Unibody Rust Repair Part 9: Closing Up The Floor
The least exciting portion of this project by far was closing up the two holes left in the floor directly below where the rear seat goes. I initally cut these holes in the floor way back at the beginning of the project because I needed to remove the original frame rails. Read more...
Unibody Rust Repair Part 8: Welding on Frame Stiffeners
One of my biggest concerns about my custom fabricated frame rails was the vertical welds joining the frame sections. Vertical welds like those are a big no no when it comes to frames because they’re especially prone to failing. Read more...
Unibody Rust Repair Part 7: A New Fuel Neck Housing And Making Cut N Fold Panels
The Fuel Neck Housing I’ve been ignoring the gaping hole around where the fuel neck passes through the interior to travel down towards the gas tank. I had a feeling it’d be easy to fix so I never put much thought into it. Read more...
Unibody Rust Repair Part 6: Turning A Patch Panel Into A New Cargo Floor Pan
Building Out The Cargo Floor I didn’t want to try to salvage the original cargo area floor from my Jeep. It had rusted through in several spots, and I kinda chopped it up into several pieces because I only removed bits of it as a time when I was fabricating the new frame rails. Read more...
Unibody Rust Repair Part 5: Designing A Custom Gas Tank Cradle
Directly below the floor of the XJ in the cargo area sits the gas tank. Tucked tight between the frame rails it rests a mere 1/2" from the floor. The mount for the gas tank is also what braces the floor in the cargo area. Read more...
Unibody Rust Repair Part 4: Hooking Up The Suspension
With the frame squared away I needed something that I could mount up the suspension to. The only thing holding in the rear axle at this point was the rear driveshaft and the front mounts of the leaf springs. Read more...
Unibody Rust Repair Part 3: Déjà Vu Replacing the Driver Frame Rail
The driver side frame rail was in far worse shape than the passenger side on my XJ. I opted to replace the passenger side first since there’s a little less going on on that side. Read more...
Unibody Rust Repair Part 2: Bending a New Passenger Frame Rail
Using a metal brake to bend up new frame rails wasn’t my plan A. Nor was it plan B. It was actually plan C. I was trying to fix my Jeep on the cheap because this repair wasn’t suppose to happen till spring. Read more...
Unibody Rust Repair Part 1: Fabricating A New Rear Crossmember
Background I like to joke and say that anyone else would have sent my XJ to the junkyard. My Cherokee is rusty, has a laundry list of issues, gets 17 MPG on the good days, and is literally a brick on wheels. Read more...
Dana 30 Rebuild
The front axle of my Cherokee has been in desperate need of some attention for quite awhile. Just about every component on it was worn to the point of needing to be replaced and the axle housing itself had built up some pretty intense rust. Read more...