XJ Rust Repair
In this post we'll continue building out the 2x6 rocker for the passenger side. Read more...
With all this metal laying around it was about time I started putting it to use. While the 2x6 rocker mod (aka rock sliders) for XJ isn’t uncommon by any means, I’m planning on taking a slightly different approach in how I tie them into the unibody. My goal is to hide the welds, and also leave some hidden access holes that’ll let me spray fluid film down into the rockers each year before winter. Read more...
My new metal brake finally arrived. Before settling on the Woodward Fab Boss 16, I spent several hours researching metal brakes and looked at a ton of different models across various manufacturers such as Baileigh, Tennsmith, Grizzly, JET, Eastwood, and Enco. Read more...
Just shy of two years ago now, I embarked on the largest rust repair job I’ve ever done on my XJ. It took me several months, but I was able to replace the entire rear cargo floor including the crossmembers, gas tank bracing, and unibody frame rails along with welding in rear frame stiffeners over my newly made frame rails. Read more...
The epoxy primer I used on the underside of my repairs is some pretty good stuff, but I wanted just a hair more protection down there. And after all can you really say you did a rust repair job on your Jeep if bedliner wasn’t involved? Because of that I picked up some UPOL Raptor liner to spray. I bought the 4qt spray kit because I wanted some leftover bedliner to spray my new rear bumper later on but I’m getting ahead of myself. Read more...
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...
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. The common fix for this is to weld on fishplates that help brace the welds but since I’d have to weld on 6 fish plates on each frame rail I figured it’d be simpler to just go with frame stiffeners. Read more...
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. I honestly didn’t bother to worry about it until I had the floor fully welded in and no choice but to finally address the issue. Read more...
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...
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...