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Extremely Rusted Floor, Suggestions Please!


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I bought an 88 Comanche a few weeks ago and I am swapping everything from my XJ into it (entire drivetrain, lift, axles, etc.)

 

nt2jN.jpg

 

I knew the floor had some rust but when I pulled the carpet I found this:

 

pE1jq.jpg

 

9Oyk2.jpg

 

QIFV4.jpg

 

Which is suprising because the rest of the Comanche is extremely solid, besides the driver side door, there is literally no rust anywhere else.

 

The black square on the passenger side is a patch someone welded in at some point. The driver side had some sheet metal self-tapped in.

 

So, my question is: Should I por15 it or, since I have a donor XJ at the ready, cut that guy to pieces and weld those pieces into the comanche (I have a friend who is very good at welding)?

 

Is my case too bad for por15? If I do por15 do I cut out all rust everywhere or just sand and wire brush it or just use their cleaners and then put it right on the rust? How much will I need?

 

Any tips, suggestions, links, stories, etc. would be very greatly appreciated!

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That looks familliar. I also just got a new project about a month ago. My floor pan on the DS was actually worse than yours but I was spared the PS floor. I got new replacement floor pan from www.c2cfabrication.com, prety good price. when I got into mine I had every intention of welding in the pan but there was so much rust that I decided to cut out all that I could, slather on 2 thick coats of por15 and then I screwed it all down and sealed it with a factory type seam sealer on both sides and then layed on 4 coats of rustolium on both sides. If the POR15 were a weld through coating I would still have welded it but I'm not sure well it would have held up.

 

Marine Clean then Rince then Dry (very well) POR15

 

Eric

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Cut it out. All of it. Get replacement panels from the donor.

Jim speaks the truth.

 

Cut the ENTIRE front 1/2 of the floor out of the XJ, firewall to b pillar, rocker to rocker. I would suggest cutting into the frame of the XJ, then remove the spot welds once the floor is out. Makes life much easier. Once you start cutting out the rust on the MJ, you will find that a solid piece of metal to weld to is much further away than you thought.

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I say 3 options.

 

#1 ...IF.... you do metal work and can weld, then cut it out and do it the right way.

 

#2 if you can't weld, get the replacement panels or cut them out of your donor and then hand it to a hot rod guy. Someone who understands metal and can get it done. Can also speak with some local good body shops for some quotes.

 

#3 test it, is any of it paper thin? if its pretty solid and you want the quick fix for now... do the POR15 treatment. Clean well, treat and kill the rust, then lay in THICK coat of their rust killing paint and put it all back together. At least till you can come up with the funds to meet the quotes given in option 2.

 

Hope this helps. :)

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I think I would Navel Jelly it and then re-access, then decide on how long you want to keep it. Maybe lay in some soft aluminum or tin underneath and poor a good coat of bondo cut with thinner down on top. Clean it up underneath apply heavy undercoating or maybe liquid rubber or bedliner even.

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Looks like your floor rusted from the inside out. Next time you have a heavy rain, check for leaks around the doors and windshield and get those fixed. For sealing the doors, 97+ Cherokee weather stripping works better than stock.

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Cut it out. All of it. Get replacement panels from the donor.

Jim speaks the truth.

 

Cut the ENTIRE front 1/2 of the floor out of the XJ, firewall to b pillar, rocker to rocker. I would suggest cutting into the frame of the XJ, then remove the spot welds once the floor is out. Makes life much easier. Once you start cutting out the rust on the MJ, you will find that a solid piece of metal to weld to is much further away than you thought.

I say 3 options.

 

#1 ...IF.... you do metal work and can weld, then cut it out and do it the right way.

 

#2 if you can't weld, get the replacement panels or cut them out of your donor and then hand it to a hot rod guy. Someone who understands metal and can get it done. Can also speak with some local good body shops for some quotes.

 

#3 test it, is any of it paper thin? if its pretty solid and you want the quick fix for now... do the POR15 treatment. Clean well, treat and kill the rust, then lay in THICK coat of their rust killing paint and put it all back together. At least till you can come up with the funds to meet the quotes given in option 2.

 

Hope this helps. :)

 

I think I would Navel Jelly it and then re-access, then decide on how long you want to keep it. Maybe lay in some soft aluminum or tin underneath and poor a good coat of bondo cut with thinner down on top. Clean it up underneath apply heavy undercoating or maybe liquid rubber or bedliner even.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Sounds like the consensus is to hack and replace, which is what I was thinking anyway. Thanks for the suggestion to take a lot of extra floor from the XJ, 87warrior, I will hack that thing up good. Mountainman and sugarfoot, I do want to keep it a very long time so, yeah, going to do it the right way and have my friend do the welding.

