How should I go about fixing this rust?
- Thread starter Tzerambo
- Start date
I think he was asking about the heavy rust scale on the brake calipers. Do you have any closeup pictures of the frame, particularly the center sections.
No but the middle is just the same as the back is. Andmy front calipers looked just as bad before but I replaced both calipers and rotors and bads and got new fluid.
That place you have rust is a particularly bad area, because there is a kind of metal box welded behind to the sheetmetal, which mounts to the frame. And that box is prone to collecting water and mud, which then rusts from the inside out to the back where finally you can see it when the rust breaks through.
Bad design in that area which has haunted Jeeps since before the TJ. Even my CJ has issues there with similar box. But if you are lucky the damage is localized to that area. As prevention since mine aren't rusted through, I drilled some holes in the boxes, cleaned them out as best I could, and coated with oily rust preventative.
Bad design in that area which has haunted Jeeps since before the TJ. Even my CJ has issues there with similar box. But if you are lucky the damage is localized to that area. As prevention since mine aren't rusted through, I drilled some holes in the boxes, cleaned them out as best I could, and coated with oily rust preventative.
Is it possible to replace my whole side panned and weld a new one if I had a body shop do that?
Here is what I am talking about. On my TJ you can see the "rust boxes" that are behind where you see rust breaking through on your TJ. Water and stuff gets in between at the red arrows. And also inside those boxes and you can see the blue arrow I have some rust coming through from where water/mud had collected inside the box.
I don't have the experience on what people do on TJs for that area when replacing the sheetmetal. I assume when new sheet metal is welded, any rust in the pieces behind the sheetmetal would need to be fixed as well, include those "boxes" if they are in rough shape. I'm not sure what people do when the stuff behind those rear corners is also rusted.
A good bodyshop guy can replace that entire quarter panel and you'll never know it was replaced, absolutely. Blending the paint will be the hard part, as even the best painters won't be able to get the paint 100% so that it matches the rest, but they'll be able to get it really, really close!
Yeah I’m just going to look around at body shops in my area I wanted to consult the forum first because I trust people on here more than someone trying to sell me something.
Let us know what they say. Replacing that quarter panel isn't that difficult for a skilled shop. It's certainly not as bad as replacing the quarter panel on a new Audi or Tesla for instance!
Yeah I surely hope so because I’m not looking to spend more than like 1000 dollars on this and I really have no clue how much this is gonna cost. I also have a fender that has rust but I can buy one of those and paint it and put it on myself.
Not sure if it's been said but take a good look at your torque boxes. Patch panels are available but you might be looking at full replacement.
I just replace the one on driver's side of my LJ. It's a fair bit of work with the body on the chassis. It's also a bit hard to take decent photos of but I hope these help.
I just replace the one on driver's side of my LJ. It's a fair bit of work with the body on the chassis. It's also a bit hard to take decent photos of but I hope these help.
It looks like this spot took a hit as the metal looks bent inward. I would have the quarter panel replaced. Also, I would take a good look inside the frame, not just the outside surface rust. I agree with others here that say to get underneath the Jeep and give it a good inspection everywhere. That spot in back looks badley rusted. Hard to believe that all there is. No reason a replacement quarter panel would look repaired. Should look original. Just get a good quality replacement that fits right. I had to replace my drivers side front fender because of a dent and it looks perfect. Bought one that was pre painted and it matched perfect.
No it
had been rusted and one of my friends said this rust is bad it hit it with his foot and everything that was flaking off fell off of it and that’s why it looks that way but regardless it needs to have the whole quarter panel replaced.
I probably spent more time thinking about how to go about patching the torque box than I did hacking it out to replace the whole thing. I started by removing the rusted areas using a cutting disc on a grinder, a spot weld cutter and chisel. You have to lift the body on the side that's being replaced (left/driver's in my case). I first loosened the 11 body mount bolts and then removed the 5 on the left and the front 1 by the rad. DO NOT remove all of the bolts as the body could slide out of alignment when tilted … or so I'm told.
I replaced the driver's side footwell as well; all other floor boards were in great shape. The outer sill was good too so I was able to tilt the body up by about 3"-4". In my first pic above you'll see a 1"x2"x1/8" metal tube. I bolted it to the floor board to provide rigidity and then tilted the body using 2 bottle jacks on wood stands that I made (see pic below). This provided a lot more working and fitting space than if I had used floor jacks. Once I did that I was able to cut out the remainder of the torque box (basically the 3 body mount areas).
From then on it was a matter of snaking the new torque box into place, all the while cutting, trimming, etc. the existing metal and the new torque box to make things fit. I mig welded the new metal in place making sure that everything lined up which was pretty straight forward. I purchased a standard body mounting kit and everything went in smoothly.
It's a fair bit of work ... but what ya gonna do? BTW - I'm convinced what caused the rust was that the previous owner used flat floor mats in the winter. The carpets never dried out. I'm a firm believer in using Husky Liner mats which allow the water/salt to pool. I just soak it up with a towel when necessary.