New old jeep, tons of rust, options?

[dblock16]

My dad just got a great running 84 cj. The outside of the body has some minor bubbling, so not much work on outside. But the floor boards and where the seats rest are rusted out. Just seeing what our options on repairing are. I foung a site where I can get replacement for the whole floor. Is this a good idea?
Any info or sites sharing write ups with this problem would be great.
Thanks
Doug

[lynn]

Can you weld? Replacing floors with new panels isn't too hard if you can weld.
www.classicent.com is one source, there are others.

Otherwise, you might consider swapping to a good YJ tub.
There's always fiberglass too...

[jeepwhore]

If the floor is rusted out, check the frame for rust as well. Use a big screwdriver and a hammer to check for soft spots, particularly around the rear shackle hangers.

[Cerveza]

steer clear from classic enterprises. when I was replacing my floor boards i made the mistake of ordering from them. What a piece of crap product. The cuts they made on that paper thin piece of sheet metal looked like they gave a saws-all to a three year old...needless to say I sent that crap back. My advice is to try and patch it yourself with some thicker metal. or you could always go the route I did and buy a new floor from 4wd hardware. Direct factory replacement. the only draw back is that its costly.

[TetanusCJ7]

lynn....what do you meant that there is always fiberglass too? Do you mean a new tub or patching holes with fiberglass? How big of an area can you fix with fiberglass? Is is more cost effective than welded steel?

[Bard]

He means a fiberglass tub, my 2 cents is to buy a complete new floor panel, support the sides and weld away. Cheap enough if you know how to weld or find someone to do it.

Then again the YJ tub swap is pretty easy to do.

It all equals out in the end for costs.

[knowlwk@snowhill.com]

Oh yeah, and beware of those slight bubbles on the outside.. when you start removing paint to dress them up.. the actual rust spot with be about triple the size of the bubble... been there... done that...


When I first pulled my CJ apart, I knocked the paint off all the rust spots and hit them with Eastwoods red rust encapsulator and/or some silver POR 15. I then patched the various holes with glass cloth and some flavor of bondo or the POR (don't remember, been about 4 years). My floorboards were fairly solid, but had some swiss-cheese holes in them... I ended up using glass cloth and the silver POR and layed a patch right on top of the passenger floor panel... worked great and looks stock with a coating of bedliner on it. That wouldn't have worked if the floor was mostly gone, but I got away with it. I had large holes under the four roll-bar points on the tub... didn't like that at all. I cut out carboard templates and got a friend who worked at a steel fab shop to cut some patches out of scrap steel (think they were about 1/8 thick). I was gonna get someone to weld them in, but couldn't wait and ended up bolting them in, and then bolting the roll cage to the plates. Again, not the 'right' way to do it, but worked and has been solid for 4 years... at least more solid than it was.

Overall, I knew bondo was only a temp fix, as it tends to absorb moisture and swell.. but 90% of the spots I fixed are still fixed... of course, new spots are now taking thier place.. (grin)

Sounds like you're gonna need new metal, but bondo does work for us cheap bastages..

BTW, two thumbs up on the Eastwood Encapsulator and the POR 15!!

[Pacfanweb]

Recently restored my 1981 CJ-7 body. I had it sand blasted first. If you want it done RIGHT, then sand blasting is the only way to go. I will guarantee you that there's a lot more rust than you think.

I had the front floorpan replaced. Trailquest piece. Very thick metal. Fit was terrible, but that's life.
Rear corners replaced...Trailquest again, very thick, ddn't fit well. Had to do some work to get it right.
Left side was replaced....same story.

Plus, there were lots of small places that needed some minor fab to add sheet metal to fix rust spots.

I now have about 1800 bucks in my ORIGINAL tub. A new tub is about 2500 shipped, and they require a ton of work to make them fit.
A YJ body was an option, and might have saved a small amount of money, but would have taken a lot of work to make it look like a CJ body.
I started with a CJ, and wanted to end up with a CJ. Didn't have to swap VIN plates, it's my original body.
It's now better than any tub I would have purchased and installed. Epoxy-primed, it'll never rust.
I'm happy with it.

[XJIceQueen98]

This is why im so glad mines fiberglass.. no rust issues... just gotta be more careful i don't hit stuff on the trail...