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Cracked Frame

The Box

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Knoxville
Sooo, I was in my fender well the other day trimming the rear fenders and I found out my "frame" is cracked and separating from the uni. I'm not sure how long its been cracked but looking at it now its probably been damaged for a while. I got it about 6 years ago and I still remember the p/o's response to the question "has it ever been in an accident?" "Not to my knowledge." he says. Which could very well have been true but I always thought it was suspicious. Anyways, I saw this section in the back fender that had some rubber coating on it and never really figured out what it was. I never really looked at it to try and figure out either. Upon inspection of it turns out it is a plate tach welded over a damaged part of the frame, which I assume got worse from the stress of offroading. Now it looks like the frame is cracked pretty bad and separating at the seem as well. The exciting part is that there is another plate like this in the other fender well. Cant wait to see what that one looks like. Maybe these cracks are the reason my jeep flexes so nicely.:dunno:

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truggy time
 
Time to weld in some unibody reinforcement plates and call it good.
 
throw it away, xj's are plentiful
 
plate it...

although i'd be curious to see what's behind the patch piece they added :dunno:
 
Dan, take all that crap off and start over. Grind the crack out slightly and fill in with weld, then grind smooth. Then cut plate to cover the area. Before you weld the plate on, drill holes in it so you can plug weld it as well as weld the perimeter. It will be much stronger this way...
 
Yea I'm curious to see what's under the plate too. I figure once cleaned up and plated it should be fine, but I'm interested to know how it got damaged to begin with. I haven't seen any other evidence of it having been wrecked.
 
i think either tylers idea or some of those frame stiffeners like doug put on his waggy would help tremendously, or c channel with tylers advice. either way it looks like some fixin and maybe a call or two to find out... did you ever carfax the xj to see if it had been repaired at a body shop?
 
Yea I'm curious to see what's under the plate too. I figure once cleaned up and plated it should be fine, but I'm interested to know how it got damaged to begin with. I haven't seen any other evidence of it having been wrecked.


Jumped maybe???

Or some punk UT kid got it and wheeled the snot outta it following guys on 35+ inch tires even though his jeep was only on 32's...

:D
 
i think either tylers idea or some of those frame stiffeners like doug put on his waggy would help tremendously, or c channel with tylers advice. either way it looks like some fixin and maybe a call or two to find out... did you ever carfax the xj to see if it had been repaired at a body shop?

id be curious to see if the full stiffeys could be modified within reason to work with the re longarms, or swap to a custom three link like mine

Or some punk UT kid got it and wheeled the snot outta it following guys on 35+ inch tires even though his jeep was only on 32's...

:D

:roflmao:
 
No, I never knew about carfax back then.

I'm thinking it could have been jumped, but nothing else seems bent. When I got the jeep it had some 3" skyjacker coils and an add-a-leaf w/ blocks. A highschool kid had been driving it and the underside was that perma-brown color. No doubt he had had some fun with it. Following the big boys around probably didn't help matters though.

I think it would be alot of work to modify them to work with the re longarms unless you just dont remove them, but since it is in the rear I think a few strips of steel with roset holes, like Tyler mentioned, should do the trick.
 
Had Matt (reddalty) fix me up today. Pulled off the plate and found some gross damage. Welded up the cracks, then stitch welded some .25" over it. Ready to rock now. Heres what it looked like.

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