All who have owned a CJ have contemplated fixing up the rust. A couple of years ago I did, and decided that it wasn't worth the effort.
Eventually I did a body swap. After getting the old tub off and stripped, I was surprised at the amount of serious structural damage. After all, the Jeep didn't look all that bad - there are certainly many on the street that look worse. But I realized that, had it been in a significant crash, it would have crumpled like foil.
This is the rear seatbelt anchorage on the driver's side, looking up from underneath. You can also see the body mount, which is actually one of the better ones. I had big eye-bolts screwed into the anchorages. When I tried to unscrew them, the nut twisted, so I gave a couple of hard yanks, and pulled them right out of the floor.
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This is the passenger outboard seatbelt anchorage. I had cut the triangular part off to remove the seatbelt. It looked reasonably sound, but after cutting the horizontal part, the whole belt came out with a good yank. In a crash it would have ripped loose from the fenderwell and then torn completely off.
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This is the roll bar mounting area on the driver-side fenderwell, looking up from underneath. You can see where the weenie backing plate used to be.
The metal between the big rust holes is fairly sound, so it might have taken some stress, but the backing plate was very thin, and there's no doubt that it wouldn't have taken much to rip the roll bar off completely.
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This is the rearmost body mount on the passenger side. The damage is typical. Some were worse and some not as bad. In a serious crash, the body might have separated from the chassis entirely.
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What's significant is that I had no idea how bad the damage was. It had the usual rust-through in the front fenders, but that's not structural. It had the holes at the bottom of the door pillars, but that's just cosmetic, or so I thought. And it had rust in other places, but between the frame rails and forward of the back axel looked almost as good as new. I didn't think it so bad that it couldn't be repaired. The main reason I didn't try was that I knew it would come back.
Now I realize that the vehicle was a death trap. When I removed the roll bar the back fenders sagged out and down. Now I can pull them together by hand and see the forward edge of the back floor wiggle up and down, detached from the vertical panel behind the seats. With my own two spindly arms I can twist the back of the tub several inches without the firewall moving. A crash could have left me sliding down the road on my little pink butt, being run over by the chassis and a huge cloud of rust chunks and body parts.
Please, if your Jeep has rust damage (That is, if it's a Jeep) look carefully at the tub. In the dark, have a buddy on the other side shine a flashlight on the seams. Beat around on the seams and anchorage points with a small mallet, and see if rust chunks fall out.
Many of the potential trouble spots can't be easily seen, but now you have no excuse for not checking them.
I'll get off my soapbox now. Who's next?
Eventually I did a body swap. After getting the old tub off and stripped, I was surprised at the amount of serious structural damage. After all, the Jeep didn't look all that bad - there are certainly many on the street that look worse. But I realized that, had it been in a significant crash, it would have crumpled like foil.
This is the rear seatbelt anchorage on the driver's side, looking up from underneath. You can also see the body mount, which is actually one of the better ones. I had big eye-bolts screwed into the anchorages. When I tried to unscrew them, the nut twisted, so I gave a couple of hard yanks, and pulled them right out of the floor.
This is the passenger outboard seatbelt anchorage. I had cut the triangular part off to remove the seatbelt. It looked reasonably sound, but after cutting the horizontal part, the whole belt came out with a good yank. In a crash it would have ripped loose from the fenderwell and then torn completely off.
This is the roll bar mounting area on the driver-side fenderwell, looking up from underneath. You can see where the weenie backing plate used to be.
The metal between the big rust holes is fairly sound, so it might have taken some stress, but the backing plate was very thin, and there's no doubt that it wouldn't have taken much to rip the roll bar off completely.
This is the rearmost body mount on the passenger side. The damage is typical. Some were worse and some not as bad. In a serious crash, the body might have separated from the chassis entirely.
What's significant is that I had no idea how bad the damage was. It had the usual rust-through in the front fenders, but that's not structural. It had the holes at the bottom of the door pillars, but that's just cosmetic, or so I thought. And it had rust in other places, but between the frame rails and forward of the back axel looked almost as good as new. I didn't think it so bad that it couldn't be repaired. The main reason I didn't try was that I knew it would come back.
Now I realize that the vehicle was a death trap. When I removed the roll bar the back fenders sagged out and down. Now I can pull them together by hand and see the forward edge of the back floor wiggle up and down, detached from the vertical panel behind the seats. With my own two spindly arms I can twist the back of the tub several inches without the firewall moving. A crash could have left me sliding down the road on my little pink butt, being run over by the chassis and a huge cloud of rust chunks and body parts.
Please, if your Jeep has rust damage (That is, if it's a Jeep) look carefully at the tub. In the dark, have a buddy on the other side shine a flashlight on the seams. Beat around on the seams and anchorage points with a small mallet, and see if rust chunks fall out.
Many of the potential trouble spots can't be easily seen, but now you have no excuse for not checking them.
I'll get off my soapbox now. Who's next?
