Rusty Crusty

copy/paste from Pirate

Damn I can see my bloody frame

Anywho, hows it going , finally settled down and found something I wanted to buy, unfortunately I should have gone over it with a finer comb. Lets just say some pooched rear weather stripping = small hole. I get a little bored and a small hole turns into a big hole trying to find good tin to weld to.

Pics to describe my problem. Driver side rear by the gas filler.



Now the original hole was probably the size of my fist and I kept chewing up shitty steel so now I have this big gapping hole.

First lemme say I am an amatuer at body work, steel will be welded in there I HATE bondo and fibre glass. After recent family (parent) problems my dad moved away and I do not have access to some of the tools that I need so I butchered the floor with some sidecutters and tin snips.

Friday I am going to see my dad and he said I can borrow his grinder, so I'll be cleaning all the edges up so the patch will look somewhat decent. Now I am thinking about using 20guage steel do you think that will be too thin? The only reason I am not half assing all this is because the xj needs to pass safety inspection.

I have an idea of how I want to patch it, but obviously the strength of my unibody has been compromised...that being said I want to somehow reinforce this area or possibly the entire rear cargo area. A buddy suggested after I patch that section, that I should buy a sheet of checker plate, trim it to the specs of the cargo area and weld it into place.

Looking for all recommendations... Also advice for welding around the gas tank area... my fuel tank is pretty much full, would you advise that I drop the tank? I have an ATV jack that could making dropping the tank a breeze if need be... but if there is some sort of precautions I can take I'd like to hear them.

I don't have access to a tube bender so don't tell me to build a cage. , I just want a solid floor.


Here is a second hole in the passenger side... not really sure how to go about fixing this one...I can't do it from the inside because it has all that factory silicone crap pooped on there. Looks like I'll have to remove the inner fender skin (plastic - you can see it through the hole) and grind down to some fresh metal from the outside.



Advise here would be nice too. Thanks pirate, I'll update you guys with pics if I get to it on Friday night. I hope to have this thing ready for inspection by the end of our Thanksgiving weekend. I'll be eating turkey bitches

That's a nasty hole, all right. First of all, if you're going to weld, I would absolutely drop the tank. There's going to be a lot of heat, and a good chance you'll burn through occasionally too as new areas of weakness show up. Aside from that, you'll benefit from access to both sides.

You might consider hotwiring the fuel pump and pumping at least some of the gas out before dropping the tank, unless you can find an excuse to drive 300 miles or so before you do the job. Expect to shear off the bolts that hold the straps. If you're a welder, you can easily fab up new ones. Last time I did this I just welded new threaded rod to the stubs. If you are hanging around junkyards a lot, note that the spare tire holddown bolts on some Jeeps use the same head as the tank bolts. The lengths vary, but you could get lucky.

I'm assuming that you have some experience in welding on this kind of stuff. If not, you will by the time you're done. I usually prefer to screw down plates on vehicles this rusty, but it depends on how rusty the rest of it is.

I wouldn't worry too much about structural loss. If you weld the patches well, the floor will be strong. The floor can be reunited with the frame with a few rosette welds from the top.

I would seriously consider a screwed in patch for the little hole in the forward floor. That's a difficult spot to weld in, and there's a good chance you'll find the metal around the hole pretty crusty and hard to weld even if it's fairly sound. You can hammer a patch to the right shape, screw it down with self-drilling hex head screws, and seal it abundantly with roofing tar or other gooey undercoating, and it will probably outlast the vehicle.

I have a "Rusty Crusty" in the same area. I think I have traced the problem to the seal at the top of the hatch where the wiring goes into the hatch. I noticed after a hard rain, water running down the wiring harness at this point. My brother works in the A/C business and he is bending up a piece to repair the bottom where the hatch gasket goes. It's a lot of work, but the jeep is paid for.

yeah my seal leaks, not sure what I want to do about it yet...

X2 Matthew....get that tank out of there. New straps are like $28 @ rockauto.com . If you can get some 18 guage it will be easier to weld.I just fab'd an entire rear floor pan so it you should be able to do that patch.
Don't hurry it, it gets frustrating at times. Try to get any seams you have over the "frame rail" so your new patch and old floor will have a solid spot to weld to.
You'll find that need to tie the patch into the wheel well and the gas filler tube housing and surrounding metal, by doing this you will see that it ties the floor and quarter panel together to the frame for more structural strength.
As for the spot under seat do the best you can, X2 Matthew again, if you start cutting in that area you won't stop 'til you are at the interior rockers.
Try to make you patches as concealed (from underneath) as you can, some places can be real tuff about repairs to a unibody.

ok I killed a little bit of gas tonight, sitting at 3/4 of a tank LOL
We finished up the rear drums and the water pump at a buddies which was a good start.
I hit the area with a grinder today and that was fn' dumb :twak:. I kept as many sparks out of the gas tank area as possible which is extremely tricky but I don't want to do that again, I think I am going to try and drop the tank, I don't have anywhere to put the fuel unfortunately... so the ATV sissor jack is going to be an interesting attempt at dropping it. I don't want to drive it without insurance and have nowhere to put 50litres of fuel. Stupidity on my part has kicked my ass this whole project.