 

your truck is an example of why I have that big red print in my sig... :(

 

Indeed.

 

 

Looks like your floor rusted from the inside out. Next time you have a heavy rain, check for leaks around the doors and windshield and get those fixed. For sealing the doors, 97+ Cherokee weather stripping works better than stock.

 

If I don't put carpet back in after I fix this, is it still necessary? If water leaks in but nothing is trapping it against the metal, it should be ok, right? I'm not sure how easy it will be to track down the leak or replace the stripping. On another thread guys on this forum were saying not to herculine the inside, but is there another type of floor covering that will waterproof it?

 

 

I will update this thread with progress pictures if you guys are interested.

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I've Herculined the interior of mine with good results. The black does fade a little if you don't cover it though.

 

The water will still pool inside the Jeep, no matter what you put down on the floor. I have a slight leak from either my rear window or rear of the door and it pools right on the reinforcement on the floor after any heavy rain. Resealing everything isn't hard. What you can do for the rear window that I've had good luck with is pop the rear window out, get windshield caulk and squirt a little inside the seal and pop it back in. I did this on my '92 and it doesn't leak anymore, I just haven't gotten around to my '86 yet to figure out where the leak is.

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I've successfully used the baby powder trick a few times now. sprinkle it around in the suspect areas and the leaks will make trails through the powder, leading you back to the source. windshield, firewall holes, rear window and door seals are all prime candidates, but pretty much anything that could leak has leaked on somebody's truck. :(

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cherokee floors are close but aren't an exact match when you get to under the seats. be prepared for some massaging with the sawzall and bfh. :thumbsup:

 

 

I thought that too Pete and I thought the seat mounts were different too due to the floor upslope closer to the console area?

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Yes. But any aftermarket replacement floor pans you buy for the MJ will require more 'massaging' than panels cut from an XJ. Why? I have never found a replacement floor pan specifically for the MJ, regardless of what the manufacture says/claims. They are just poor fitting XJ pans marketed as MJ parts.

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Extremely rusted? No... no... no, sir. That's just shy of GOOD condition in MN.

Man, If mine looked that good i could sell it as new off the line. I could fit my size 12 boot through the floor on either side of the frame rail, front and back, drivers and passengers. the frame and support rails were all the held it together. I'd say those are an easy fix.

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I think I am done grinding and cutting, here is what I have now.

 

eJaNU.jpg

 

9w9X9.jpg

 

s7Ehu.jpg

 

glaDp.jpg

 

NfzsE.jpg

 

 

 

So, my plan is to order and weld in a floor pan on the driver side, weld in a piece of sheet metal for that spot on the passenger side, then por15 the whole thing.

 

My question is, are those holes in the last three pictures too big for por15? Should I cut them out and weld in a little piece of metal? Or will por15 take care of all that?

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I don't think por 15 would cover them up. Rust is a cancer, if any remains it will continue to destroy the metal, but if you don't want to cut and patch them go to your parts store and ask specifically for seam sealer, it comes in chaulking tubes, super thick, black paste. This stuff is AWESOME for sealing up spots just like this and weld seams that arent the greatest or anything for that matter.

 

When i first saw your pictures, i thought you had stolen the pictures from my floor repair, at least for the driver side. I had just about the exact same amount to cut out and replace. My passenger side only had a little strip i had to cut and replace, i was lucky. The most difficult part of the floor repair was finding where to put the seat studs. I took about 2 days to make sure i got it perfect, I didnt want to do anything willy nilly and end up leaning to the side, forward or any other direction for that matter.

 

Also, one thing that alot of people like to do, including myself, is that while you have your frame channel uncovered do an extra good job of cleaning and por15 coating the inside. It will be the only time you will have access to it.

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s7Ehu.jpg

 

glaDp.jpg

 

NfzsE.jpg

 

 

 

So, my plan is to order and weld in a floor pan on the driver side, weld in a piece of sheet metal for that spot on the passenger side, then por15 the whole thing.

 

My question is, are those holes in the last three pictures too big for por15? Should I cut them out and weld in a little piece of metal? Or will por15 take care of all that?

 

I think the POR should handle the pin holes in the last pic alright, but the other holes look a bit big... If it was me, I would weld in another small patch piece. You're already welding in new metal for the floor pans so what's another couple of small patch pieces.

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Extremely rusted? No... no... no, sir. That's just shy of GOOD condition in MN.

I refuse to take my MJ through a winter in Minnesota for this reason...

 

Yeah... the cool kids roll in Rusty MJs just in the winter. Rusty trucks need lovin' too... been saying that a lot lately. :nuts: When it makes sense to fix, it should be done properly.

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