Getting started on my floor pans and torque boxes

Seems like it would've been better to spray the herculiner on the outside of the jeep than the inside! LOL.

Work is looking great so far man. Keep it up!
I really despise bedliner now. Factory paint is a really good coating and my stupid self thought spraying some $40 can of junk on top of it would help how?! I think if I was to ever get a pickup truck I would go with the old fashioned drop in plastic liner. Thanks for the encouragement, I am really needing it.
faaaaaaaaaaaakkkk man.
Previous owner of mine did a beautification job with bondo over rust, sure did good enough to hide from a 1st time Jeep buyer and unsuspected dealership.
I have the same issue around driver side roll bar, was agitating surface with a wire wheel for bedliner job, and then a white dust started appearing from around that area. Out of confusion i started poking around with a screw driver and surprise ! Rest of the tub seems fine, so why exactly that corner is puzzling to me.

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Ah! Sorry to hear that. It’s a shame that TJs have these rust issues. If you decide to fix it, I would recommend only cutting out the parts that are bad, not the whole pan like I did. And I would consider doing the rivet and adhesive method.
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.
Thanks for that. Sounds great for small items. I was about to pick up some phosphoric acid earlier this week but might have to reconsider. I had wild dreams in my head of cutting out rust, patching in panels, making it like new…but it’s beyond my ability and time. People that spend years doing a frame-off restoration - I am in awe of their patience and resolve.


On another note: it is truly AMAZING what a handful of sheet metal screws can do. They worked better than I could ever have imagined at tightening up all the gaps and getting everything lined up in the right place. Almost feel like I could go take it for a spin around the block.

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faaaaaaaaaaaakkkk man.
Previous owner of mine did a beautification job with bondo over rust, sure did good enough to hide from a 1st time Jeep buyer and unsuspected dealership.
I have the same issue around driver side roll bar, was agitating surface with a wire wheel for bedliner job, and then a white dust started appearing from around that area. Out of confusion i started poking around with a screw driver and surprise ! Rest of the tub seems fine, so why exactly that corner is puzzling to me.

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I can tell you why. Anything bolted over something else, or boxed in, is just primered. They only bothered to paint what you can see. The vertical boxed section that forms the "B" pillar is not sealed from the elements, so water will get in there and wick underneath the rollbar and have a feast on the metal under it.
 
Thanks for that. Sounds great for small items. I was about to pick up some phosphoric acid earlier this week but might have to reconsider. I had wild dreams in my head of cutting out rust, patching in panels, making it like new…but it’s beyond my ability and time. People that spend years doing a frame-off restoration - I am in awe of their patience and resolve.
It works great for large areas like sheet metal too. Just grind off as much as you can mechanically and let it do the rest.

As far as years doing a frame off resto...I'm going on 7 years with mine so far. It sucks, don't recommend it.
 
Been continuing to work on this daily. I have majorly lowered my expectations on this project. I knew it would be tough but man... Way harder than I was expecting. Not proud of how it is going but hopefully my experience will help somebody down the road.

Current strategy: I used almost an entire 100-count box of sheet metal screws (#8x3/4”) spaced approx 2” apart to hold everything together. I will remove one screw at a time and drill out the hole to 3/16” (and deburr) replacing with a 3/16” steel rivet. The other edges I will attempt to weld a butt joint but it is not even close to how I wanted. Oh well. It turned from a restoration project into a “save it from the scrap yard” project.

It was really hard to get all the panels to line up correctly. I had to cut the bottom edge of the front floor pan on the side and I found that edge is key for all the panels. Had to remove it all and restart, making sure the edges of the panels along the rocker guard were tight.

Supposed to get my welding supplies delivered today so I should be able to start melting some metal together pretty soon.

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Probably shouldn’t even post these :sick: but the rear pan is almost welded in.

The worst parts are the plug welds on the rocker panels. Smaller holes would have been preferred (they are 3/8” from the spot weld cutter). Cleaner metal would have been preferred. Zinc cold galvanizing spray that I substituted for weld thru primer probably didn’t help. Not grinding the zinc primer off the holes probably didn’t help. Maybe I should have replaced the entire rocker and started with fresh metal and proper size holes. There was No way for me to leave the joints at the rocker as they were because they were rusting out so bad and separating.

The butt joints that did have good fit-up actually went nicely but unfortunately I didn’t do a very good job at getting most of the edges to fit nice.

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Project took a turn for the worse this morning (if that is possible). What a hack job. So frustrating.

I continued welding (attempting welding) along the butt joints and then decided it would be worth a try to drill out where the screws were and try a plug weld. I thought they were going okay but now I’m second guessing myself.

I drilled through the top layer of metal with 1/4” bit and turned up the welder. Some seemed to get good penetration but some didn’t. I think it had a lot to do with how deep I made the hole. I didn’t want to blow all the way through both layers with the drill bit so I had to do it by feel for depth.

