to put back in the Jeep and spray the under side where the new metal is with some under coating, I am going to use the Duplicolor Spray on beadliner. I am going to Herculiner the inside, and repaint the interior panels, because they are faded from 20 years of sunlight. I haven't done the Herculiner yet, but I will when I get a couple of good weather days when isn't cold and windy.

Hope this helps anyone looking to do this.

Comments welcome.

Very nice write up and nice job. live in CA so I hope I wont have to do this for a long time if ever.

SKIM said:

Very nice write up and nice job. live in CA so I hope I wont have to do this for a long time if ever.

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Thanks, Im just glad that tis is the only rust. My rockers and Uniframe are solid. All of the rust is from a leaky Plexiglass rear Drivers side window in the cargo area, leaky door seals, and a leak under the dash.

Nice job....Why didn't you put anything like POR-15 in the frame rails so they wouldn't rust on the inside? Nice write up for quite a few guys who need it. Hope I won't for a while!!

Why did you put those 2 big (drain) holes so close to each other on each pan?

53guy said:

Nice job....Why didn't you put anything like POR-15 in the frame rails so they wouldn't rust on the inside? Nice write up for quite a few guys who need it. Hope I won't for a while!!

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Thanks, they were still in perfect condition, just a little dirty. There is a coating that was on them from the factory, so I didn't do anything with it. I was going to use POR-15 for coating the rust parts instead of using the Rust Mort, but the guys at Orielly said they couldn't get it, but they had something that was for the same thing. I got it, because I didn't want to run all over the place looking for it.

89Daytona said:

Why did you put those 2 big (drain) holes so close to each other on each pan?

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Those aren't drain holes, I haven't made those yet. The holes are for access to the T-case skid and crossmember studs.

Nice write up looks solid. I just made my own pans. The only thing is when I checked the drivers side underneath the the dash I had some rot there too, but I would have had to pull the engine to fully get at it. So I just took some long wire brushes and scraped the hell out of it from Underneath and gooped a lot of the Herc up there over the surface rust.

Thanks. I tried to make some pans, but It was just too complicated to get all of the bends and conturs correctly, So I went with these. If you ask me the money is well worth it, considering the amount of time it saved me.

This is a nice job and write up - I have just started this process on my '96 and also purchased the Sherman pans. My Sport is a 2 door, so it has a strut that runs from the transmission hump to the door on both sides. The front of the seat brackets bolt to this strut, which is welded in with a variety of spot welds.

I really do not want to take it out, so I was thinking of just cutting the pans into 2 sections and weld them in around the strut.

See any problems with that?


2XJ

2XJ said:

This is a nice job and write up - I have just started this process on my '96 and also purchased the Sherman pans. My Sport is a 2 door, so it has a strut that runs from the transmission hump to the door on both sides. The front of the seat brackets bolt to this strut, which is welded in with a variety of spot welds.

I really do not want to take it out, so I was thinking of just cutting the pans into 2 sections and weld them in around the strut.

See any problems with that?


2XJ

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Mine is a 2 door also, or did you mean yours is a 4 door. Sherman makes the pans in the smaller sections, just like the larger pans, only cut in half. If the pans look the same, it should be ok. I think they are all the same, because the factory floorpan you used to beable to get worked with the 2 and 4 door versions.

Here is the pic that 2XJ was talking about. Its the strut on the floor under the steering wheel.

If the metal under the brace is rusted it will just spread to the new metal.

Its less expensive to get the whole pans from sherman than cut them in two (if you have to) than it is to get the 4 split pans.

I think that brace was on all '96+ models, thats when they changed the seat mount design (i can't seem to find the thread with the seat mount details). It is most likely just used for mounting the seat to not really structural for the body.

When my very first car went for inpection I knew it would fail but I would get 30 days to fix it. The inspector said you get 24 hours because you have a combination of holes in the floor boards and holes in the exhost system. I cut some plywood and used bondo on the the wood and went back the next day for my 30 day pass. The inspector got mad and I had to beg for the 30 day extension but I got it. Thanks for posting "how to do it right!"

UPDATE TIME!!!!!

I got the Herculiner done last weekend, and got it put back together today. Also, for undercoating, I used Permatex Undercoating instead of the DupliColor sprayon liner that I had planned on using.

I cleaned up the pans, and since you arent supposed to Herculine over bare metal, I spayed some flat black paint down first.









Now on to the finished Herculiner shots.









Here is a shot of the whole interior



Here are some shots of everything back together









As you can see in this last pic It is deffinatly time for a new Rear Hatch Seal



What do ya'll think.

Damn, that is hotness! I think I need to pull the rest of my carpet out.

The console that you have, is that factory? I have a 5 speed and the thing extends along most of the trans tunnel. It also has a tube in there for routing the a/c.

Matt

Thanks! Yea the shifter console is stock, but the cup holders are something my brother put in.