Getting started on my floor pans and torque boxes

I know CJ's were painted AFTER they had the rollbar installed. I think I was hoping TJ's were different.
 
I forgot to mention, if you want to treat the rust rather than cut it out, get some Evaporust. It's not an acid, but a chelation fluid that will remove pitted rust without harming the base metal. Doesn't harm your skin, and about the consistency of water. But it works very slowly and needs to be kept wet. For small items I just leave them over night in a bucket of the stuff. For surface rust on otherwise sound panels I used a flap disc or sand paper to remove most of the rust and then soaked paper towels in evaporust and let them sit on the metal for a day or two, using a spray bottle every few hours to keep the towels wet. You can see the towels turn brown from the rust it leaches out and then you can wash off the evaporust and repaint or fix what's left. It works so well I threw all the phosphoric acid away.

What would be the difference with Evaporust vs fluid film application wise? Application meaning purpose and applying? Thanks
 
Rear floor pans were delivered today

This mornings progress:
-Drilled out some of the torque box spot welds
-Removed fender (easier said than done!)

Discovered what I think is a bad seal job which may explain why my driver side rusted out so much worse. I broke off one of the bolts (first one) for the fender at the front before I realized I should have removed the headlights to spray liquid wrench and use heat.

As for the fender bolts into the tub...this was a great time to do that because I had the bottom opened up and could spray liquid wrench into the back of the bolts and heat. It looks like only the bottom one was rusted badly.

Fender moved
View attachment 277544
See the gap at the corner where light shines through? I could be wrong but it looks like the sealer didn’t get into the corner like it was supposed to.
View attachment 277545
The four bolts holding on the fender. Bottom one is rusty but top three look good and came out easily.
View attachment 277546
Spot welds removed. It was hard to find them among the rust, bondo, etc (from an earlier bad attempt by me to fix the rocker rust)
View attachment 277547

I know it’s been a hot minute since you did this but I’m using your “blog” post as a guide…could you have just removed the bracket that connects to the fender and the torque box without taking off the fender?! I’m hoping it’s a yes cause I’m not wanting to keep working on taking off the fender haha
 
I know it’s been a hot minute since you did this but I’m using your “blog” post as a guide…could you have just removed the bracket that connects to the fender and the torque box without taking off the fender?! I’m hoping it’s a yes cause I’m not wanting to keep working on taking off the fender haha

I don't think you could remove it without the fender off. It has to come forward because of the way it connects to the studs on the firewall and it can't come forward with the fender still attached.

Taking off the fender can be a tough job but I'm happy to know that all the seized and rusted bolts will be in the past when this is all done.
 
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