Last time I tried welding for body work, I was using a flux core 110v with .030 wire and I thought that was why it didn’t turn out well. So this time, I went out and got a Hobart Ironman 230, 75/25 gas cylinder, extra parts to setup for .24 wire. And I still suck at this!! I should have stuck with my plan to strictly use rivets. I bought some rivets later in the day and they turned out great when installed. Might even go as far to say it is enjoyable setting the rivets. I’ll take rivets or bolts over welding any day. It’s just not my thing apparently.

Now the question is whether or not I should grind off and drill out all the spot welds to install rivets? I tried on one and it broke my drill bit. Switched to cobalt bit and it worked but not easy. Or I could drill and rivet inbetween all the spot welds I suppose.

Going to need a lot of bondo and prayers to get the rocker guards looking good.

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Don't rivet it, it'll rust in no time and just looks hokey. Get a couple sheets of steel the same thickness as the floor pans, drill a whole bunch of holes, and practice plug welds. Thats what I did before attempting my floor pans. They don't have to look perfect, they just need enough heat penetration. I start in the center of the hole and spiral out to the edge. The rocker panels are a great excuse to get rocker guards.
 
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The way you have everything fit looks great. Definitely practice you welds, starting center of the hole and spiraling out is the best advice I ever got for plug welds also if you have the welder set hot enough you should be moving fast. For the butt welds take your time one tack move to a different area one tack and so on. I did one side a weekend when I did this on my truck.
 
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First... Get a damn rotobroach. It will save you lots of frustration. It makes it very easy to cut through one layer of steel and leave the other for material to weld to.

Second, practice makes perfect. Lots of practice... When I did my rocker repair, I practiced a bunch on 16 ga sheet metal I bought from the local farm store. I still had to grind a lot. The second one I did was better, third, better yet.

Butt welding sheet metal is about as tough as it gets. Get it tacked into place, then you have to stitch weld. Weld about 3/4 of an inch and stop. Go to the opposite end of the panel, do the same thing. Then do the center and walk away for 5 minute to let it cool. Rinse and repeat.

The rivets are the easy way out. Figure out the plug welding and it will work much better in the long run, especially if you decide to sell. Plug welding is really easy, once you get the hang of it.
 
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Don't rivet it, it'll rust in no time and just looks hokey. Get a couple sheets of steel the same thickness as the floor pans, drill a whole bunch of holes, and practice plug welds. Thats what I did before attempting my floor pans. They don't have to look perfect, they just need enough heat penetration. I start in the center of the hole and spiral out to the edge. The rocker panels are a great excuse to get rocker guards
Gotta say, the rivets are going extremely well but you are making me nourvous about them rusting. I might be crazy but I dig the look of a bunch of rivets. Included some pics of my plug welds that I am concerned about not getting penetration.
The way you have everything fit looks great. Definitely practice you welds, starting center of the hole and spiraling out is the best advice I ever got for plug welds also if you have the welder set hot enough you should be moving fast. For the butt welds take your time one tack move to a different area one tack and so on. I did one side a weekend when I did this on my truck.
One side a weekend! Wow thats great. I don’t even know how many hours I got into this thing right now but tomorrow is the two week mark and I’m not even finished on the one side (but closer than I have been to finished ha) The second side will go much faster.

I was moving pretty fast. I was using the welder close to settings that were recommended for 1/4” thick. See my weld pics at the bottom and tell me if I should be concerned?
First... Get a damn rotobroach. It will save you lots of frustration. It makes it very easy to cut through one layer of steel and leave the other for material to weld to.

Second, practice makes perfect. Lots of practice... When I did my rocker repair, I practiced a bunch on 16 ga sheet metal I bought from the local farm store. I still had to grind a lot. The second one I did was better, third, better yet.

Butt welding sheet metal is about as tough as it gets. Get it tacked into place, then you have to stitch weld. Weld about 3/4 of an inch and stop. Go to the opposite end of the panel, do the same thing. Then do the center and walk away for 5 minute to let it cool. Rinse and repeat.

The rivets are the easy way out. Figure out the plug welding and it will work much better in the long run, especially if you decide to sell. Plug welding is really easy, once you get the hang of it.
On the rotabroach, I thought my spot weld cutter was working pretty well and same size at 3/8. Do you find you are able to do nice plug welds on a 3/8” hole in this gauge sheet metal? I was reading a lot of icar info and looks like the standard is 5/16” hole. The holes all the way through both sheets above the trans tunnel are totally my fault. It was separating so I thought I had to go deeper but think there was adhesive. Good point on the resale value. There will come a day in the future that I’m afraid this thing will be going for parts/scrap value either way (rivets or no rivets) - especially with my frame rot.
Now that's what I call dedication!! Nice Job.
Thank you. I will be very happy to have body mounts that are actually attached to the body when this is done.

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Gotta say, the rivets are going extremely well but you are making me nourvous about them rusting. I might be crazy but I dig the look of a bunch of rivets. Included some pics of my plug welds that I am concerned about not getting penetration.

One side a weekend! Wow thats great. I don’t even know how many hours I got into this thing right now but tomorrow is the two week mark and I’m not even finished on the one side (but closer than I have been to finished ha) The second side will go much faster.

