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How to.. make a big hole in your jeep...

53K views 128 replies 51 participants last post by  Brew61 
#1 · (Edited)
Seat belt Rust repair/Frame Repair/SOA

..start by finding a small rust hole you want to fix....

said hole... :hahaha:



I want to fix it cause Im having the same issue another guy posted, flexing the panel to much and the seat belt is falling out now so.....ya......prolly time ot take a look at it....

so before you do this make sure you take a GOOD look :cool:...upon closer inspectin my body mount is cracked and falling thru the flor as well, and hte seat mount it cracked bad, this I already knew...the body mount I did NOT.

SO first off :cheers:

seat mount...



so I pull the rock guards off and WOOHOO another small hole...



off to the right...

off I go cutting.... :drool: :rofl: to add more to the story this side of the Jeep was smakced a few years back before me, so it is about 1/4 iof bondo on the whole side...this I knew to as I painted it before, but the previous damage is taking it tole now, I just need to snuff it up so I can put my new fenders on, what started all this was the family roll bar swap, I took the bar out and figured WTH might was well do this at the same time...

anyway here it is now, this will take some time as I dont have alot of free tiem this week, and need someone to do the welding for me, I R Not a welder...







The tuff part will be replacing hte C channel for the body mount and getting the side to line up, I have to make a piece on the insdie as well were hte seat belt mounts, the little part that sticks out, really dumb design when you cut into it actually.....

any idears from ppl who did this...
 
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#4 ·
I would never buy a car that came from the north. They salt the roads to get rid of the ice and snow. Plus the snow clings to your car for monthes and you cannot clean it because it then will have a sheet of ice covering it so. The result is that they or you ruin your car.
 
#14 ·
They salt the roads to get rid of the ice and snow. Plus the snow clings to your car for monthes and you cannot clean it because it then will have a sheet of ice covering it so. The result is that they or you ruin your car.
Dude have you ever lived up north? Yes we get snow and they salt the roads but a few days later it get above freezing and you wash your car and I normally presure wash underneath the Jeep it's realy not that big of a deal.
 
#6 ·
I am reading this and thinking forward 5+ years when (not if) rust takes a good hold on my Jeep. It will not be as easy for me to cut out and replace panels because it lined the inside with Line-X. I guess I'll cross that bridge in 2015 if the earth still exists after 2012!
 
#8 ·
ok great we have established that in the north you get rust... like I said, the rust is due to previous damage on this side, the other side is perfect....

beside I will take my non smog carberated jeep and my free healthcare over your no salt....


moving on, anyone got some ideas or advice to make this all pretty again...
 
#18 ·
um the OP lives in canada. dam learn ter read. haha they got free health care but have to wait till they die to get any help from a doctor.
Not even remotely accurate. At all. /offtopic

The OP's pics look just like the tub of my YJ that I'm in the process of tearing down. It's nice to know that there is hope for the future of my Jeep and not all is lost.
 
#21 ·
yeah but they never hit my county and besides we also have hurricane parties!!!....lol
 
#45 ·
I freaking love hurricane parties! :cheers2: :cheers:

My jeep spent most of its life in The Keys...so yeah. I had a lot of fun replacing metal on that damn thing when I first got it. No frame rust tho!
You guys are doin a damn fine job. Keep it up!
 
#24 ·
ok so so far in this thread we have established

Cali has earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides, hot weather, smog test,
Canada has free health care, snow, salt, and rust, no smog and no inspections
Fla has hurricanes
Obama is called Oasama by some
Carrol has a drunk fianacee

And we all pay taxes...


Oh and some ppl gave some advice.. thanks guys...

Anyhow will post more today, sheet metal arrives to day as does the welder I hope, so should get some done today, if I can sneak out of work.
 
#27 ·
ok so so far in this thread we have established

Cali has earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides, hot weather, smog test,
Canada has free health care, snow, salt, and rust, no smog and no inspections
Fla has hurricanes
Obama is called Oasama by some
Carrol has a drunk fianacee

And we all pay taxes...

Oh and some ppl gave some advice.. thanks guys...

Anyhow will post more today, sheet metal arrives to day as does the welder I hope, so should get some done today, if I can sneak out of work.
it sounds like you were sort of laughing along there, at least I hope so, I know it got pretty off topic. I do hope you get everything straightened out the way you want it.
 
#25 ·
I have lived in the north and now live in the south. There is a huge differnce in how long your car will last from a rust perspective when you never have salt on the roads. No mater how often you wash yor car up north, the salt will rot the metal. Down here, it just never seems to rot out even if you never wash it. The real way to see it is go to the bone yard here and then to one up north. you will see just how great it is to live where no salt is put down on the roads.

