Several years ago I got this 2000 Sahara, and around December last year I felt like I was just about done with it. I had rebuilt the transfer case, repainted and replaced most of the dented body parts that were on it when I bought it, replaced the steering box, radio, wheels, put some armor on the rear to cover a dent in the rear passenger quarter panel, headliner for the hard top, new cylinder head, plugs, battery, radiator hoses, regear from 3.07 to 4.10 and a new eaton e-locker and true trac. A lot of time and money put into this thing, and only 44,000 miles. Plus blood sweat and tears of doing all this crap.
Last picture of my Jeep before the accident:
So a friend of mine convinced me to go up to our usual spot in January, and long story short it ended with me being sandwiched between two vehicles after sliding down the road backwards while another vehicle came sliding at me from the front. Horrible day.
I fought and fought and fought AAA to not total my Jeep, they wanted to give me $12k for it and the price I paid plus everything I put into it was about $20k.
Finally, they relented, got the Jeep appraised for $20k and kicked it out of total loss and paid me the bodyshop estimate.
So now comes the job of trying to get it back to where it was.
The original plan was to cut out the passenger side of the tub and weld in replacement panels from a scrap tub, but the damage to the tub ended up being too extensive. The entire back section was badly warped, the floor was buckled, the wheel wells separated from the welds. The tailgate was also smashed from where my spare tire went through it, hard top cracked and window smashed, front passenger fender was smashed but my warn bumper held and the frame was undamaged. The majority of the damage was too the body where the bumper of the vehicle behind me hit the armor. My rear tire carrier was also pushed forward and bent.
I think the posion spyder armor plates I put on the back of the jeep to cover up previous damage actually ended up contributing to making the damage worse, because it added a very stiff push plate instead of crumpling like it would have normally. I'll never put armor on the back of my vehicle again.
Due to the damage to the tub, I decided to do a tub swap and replace the other pieces as needed. So after again much headache and the bodyshop refusing to do the tub swap, the yard in Sacramento that sold me the tub said they could swap it out, so I relented and had them do it. After two weeks, the tub swap was done and now comes the task of repairing everything else.
Jeep after tub swap completed.
I was able to locate a passenger side door which I need to paint, a new fender, a new fog light, and a tailgate. So i'm working on fixing those up and getting those installed.
Still trying to figure out what to do with the hard top. I believe it to be repairable, and it will need new glass and a few parts on the back that broke like the plastic piece that goes on the bottom of the glass. Or I can buy a new hard top, which are proving very hard to find in good shape.
During the process of trying to fix everything, a few issues have popped up which I wasn't expecting.
First, the hood now sits at a slight angle. If I look at the jeep from the front, the passenger side sits slightly lower than the driver side. Not sure what to do here.
The driver side door which i thought was fine I also think is damaged because it does not sit flush with the body any longer. I put a straight edge on it and it exhibits a slight curve, so it must have been warped during the wreck. I don't know if this can be bent back into shape or If I just need to find a new door skin. (also hard to find)
I'm starting to think I should have bought a cheap high mileage Jeep and just swapped over the running gear and motor, instead of trying to put the body back together, but too late now. If anyone has any tips on how I should best proceed with this project i'm all ears. I know a common opinion is that "it's a jeep, it's supposed to look like shit" but I just can't adopt that!
Last picture of my Jeep before the accident:
So a friend of mine convinced me to go up to our usual spot in January, and long story short it ended with me being sandwiched between two vehicles after sliding down the road backwards while another vehicle came sliding at me from the front. Horrible day.
I fought and fought and fought AAA to not total my Jeep, they wanted to give me $12k for it and the price I paid plus everything I put into it was about $20k.
Finally, they relented, got the Jeep appraised for $20k and kicked it out of total loss and paid me the bodyshop estimate.
So now comes the job of trying to get it back to where it was.
The original plan was to cut out the passenger side of the tub and weld in replacement panels from a scrap tub, but the damage to the tub ended up being too extensive. The entire back section was badly warped, the floor was buckled, the wheel wells separated from the welds. The tailgate was also smashed from where my spare tire went through it, hard top cracked and window smashed, front passenger fender was smashed but my warn bumper held and the frame was undamaged. The majority of the damage was too the body where the bumper of the vehicle behind me hit the armor. My rear tire carrier was also pushed forward and bent.
I think the posion spyder armor plates I put on the back of the jeep to cover up previous damage actually ended up contributing to making the damage worse, because it added a very stiff push plate instead of crumpling like it would have normally. I'll never put armor on the back of my vehicle again.
Due to the damage to the tub, I decided to do a tub swap and replace the other pieces as needed. So after again much headache and the bodyshop refusing to do the tub swap, the yard in Sacramento that sold me the tub said they could swap it out, so I relented and had them do it. After two weeks, the tub swap was done and now comes the task of repairing everything else.
Jeep after tub swap completed.
I was able to locate a passenger side door which I need to paint, a new fender, a new fog light, and a tailgate. So i'm working on fixing those up and getting those installed.
Still trying to figure out what to do with the hard top. I believe it to be repairable, and it will need new glass and a few parts on the back that broke like the plastic piece that goes on the bottom of the glass. Or I can buy a new hard top, which are proving very hard to find in good shape.
During the process of trying to fix everything, a few issues have popped up which I wasn't expecting.
First, the hood now sits at a slight angle. If I look at the jeep from the front, the passenger side sits slightly lower than the driver side. Not sure what to do here.
The driver side door which i thought was fine I also think is damaged because it does not sit flush with the body any longer. I put a straight edge on it and it exhibits a slight curve, so it must have been warped during the wreck. I don't know if this can be bent back into shape or If I just need to find a new door skin. (also hard to find)
I'm starting to think I should have bought a cheap high mileage Jeep and just swapped over the running gear and motor, instead of trying to put the body back together, but too late now. If anyone has any tips on how I should best proceed with this project i'm all ears. I know a common opinion is that "it's a jeep, it's supposed to look like shit" but I just can't adopt that!