I was moving pretty fast. I was using the welder close to settings that were recommended for 1/4” thick. See my weld pics at the bottom and tell me if I should be concerned?

On the rotabroach, I thought my spot weld cutter was working pretty well and same size at 3/8. Do you find you are able to do nice plug welds on a 3/8” hole in this gauge sheet metal? I was reading a lot of icar info and looks like the standard is 5/16” hole. The holes all the way through both sheets above the trans tunnel are totally my fault. It was separating so I thought I had to go deeper but think there was adhesive. Good point on the resale value. There will come a day in the future that I’m afraid this thing will be going for parts/scrap value either way (rivets or no rivets) - especially with my frame rot.

Thank you. I will be very happy to have body mounts that are actually attached to the body when this is done.

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Welds don’t look good, settings for 1/4” would be way to hot. Welding sheet metal takes practice. Try setting your welder to about the second lowest setting and get some 18 or 20 gauge to practice with. Hard to tell from the pictures but if you drilled through both layers you don’t want do do that or you have a big hole to fill and that makes things harder.
 
Welds don’t look good, settings for 1/4” would be way to hot. Welding sheet metal takes practice. Try setting your welder to about the second lowest setting and get some 18 or 20 gauge to practice with. Hard to tell from the pictures but if you drilled through both layers you don’t want do do that or you have a big hole to fill and that makes things harder.
Where all the welds are- originally they had #8 self-tapping sheet metal screws there. I was going to unscrew them one at a time, drill out the holes, and replace with rivets. Then I thought “Maybe I’ll try plug welding one”. So I used 1/4” drill bit to drill through the top layer as much as possible without completely drilling through both layers.

I thought that first test weld turned out okay but wanted more penetration instead of just filling the hole. So I turned the settings up and tried another one. Then turned it up again and tried another one. Ended up at 1/4“ thick steel settings and ended up doing a bunch of them.

Wish I would have just done the rivets! Think I’ll grind down the bad welds and drill out + rivet.
 
I spent a good portion of the morning grinding down welds, drilling through, and replacing with rivets. Just a few more to go. So much better

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Seam sealer complete on the butt joints. Might go with a urethane “caulk” from the home center for the rest. Satisfied with this small part of the project. Glad the shit welds are covered from sight now.

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For the first time in years, we have a body that is actually attached to the frame!
Just need to pick up a few more bolts.

Two gallons of epoxy primer (gray) from Summit ready to go when I get everything cleaned up and prepped. Going to topcoat it with black spray cans for underside and interior.

Still trying to decide on paint for the body. I’d like to keep the stock color but the going rate for a gallon of non-metallic gray single stage urethane for ~$100 is pretty appealing too. Maybe easier for a novice to spray than by/cc silver metallic?
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Sprayed on two coats of epoxy primer. I spot blasted rust pit areas and treated with phosphoric acid. Hope this turns out okay - I don’t like doing body work and I don’t have much experience.

Decided to go with spraycan primer and rustoleum flat black for underneath and inside. Too hard to get a spray gun up inside there and it’s out of view anyway.

I mixed up 8oz of the epoxy primer and it was waaay more than I needed. So I tried doing the inside of the floor pans and underside as best I could with the spray gun because because why not. I will get the spots I couldn’t get to with spray cans.

Also sprayed some sidestep brackets and fender mount/abs tray with the extra. Still ended up having to dump some out at the end. Oh and part of my seat slider and rear body seam (Spot sandblasted the seam).

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Floor pans are painted. Top and bottom. The “any angle“ spray can worked nicely to get in hard to reach areas. Everything that is not outside bodywork is getting flat black treatment (and spraycan primer).

Would I have liked to do a frame off/acid dip/rotisserie job? Yes But hopefully the end result here will keep me satisfied enough.

Next step is bondo on the rocker panel followed by another shot of epoxy primer. I can also start reassembly of the interior and fender. I anticipate it will be sitting in primer for a long time before I am able to do all the rest of the necessary bodywork and paint.

It‘s hard to keep the scope of the project in check. For instance…buying and installing new fenders right now has definitely crossed my mind. But if I did that with everything then I would never get done. So I’m trying to keep focused and know that the rest can all be done later...with bolts and screws that will come out easily next time and not break off.

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The pic above is the gray primer and below is the flat black but for some reason they look very similar in the photos.
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Thank you for updating
From time to time, as i drive, i wonder where you at with your project, while cringing at a thought of addressing this elephant in my Jeep
 
Thank you for updating
From time to time, as i drive, i wonder where you at with your project, while cringing at a thought of addressing this elephant in my Jeep
I was the same way the last year. Looking at you photo, I wonder if it wasn’t acut ally a case of hiding the rust with Bondo? Jeep puts a ton of seam sealer on that spot from the factory all around the roll bar base and that entire corner. It looks and sands/grinds off similar to bondo…not sure if that would make you feel any better if maybe the previous owner didn’t try to deceive you. You can see some of the remnants of seam sealer on my roll bar attachment plate in the above photos.

Now to go slap some Bondo on my rockers…