I purchased this CJ7 a year ago with the plan to work on it with my sons. Saturday we decided to start stripping things out to take care of the rust in the tub. After removing most of the carpet we found the typical rust. I am thinking of cutting the bad sections out and welding in new floor pans, but was wondering if there is a preferred manufacturer.
Thanks for the quick replies. After looking at Classic Enterprises it looks like they have everything that I will need. Now I just need to keep digging and find out how far the problem goes. I think that this is likely just the beginning.
My plan is to ditch the carpet. I want to get everything cleaned up and then install new panels, and once the repairs are complete coat the entire inside with a bed liner product. I will likely coat the underside with POR 15, or some other type of rust preventative paint.
You don't need no steenking floor pans! Just cut out all the rusty metal so that you and your passenger can pedal like Fred Flintstone! :grin2: Saves on gas! :2thumbsup:
Last weekend I welded a pair of these pans bought from Quadratec.com into my son's '82 CJ7:
They were pretty much a perfect fit! I cut out only the rusted parts and trimmed the pans to cover + an inch or so and they dropped right in. The front left corner of the passenger side pan stuck up quite a bit so after getting most of it welded in I heated that corner with a torch till red and hammered it into submission then finished the welding.
They are heavy 16 or 18 gauge steel and I am most pleased with them, so is he!
Others have put in pans like this with rivets and even automotive panel adhesive. I preferred using my Lincoln MIG machine, .025 ER70S-6 wire and C25 gas. Be sure to clean all the paint off from the edge and HAZ on both sides and from the original floor before welding. Do a lot of short back-stepping to reduce tendency to burn through where the original metal may be thin from rust on the underside and you can get this completely water - and exhaust gas - tight.
Don't neglect to remove the roll bar and all hinges, including hood, tailgate, and windshield hinges. You'll likely find rust under all of those, since AMC didn't paint those areas before assembly.
I used them and the quality is outstanding, to the point of being concours restoration quality. Everything is correct, even to the point of spotweld locations. They're a small outfit and each and every piece is actually signed by the fabricator. Some suggest it may be overkill and that overseas parts can do just as well. The problem with the overseas stuff I've seen is that the steel used is both different in composition and thickness. (metric vs American gauged) You may pay a bit more for the Classic enterprises part, but the fit is so good that you'll save $$$ and time installing it.
I used both front floor sections which are now larger panels than what was available at the time, rear floor, rear wheelhouses, side panels (only used lower sections for patches) and outer floor supports. The body shop was amazed how well they fit. I was given a (Quadratec) front floor panel when I bought my used tub and the quality is NOT the same. That part is in the spare/extra part pile.
Agreed. Quality is NOT the same. Classic is a good WI company that still takes pride in their work. WI is the land of the rusted out CJ! Their replacement body components are excellent. There is no comparison to the offshore replacement parts sold by the big boxes. I have encouraged them to consider a complete CJ tub, or at least a good windshield frame. Perhaps a few requests from other forum members here will help encourage them. I'm confident many will agree that we need tubs and windshield frames built closer to OEM specs with better quality control. Those are certainly two offshore body parts that have fallen short of expectations.
So there you have it! Classic Enterprises is the undisputed best quality! I did not know they existed when I bought the floor pans from Quadratec.
So now I know: I paid $127.98 delivered for crap quality when I could have paid $110 plus shipping for the best in the universe! But the best is not punched for drain holes or P-brake cable. I suppose making 1" diameter holes in sheet metal is easy with a cheap hole saw or an expensive annular cutter. What I bought are made from 18ga steel, outer edge folded down just like the original factory sheet metal, and like I said, they were a perfect fit save the one corner I had to hammer into place. Ho hum. I haven't had a panel from Classic Enterprises to inspect so I can't compare. But I am very pleased with the panels I have.
hbar, Sorry message capacity issues. The rear floor section butts up against the wheel houses. All the floor supports, holes and threaded holes were there. Body shop said it basically dropped right in without any issues. The only picture I have isn't very good
When I get the back cleaned out I'll snap a pic of the top side.
That is really good news....I've been working through all the spot welds on the cross-supports thinking I needed to re-use all that. Of course the bottom edges of the side panels (inner wheel wells?) are basically garbage too, so I have some work to do before I even have something for the new bed to butt up against. Deep in places I don't like to talk about on internet forums, I'm certain I'm going to end up replacing every panel on the Jeep at 3x the cost of a replacement tub.
Sorry it's been so long but here is the inside picture.
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