Of course on an icy morning in January, the salt is worth it :)
 
#26 ·
I have lived in the north and now live in the south. There is a huge differnce in how long your car will last from a rust perspective when you never have salt on the roads. No mater how often you wash yor car up north, the salt will rot the metal. Down here, it just never seems to rot out even if you never wash it. The real way to see it is go to the bone yard here and then to one up north. you will see just how great it is to live where no salt is put down on the roads.

Of course on an icy morning in January, the salt is worth it :)
you have a point there, but if you can up with maint. you can stay rust free. If you take the time to get the snow and ice off(which can be done) and using something like chassis saver or a liner, you can go rust free. It takes work, but it can be done. There are threads from folks who have found clean vehicles in the horth because they were kept by someone who understood that. Looking at the vehicle I got, obviously the PO's had no regard for maint at all, so that is my dilemma, but I will get it straightened out.
 
#28 ·
i apologize for that right there and bless all the pig mi's in new Guinea...lol, seriously the only reason i am watching this thread is cause i pulled the carpet up the other day to find that the po obviously used to run around with the top off and the drain plugs in, cause I found some kind of patch in the drivers floor made out of wire mesh and tar with a layer of plastic over that. under all this mess of course is a huge hole. the pass side is repairable (no holes just surface rust) so im keeping up to see if you gonna make your own patches or buy them, I'm thinking of making them but I'm not sure how good it will look, I'm not putting the carpet back in, I'm just gonna line it
 
#31 ·
so im keeping up to see if you gonna make your own patches or buy them, I'm thinking of making them but I'm not sure how good it will look, I'm not putting the carpet back in, I'm just gonna line it
making my own, should hopefully have them all done by weeks end and welded back in place. the structural ones will be a *****

As i think you know I have a similar issue although mine is not rusting from the outside rocker it appears to be more on the floor and the vertical reinforcing "pillar" on the inside. Did you have any issues removing the roll bar? Any tips for removing the Torx bolts you can pass along? I need to tackle this soon.
electric impact gun, or air impact gun.... That is the ONLY way I could get leverage enough to hold down and get enough force to twist them out, I broke 4 bits and one bolt..... the ones at the seat belt mount bottom floor will be the worse ones....all the ones I broke were using a ratchet..once I grabbed an electric impact it went pretty easy really....

mine started on the vertical reinforcement, once you cut it apart you will understand why it does, there is a pocket there for eveything to drain into and sit, has no way to get out.... it started inside hte pocket on the pillar, and went out from there...... get it now.
 
#30 ·
As i think you know I have a similar issue although mine is not rusting from the outside rocker it appears to be more on the floor and the vertical reinforcing "pillar" on the inside. Did you have any issues removing the roll bar? Any tips for removing the Torx bolts you can pass along? I need to tackle this soon.
 
#34 ·
So got some work done tonight...

tackled the seat bracket first, basically, I just cut a square piece out, got access to the bracket inside, It was broke, from lack of anything under it to reinforce it, so we cut a chunck of square iron and welded in in under, repaired the bracket, keeping the same bolt hole and welded a piece of sheet metal over...

bracket with iron welded under it..



little grinding left to go...



onto the floor,....

where to start, we looked at the piece cut from the floor and the C channel was not so bad, actually the only crack was the sheet metal on one side of the mount, the mount inside was still solid, so I cutthe **** awayfrom arround the channel, keeping onlyit basically, I cutteh mount out of the channle and got it apart, Then basicallyrebuilt it welding the mount inside after setting in place and getting flush and making sure the bolt for the mount will still line up...

The channel with all the **** cut off, the mount is the bigger piece and the smaller piece is whatthe bolt goes into, these were all good, so after getting it apart, clean it up and rebuild it.. myfirst time to so learning as I go..



oh ya wear gloves kiddies









Once it wasback together and test fitted several times, tweeked fitted and well this went on for a bit...next was the Piece of C channel the runs down the center on your YJ, right below yuou feet in the back, if ya dont know go look you will see it, anyhow I needed about 6 inches of this as it was toast..



The piece to the right of the cut needed to be replaced, So measure cut and bend, I skipping a few pics cause I can onlydo 10 I think.. this corner was cleaned up and the C channel will replace the top...

It was prettystraight forward, cut to fit and bend the edges, and I also cut teh outside panel as well, so we could button most of it up tonight, and get it all fitted....







that is all for tonight......
 
