Pete M

pickin' away at the rot. this is definitely a young man's job. lol. my back is feeling this.

do the HO years also have that little screw in the engine bay that hold the halves together?

you get 5 rides (and only these 5) for the rest of your life, but they all have to come from a single model year. after much mulling I went with the year 2000. XJ with 4.0 as my daily TJ with 4.0 to modify Excursion with 7.3 for hauling stuff (runner up: Suburban 2500 with 8.1) Grand Caravan with 3.3 for hauling people Dakota RT reg cab with 5.9 for hauling butt not my favorite year for any of those models, but pleased they had enough overlap to get me a nice lineup

I would fill the hole with a dab of seam sealer when I got to that step. I see a bit of rust that needs to be addressed.

a-yup. thank goodness the truck isn't from the salt-belt and the rot is mostly just the floor and isn't in the frame or rockers.

nice! that looks fantastic I've been fighting the good fight:

the floor is coming apart, some places faster than others. the good news is that the inside of the frame is in excellent shape. the bad news is that it looks like I'll be removing the steering column, pedals, and harness because the rust just keeps going up the firewall. I put a box underneath to catch the particulates the rear of the cab was hiding a bunch of whole rust under the sealant. doesn't appear to be rot though.

plenty more rust on the axle. eventually I'll have a conversation with the owner as to what the course of action is. I can get it blasted/painted or we can upgrade the gear ratio with a clean southern axle. but that's a decision for the future.

found a bunch of rust hiding under the seam sealer on the pass side. plus a bunch of food/nesting material inside the rocker, inside the flare, and inside the lower control arm pockets. I dislike mice.

I bought some closed cell foam for the last truck I refurbed. I wanted something there, but not something that would retain moisture (though the carpet traps it anyways, so does it really matter?). it went down ok. not yet sure what I'll be doing with this new truck.

yes, those are factory. plenty of weird things in an MJ. lol.

dynapad type products work great on large echo-y sheetmetal like door panels and roofs, less so on small expanses that can't really reverberate. personally I'd skip it on the floors and stick with protecting the steel down the road with the aforementioned products.

I'll tag him for ya @jdog

currently on bringatrailer

very nice looking MJ on bringatrailer

I can't imagine life without vicegrips

chances are better than the power wiring to the motor needs to be cleaned/refreshed before the motor needs to be replaced.

you can try removing the interior handle trim so you can grab the rod with pliers.

unfortunately I don't have any direct experience with those. I bought rust free knuckles from the junkyard that had like-new joints installed. but my experience with the rear boomerang joint says you will definitely want the full kit. the usual tips apply: -heat -heat -heat -youtube vids

cycle the lock back and forth a bit, then leave it unlocked and push the outside button and pull the inside lever at the same time. I've had success in junkyards with that method. on my first truck I had to pull the inner door panel off to gain access to the rods. that wasn't fun. I've heard of guys taking the latch mechanism out of the door and soaking it in a thin degreaser or even gasoline over night before relubing it with lithium grease.

$25 bucks but the current coupon is half off everything photo https://photo.walgreens.com/store/calendars you can make your own using any MJ image you'd like (image quality is always going to be a concern)

good catch! might be a T between the 5 and 9?

I imagine walgreens will make calendars.

"hey, while you've got the saw out..." beautiful work as always