MattAnonymous
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Palm City, FL
I promised I'd a write-up a while ago, so here it goes.
I bought my 93 2 door 5 speed 4x4 Cherokee with 67k miles on it. I noticed some floor pan rust on the driver's side and used it to negotiate the price. I needed a vehicle asap due to my Nissan's engine failure. It wasn't until a month later when I was back at school that I had time to examine the floors more closely. UH OH! I thought I was SOL, but was pleased to find that replacement pans were available.
Here's what the driver's side looked like after pulling up the carpet 6 months after buy the Jeep (by the way, I beat the shit out of the XJ by taking it mudding quite often. I flooded the interior on more than one occasion, I just didn't care because I knew the interior was gonna be replaced anyway.)
Yeah, I think it's about time for me to fix that.
Keep in mind, I have very limited funds and that's pretty much the theme of this project. By no means did I cut corners, I just substituted research, knowledge, and elbow grease for cash.
Since I missed the boat with the amazon.com floor pan sale, I couldn't seem to find a floor pan for less than $265 shipped. Trust me, I looked. Then, my persistence paid off. I found a company about an hour south of my parents' house in south Florida that said I could pick the floor pan up to save on shipping. BINGO! For $150, I had a brand new factory floor pan.
Getting the pan back to Orlando, where I attend school, proved to be somewhat challenging. Despite fastening the large box to my roof racks with ratcheting tie downs, the thing just didn't want to stay on. I pulled over, removed the pan from the box and found that could fit it into the XJ through the hatch by bending it slightly.
Here's the pan after I cleaned the protective oil off of it and sprayed it with some 3M rubber undercoating:
I didn't want to have to do this again, so I did my best to protect the 'fragile' steel. If you're welding, there's no reason to coat the pan prior to welding. I'd planned on using an autobody adhesive when I coated the pan.
Ok, well, the old pan must come out before the new one can go in. I originally used a reciprocating saw. Horrible choice. You're gonna want to get a pack of cutoff wheels and an angle grinder. Harbor Freight is a store I'm very familiar with.
^That took all day with the reciprocating saw.
^ versus a few hours with the cutoff wheel on the angle grinder.
One must be careful not to cut the frame rails, misc brackets, fuel lines, etc. The most difficult part of the removal process is the removal of the floor pan where it has been spot welded to the frame rails. For this, I used a pry bar and merely popped the material off by prying between the welds. Very frustrating and time consuming, but do your best not to bend the flange of the frame rail.
Passenger side:
Here's a shot of my destruction:
Here's my 'workshop'. It basically consists of a 50 foot extension cord running out of my on-campus apartment window to the parking lot.
Ok, so if there's rust on the floor pan, you're bound to have rust elsewhere, namely the frame rails.
It's difficult to remove the rust from inside of the rails, but do your best. I sanded it down as much as I could and then applied a rust converter. I then cleaned out both rails, sprayed a coating of rustoleum down and then coated the inside of the rails with rubberized undercoating.
Now it's time to test fit the new pan to make sure I've cut where needed and just to give my self a morale boost.
Mmmm. Pretty.
While it's in there and everything looks aligned, you'll want to drill holes through the pan and into the frame rail flanges and other places where the pan will mate to the body (ie transmission tunnel, under the doors, in front of the rear seats.) I left some of the old floor pan at the front and rear to give me something to rest the new pan on and to drill into. I put 1/8" holes ever couple inches or so.
Let's prep the pan where it'll mate to the rails and body:
Originally, I planned on using an autobody adhesive called WeldBond. However, the one I bought was defective and one of the parts of the 2 part solution had fully cured within the tube. Well, I need transportation again, so let's fire up the arc welder I bought from Harbor Freight the previous day (120amp 115/230 arc, but don't buy the HF rods, go to Lowes, Home Depot, etc and buy some good 1/16 or 3/32 6011 rods. While you're out, pick up a real welding mask because the one that comes with the welder is worthless). At this point, I've rendered the pre application of the floor pan coating absolutely useless. lol.
First, I tied the pan to the body with sheet metal screws through the 1/8"
I drilled earlier. I put screws in every other hole. Once the pan has been secured by the screws, you can ground the welder and start welding in the 1/8" holes between the screws. It's a good idea to alternate your welding location. This allows one area to cool so it doesn't warp the sheet metal.