#35 ·
Keep the posts coming. Does look like you are doing a great job. Where in BC do you live? My Family has had a home on Half Moon Bay for over 50 years. It was destroyed about 20 years age by fire while no one was there. Rebuilt and is now a house instead of a cabin. Probably the most beautiful place (the Bay not the house) I've ever been or seen. Don't get up there much but when I do it sure is hard to leave. Your latest post should start a new thread on worst injuries suffered while repairing or modifying your jeep. Just glad I don't have the rust issues but sad I don't have the welding or grinding skills you acqure because of them. Final note! NO MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE JEEPS ARE IT!!!
 
#36 ·
Keep the posts coming. Does look like you are doing a great job. Where in BC do you live?
I R In Prince George, pretty much smack dab in the middle of BC, its 9 hours to Vancouver, south, and 9 hours to Ft Nelson, North. give or take
 
#37 ·
Well got more done today..... Ima prolly use a couple posts as there is lots of pics... at the same time I am cutting my old rollbar and making a full cage so will post pics of that to as I go....

started this morning with a piece of sheet metal and hmmm..



After a hour or maybe less bending/fitting....fitting/bending....bending/fitting.... had something I could work with...






getting closeer

It would need tweaking later as you will see, depending on how bad your hole is here or how much you cut will determine exactly what you will need for a piece here.. we did find a way in the end to make it ****ing super solid, using a piece of angle iron.. This side of my jeep was smacked earlier in its life, after grinding it all out and really looking at it I should have replaced the whole side panel, but this is budget so It is solid now, anyhow after a long bit of bending I ended up with this...



now again bending here is dependent on how you cut, I had to bend under so the folds were to the inside of the panel in the back, everywrher else bend toward the outside, this panel should tie into the floor, and rear C channel, as well as the side of course, this is what gives ya the strength.

next is ****ed up, in order to get **** to fit and be right, we figured HEY, put the top on, make sure th side panel lines up, GOOD THING, do this if ya undertake this job, after a couple of HOURS, of ****ing around, we had to strap the windsheild, and crank its *** in toward the rear of the jeep, like I said this thing was tagged prettygood long time ago, and now it is showing how not lined up **** is, after a long time we finallygot everything lined up using straps to crank the windsheild in, and bolting the har top down...



Top on



windsheld starpped and pulled back..

KK next the piece for the floor, straight forward, get a piece of sheet metal lay over trace leaving yourself some room for error, and fitment later...





after many test fits and small adjustments we decided to tak the floor piece in and tie it to the side, we also found jacking on the rear ofthe BODY help tweak everythign in place, my door lines up better now the nit ever did..

stick jacking hte rear of the body...crazy kids....



thats 10 pics I think all i can do in one post so on to the next....
 
#38 ·
ok ok more...after tacking the floor panel in place, we said fuk it its all lined up, door closes good, seals, other side is good, weld it.. so we did..





so now what, after a awhile of Bones welding, mean while I was working on the bar stuff...





I wil use the other for the front sectin by the windsheild, just gotta get it bent to fit and widened a bit.... no biggie..



so tyhe side pane needs a seat belt nut and bolt in there to dont forget... had some scrap thick iron laying around, drilled it out, welded it to the back, and a nut on it...shoud hold..





now we cleaned up all the welds and got hte side panel all readyto go in...







you will notice in the last pic something extra.....

after it was all welded in, it was still a litte shaky, due to the fact the spot welds are letting go farther up the side, that will get touched up later this week after I clean it up, so to make it solid we welded a piedce of angle iron in there...... MAN I would recommen do this anyhow, holy **** is it strong now... I can slam that ***** door and all I get is a solid THUNK...



now clean it up and a bit more yet to do to finish, I stil got a small hole in the side to patch up and lots of grinding and painting....

ahh more beers

that was it for tonight....more later.....
 
#40 ·
Nice work, looks pretty solid. I'm about to try and tackle the same project on mine, I was just worried about how to make it strong and be able to anchor the seatbelt safely. I think I'll pretty much go about mine the same way you did yours. Also, I may of missed it, but what gauge of metal did you use for the most part? I think the stuff I have laying around my shed is too thin.

Yay for matching holes.
 
#42 ·
LOL, nice, almost exact... I used an old hood from a S10 blazer....86ish, so whatever that is, I just cut the chunkcs from it...and mywelder, no I dont weld...... he had some extra laying around,



laying in hte back there, 5 bucks, coulnt beat it a sheet was about 30 at the local auto parts place, so only took like 5 minutes to whiz couple pieces off it, ya gotta cut it to shape either way.
 
#43 ·
worked on teh bar most of the daytoday, got some cleanup done, butthat was about it....







Damn it was hot so we took a break for a water fight...





roll bar all fitted in adn good to go....needed some hlep from a BFH to get to fit proper like....

 
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