Floor pan repair

I discovered a few rust holes on the passenger side today after I pulled the carpet. Does anyone have some words of wisdom for patching them back up. The largest is a crack, about 4" long, where the rear of the passenger seat bolts down directly above the cat. Another spot, about a 3/8" hole, is above the muffler. The last spot is in the foot well with rust at the seam where the frame rails meets the floor pan.

I have some galvanized steel sheet metal, POR-15, high temp silicone caulk, and a bunch of rivets. In addition, 1/8" aluminum plate to be used as a heat shield above the cat. Am I going down the right road?

--Matt

IMHO, no -- you are not going down the right road. I have no idea how structural the floor pan is in the location you describe, but it has always been my understanding that in a unibody all panels are stressed-skin panels. A replacement panel could be riveted in place and maintain structural integrity, but not using a hand-help pop rivet tool.

IMHO replacement panels should be welded in place.

Allow me to clarify -- I see no harm in covering a small hole in a panel with a piece that's pop riveted or screwed in place. However, in the location you describe other people have found extensive rust-through. Once you start cleaning up the holes, they may grow rather large. It's at that point that I believe you want to start looking for a structural repair rather than a cosmetic one.

As for the larger rust spot I was concidering welding in a new panel on the bottom. I'm just a little uneasy welding to 18 or 20 awg sheet metal. I'm just looking for some answers.

--Matt

We were able to get the patch panels on mine welded to the sheetmetal with little drama, with one exception. That came where the rearmost patch met up with the factory seam running laterally in front of the rear seats. That seam had been sealed up at the factory with some sort of magical goo that defied all atempts at getting a clean surface to weld to. SO, that last edge got secured with several small self-tapping srews.
I think you may find that when you go to grind away the rust, your holes will grow quite a bit as Eagle suggested. My cancer had spread to the point where I wound up with one open hole extending from that seam in front of the passenger rear seat all the way up about even with the shifter, and from the middle of the passenger seat about a third of the way up the tunnel. It was a big, scary hole. The trick to it was fitting the patch panles just right and getting nice clean, sound edges to weld to. If you're going to use galvanized sheetmetal - remember that you'll need to remove the galvanizing from the edge of your panel to avoid poisonous fumes while welding it.
Once you get it patched, POR 15 is a good idea. I did that on the enitre front floorpan of mine and then scuffed the surface and Herculined the whole interior floor, including the cargo area. I found that the carpet, padding and sound deadening material had held in condensation and other water right over the muffler and cat and caused a rust nightmare. Since the repair I've had no reoccurrence of rust (so far - fingers crossed!).
Good luck with yours.

I have a 4.5 x 2.5 foot whole in the passanger side floor due to rust. going to get 16g sheet metal, beat it down, tack it, beat it some more, tack it agian then paint it.

UI just did this repair on a 95 that came from NJ.....three sections casued by heat of cat, muffler, crosspipe and salt...it is very improtant for you guys fromt the rust belt to wash off the salt from under the ol XJ on a weekly basis during teh winter.

anyway

I cut out the damaged areas, ground and sanded all area around the holes, tacked down new sheetmetal 18 ga like original, by setting the mig on a low setting and turning wire speed way down you can actually get a very decent spot weld, buy tipping the torch @ a 75* angle to the sheet metal and hitting for about 1 second...I made several hundred of these and all held very well.

after that I ground down any tall spots and hit the areas with rust preventer paint adherance product...and then fiberglassed the entire area with several coats..then herculined it all the next day..
areas still flex well and the glass reinforces teh entire area.

should have taken some pics

I looked below my jeep and i have the rust where you all have described and it is pretty bad. What am i looking at cost wise to fix it? I am no sheetmetal worker so i have to pay someone to do it. What might the damage be? Thanks for any help.
Tylor

What am i looking at cost wise to fix it? I am no sheetmetal worker so i have to pay someone to do it. What might the damage be? Thanks for any help.

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can you say bend over......most shops charge 55.00 an hour mine took five hours plus materials ...Id say in the 400.00 plus range.

