Is this rust servicable, or pass?

[cpal]

Hi guys,

I'm new here and plan on joining the ranks of fellow TJ(-L) owners soon. I've been hunting for the perfect LJ for the better part of a year now and boy has it been tough. Jumping from both extremes I find rust buckets, or immaculate unicorns that I wouldn't want to take off road... I happen to come across one that seems to fall in between. Here on the east coast a rusted under carriage is common because of heavy road salting. I was wondering, in your opinion(s), if this LJ's under carriage was in "good enough" shape that if I got it serviced, cleaned, and treated that it would be worth purchasing? I've done tons of research on what options and models have what problems and "gotchas", but this is something I would want to be checked by trained jeeper eyes.

The rest of the jeep is in great shape. It's an 04 auto with 127k miles, original hard top, and the listing price before any negotiations is 11.5k. The dealer is about 80 miles away from me so I'm trying to eliminate choices before I drive out somewhere and find out the hard way. Any opinions are appreciated, thank you.

 

[glwood]

That looks serviceable, but would need a closer look to make sure there are no hidden problem areas.

 

[cliffish]

The PNW and Texas guys will hate it as they are spoiled with perfect frames out there, for a NE LJ at that price it is certainly worth a look. treat the frame with por15 or eastwoods rust encapsulate, drop the tranny skid plate and treat in between..

 

[cpal]

Wow, thank you for the fast replies! It's tough to get remote dealers to send me under carriage pics so I'm glad this one has been cooperative so far. Might have to schedule myself a test drive and inspect a bit further. Thanks guys.

 

[cliffish]

don't wait too long, these thing fly "off the shelves" this time of year.

 

[glwood]

Any time. As far as frames go, that appears a good amount better than a lot of the horrific frames we've seen...

 

[Shane Mckinley]

Agreed that all appears to be surface for sure. Treatment and in spot check behind the control arms and I would think it’s a go


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2005 RHD TJ Sport
2010 BMW 528xi

 

[cjaama]

Yeah, that is about as good as you can hope to see up here, outside of the unicorns that are out of control expensive. Really a non-issue and you don’t need to “have it done”. You can definitely treat what little surface rust is there on your own.

Good luck! Post some more pics if and when you buy it.