Once you're confident that your welds are holding, remove the screws and weld in those holes.
I bought my 93 2 door 5 speed 4x4 Cherokee with 67k miles on it. I noticed some floor pan rust on the driver's side and used it to negotiate the price. I needed a vehicle asap due to my Nissan's engine failure. It wasn't until a month later when I was back at school that I had time to examine the floors more closely. UH OH! I thought I was SOL, but was pleased to find that replacement pans were available.
Here's what the driver's side looked like after pulling up the carpet 6 months after buy the Jeep (by the way, I beat the shit out of the XJ by taking it mudding quite often. I flooded the interior on more than one occasion, I just didn't care because I knew the interior was gonna be replaced anyway.)
Yeah, I think it's about time for me to fix that.
Keep in mind, I have very limited funds and that's pretty much the theme of this project. By no means did I cut corners, I just substituted research, knowledge, and elbow grease for cash.
Since I missed the boat with the amazon.com floor pan sale, I couldn't seem to find a floor pan for less than $265 shipped. Trust me, I looked. Then, my persistence paid off. I found a company about an hour south of my parents' house in south Florida that said I could pick the floor pan up to save on shipping. BINGO! For $150, I had a brand new factory floor pan.
Getting the pan back to Orlando, where I attend school, proved to be somewhat challenging. Despite fastening the large box to my roof racks with ratcheting tie downs, the thing just didn't want to stay on. I pulled over, removed the pan from the box and found that could fit it into the XJ through the hatch by bending it slightly.
Here's the pan after I cleaned the protective oil off of it and sprayed it with some 3M rubber undercoating:
I didn't want to have to do this again, so I did my best to protect the 'fragile' steel. If you're welding, there's no reason to coat the pan prior to welding. I'd planned on using an autobody adhesive when I coated the pan.
Ok, well, the old pan must come out before the new one can go in. I originally used a reciprocating saw. Horrible choice. You're gonna want to get a pack of cutoff wheels and an angle grinder. Harbor Freight is a store I'm very familiar with.
^That took all day with the reciprocating saw.
^ versus a few hours with the cutoff wheel on the angle grinder.
One must be careful not to cut the frame rails, misc brackets, fuel lines, etc. The most difficult part of the removal process is the removal of the floor pan where it has been spot welded to the frame rails. For this, I used a pry bar and merely popped the material off by prying between the welds. Very frustrating and time consuming, but do your best not to bend the flange of the frame rail.
Passenger side:
Here's a shot of my destruction:
Here's my 'workshop'. It basically consists of a 50 foot extension cord running out of my on-campus apartment window to the parking lot.
Ok, so if there's rust on the floor pan, you're bound to have rust elsewhere, namely the frame rails.
It's difficult to remove the rust from inside of the rails, but do your best. I sanded it down as much as I could and then applied a rust converter. I then cleaned out both rails, sprayed a coating of rustoleum down and then coated the inside of the rails with rubberized undercoating.
Now it's time to test fit the new pan to make sure I've cut where needed and just to give my self a morale boost.
Mmmm. Pretty.
While it's in there and everything looks aligned, you'll want to drill holes through the pan and into the frame rail flanges and other places where the pan will mate to the body (ie transmission tunnel, under the doors, in front of the rear seats.) I left some of the old floor pan at the front and rear to give me something to rest the new pan on and to drill into. I put 1/8" holes ever couple inches or so.
Let's prep the pan where it'll mate to the rails and body:
Originally, I planned on using an autobody adhesive called WeldBond. However, the one I bought was defective and one of the parts of the 2 part solution had fully cured within the tube. Well, I need transportation again, so let's fire up the arc welder I bought from Harbor Freight the previous day (120amp 115/230 arc, but don't buy the HF rods, go to Lowes, Home Depot, etc and buy some good 1/16 or 3/32 6011 rods. While you're out, pick up a real welding mask because the one that comes with the welder is worthless). At this point, I've rendered the pre application of the floor pan coating absolutely useless. lol.
First, I tied the pan to the body with sheet metal screws through the 1/8"
I drilled earlier. I put screws in every other hole. Once the pan has been secured by the screws, you can ground the welder and start welding in the 1/8" holes between the screws. It's a good idea to alternate your welding location. This allows one area to cool so it doesn't warp the sheet metal.
Once you're confident that your welds are holding, remove the screws and weld in those holes.
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