I have the same problem with my XJ. I was wondering if anyone knew where to get replacement floorboards. I have looked everywhere on the net with no luck.

I've fixed a spot on my 89 on the drivers side passenger floor area where two seams in the uni-body meet that trapped water. Merely trimmed and ground off the rust which left a 1"x 3" hole, MIG-ed in a metal patch and then sealed both sides with "liquid roofing seam sealer/cement". In fact, when I did my tranny swap, I coated the whole tunnel area with this stuff. It dries hard but flexes and stays shiny so it's easy to wash mud and crud off.

I also repaired a hole in my buddy's 95 XJ, pass side front leaf spring hanger had pulled away from the uni-body just enough to make a hole and let water in. The repair was similar to above.

Clean it, weld it, coat it, forget it.

BTW, for a cat heat shield, try the dealer. The ones that come stock on newer XJs will fit on the older models too and will keep your floor nice and cool. Bolt on (screw on ) mod too.

I just have to say I LOVE ARIZONA

I had an XJ in Utah that I paid somebody to do the panel on. He charged $200 and did an awesome job, even coated it all when he was done. When I called around, most people were hesitant or didn't know what to charge, I stayed away from those. When I talked to the guy I had do it, he was familiar with it, said he had done a ton of them, and sounded confident. It was a small shop, can't remember the name. Off South State Street in Provo.

I doubt very seriously that you'll find ready-made floor pan panels anywhere due to the fact that the XJ is a unibody. You'll have to make some up. I'm no sheetmetal worker either, but it really wasn't that bad. Measure twice (then a coupla more times to be sure) and cut the patch to fit slightly larger than the opening.
I used a large sheet of paper (came on a roll roughly three feet wide - don't recall where I found it) to lay over the clean-edged hole with a bright light under the Jeep. That way while inside the Jeep I could see very easily where the hole was under the paper and simply drew a template a little more than a quarter-inch larger than the opening allthe way around. Mine even involved compound curves since the hole reached part way up the tunnel and all the way back to where the tunnel narrows. The paper bent to follow these curves and it all worked out very nicely.
Then lay the paper flat on your sheetmetal and transfer the lines to the metal and cut them out. Align the first edge and slowly start bending to get it to match the contour of the floor.
Weld them in, seal them up really good top and bottom, and keep road salt washed off - voila!
I Herculined the entire floorpan of mine and so far I think it's done a great job of keeping any condensation from getting at the metal. The carpet, pad and whatnot trapped all that moisture previously.
Good luck

try www.tenaflyjeepmoparparts.com check their on line parts cat. have all kinds of body panels for XJ's...if they don't have it stock leave a mess. for Dwayne (Parts Mgr.) he can do a Mopar search for you.

dizzymac said:

try www.tenaflyjeepmoparparts.com check their on line parts cat. have all kinds of body panels for XJ's...if they don't have it stock leave a mess. for Dwayne (Parts Mgr.) he can do a Mopar search for you.

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This thread is (was!) a year old, dude. Need something to do in your spare time?

So not to bring up a post from the past or anything but... I am needing to do a repair to my floor pan as well. Mine unfortunately its the drivers side floor board. There has been a leak for a long time it appears by way of the upper door gasket as I can see daylight there.

I did find one odd thing on that website.

if this will wrap you can see what I am looking at.

http://www.trademotion.com/partloca...1989&graphicID=WB4828 &callout=10&catalogid=2

Should I buy the 4cyl one. Looks to be cheaper!

Looks like amoung the door seals and dew wipes I need to get a floor pan.

That was actually for anyone looking for for floor pans or other panels, I know other pepole may be doing a search for that type of repair and would come across it, regardless of date.....dude.

dizzymac said:

That was actually for anyone looking for for floor pans or other panels, I know other pepole may be doing a search for that type of repair and would come across it, regardless of date.....dude.

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Good thinking,As long as there are Cherokee's this repair will always be needed...I for one used Lowes sheet metal, Road signs and welded with a side of RTV.

Then sealed with 3M undercoat and rocker shutz.

I am in the middle of cutting out large sections of my Jeep and this thread was very helpful (as far as re-assuring me that I wasn't nuts)