First, let me say, I am not a mechanic. Not in the least. With that being said, I bought this jeep about a week ago. Thrilled to get it. I bought it at what I thought was a good price. The salesman said it had some rust on it but that the rust wasn't that bad. Since I am not a mechanic, I decided to take a couple of pics of the frame and send them to a friend of mine that is mechanically inclined and let him look at them. It was raining that day and the pics weren't as good as I thought they should be, but when he looked at them he said it didn't look that bad. He came by tonight and looked at the actual jeep and said that the frame does look bad. He took some pics of it for me to post here for you guys to see. He wouldn't tell me that it was unsafe, but said that I should post the pics here and get some thoughts from some of the experts. I'm not sure what to do with it now. I don't even know if I could sell it, or if I should try to get it fixed, even if it could be fixed.. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I've been framed
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Dude, you didn't need a mechanic to know that thing is junk. Salesman is full of shhhhhhhhiiiiitttt
Holy shit... that frame is absolutely rotted.
I'm sorry, but they shouldn't have even been selling a vehicle like that, and I'm not kidding either. That is 100% unsafe to drive, and that's no exaggeration. At any point (be it something as simple as a big speed bump or pot hole) that frame could snap in half and endanger you as well as others.
I'd have to see the rest of the frame, but I'm assuming if it's that bad in that location, the entire inside of the frame looks like that, in which case you'd need to swap in a new frame. Ask someone like @jodomcfrodo how much that costs.
I would actually look into whether or not you have any legal ground to potentially file a lawsuit against them for selling you a vehicle in that condition, or at least attempting to get them to let you return it.
I'll say it again, that is UNSAFE!
I'm sorry, but they shouldn't have even been selling a vehicle like that, and I'm not kidding either. That is 100% unsafe to drive, and that's no exaggeration. At any point (be it something as simple as a big speed bump or pot hole) that frame could snap in half and endanger you as well as others.
I'd have to see the rest of the frame, but I'm assuming if it's that bad in that location, the entire inside of the frame looks like that, in which case you'd need to swap in a new frame. Ask someone like @jodomcfrodo how much that costs.
I would actually look into whether or not you have any legal ground to potentially file a lawsuit against them for selling you a vehicle in that condition, or at least attempting to get them to let you return it.
I'll say it again, that is UNSAFE!
alright, it is as I feared then. Oddly enough, the rest of the frame doesn't appear to look nearly like the driver's side of it does. What do you do when you have a jeep like this? Do you just try to sell it to someone for parts?
Where in Kentucky are you?
You can try and find another jeeper/someone with better mechanical sense to take a look and give a first hand account, but you can either drive it into the ground (risk) or sell/part out, but if you bought from a dealer you may loose your butt.
Sorry dude or dudette, I'd probably run it until but I'm the kind of guy that wont let go until the end.
You can try and find another jeeper/someone with better mechanical sense to take a look and give a first hand account, but you can either drive it into the ground (risk) or sell/part out, but if you bought from a dealer you may loose your butt.
Sorry dude or dudette, I'd probably run it until but I'm the kind of guy that wont let go until the end.
You could get an endoscope (they're very cheap on Amazon) and snake it inside the frame to see what the inside of the frame looks like. If the frame is clean everywhere other than that side, you could cut the sections out and install replacement frame pieces (i.e. Safe-T-Caps). The catch of course is that in order for those to work, you have to have clean, rust free metal to weld them to.
So it really depends on what the condition of the rest of the frame is, not just on the outside, but the inside (which is probably not good considering how bad that part of the frame is).
You have two other options as well:
1) Find a clean frame with no rust (usually they go for around $1000-$1500) and swap the new frame in. This is a huge project and will take a lot of time and labor. If you do it yourself, be prepared for a big job. A shop will probably charge around $4000-$5000 for this. @jodomcfrodo had a shop swap a clean rust free frame in his, so perhaps he can be of some help.
2) You could part the Jeep out and sell the good parts. Not sure how much you'd make though. A Rubicon will make a lot more as the axles and transfer cases are highly desirable. But at the very least, you'd likely be able to get 5k, maybe more. This is of course also a lot of work to part a vehicle out.
So it really depends on what the condition of the rest of the frame is, not just on the outside, but the inside (which is probably not good considering how bad that part of the frame is).
You have two other options as well:
1) Find a clean frame with no rust (usually they go for around $1000-$1500) and swap the new frame in. This is a huge project and will take a lot of time and labor. If you do it yourself, be prepared for a big job. A shop will probably charge around $4000-$5000 for this. @jodomcfrodo had a shop swap a clean rust free frame in his, so perhaps he can be of some help.
2) You could part the Jeep out and sell the good parts. Not sure how much you'd make though. A Rubicon will make a lot more as the axles and transfer cases are highly desirable. But at the very least, you'd likely be able to get 5k, maybe more. This is of course also a lot of work to part a vehicle out.
Thankfully, I didn't pay a ton of money for it. I've made poor decisions before and I'll just have to live with this one. I doubt I'll drive it so I'll probably end up selling it for parts or let someone else see if they can make something out of it work for them. Thanks for the advice.
Thanks, Chris- I'm not putting one more red cent into it. It has great tires, what seems like a solid motor, and the interior looks great, and the body looks good. Someone who knows a lot about jeeps should be able to use it for something, hopefully.
It sucks this happened. I really think it ought to be illegal for any dealership to sell a vehicle with rust that bad, as it starts to become dangerous. I've read stories of guys with frames like this driving down the road, and the frame literally snapped in half when they hit a bump, causing them to crash. In most cases they were unhurt, but it's the fact of the matter. Imagine if it happened at highway speeds!
Go after the dealers state license, they have to be gone after for fraud...
Sorry to hear this. Like @Chris said, they probably shouldn't be selling an unsafe vehicle without disclosing it to you. Not sure how it would work when something is sold as-is, but you could look into your laws there to see if you are covered somehow. Vehicles are supposed to go through a safety inspection before being offered for sale. That said, you would somehow have to prove it is unsafe and that the dealer knew about it as well. If it is obviously unsafe, then your case would be easier. That all said, if it didn't cost too much, potential legal fees could make this non-fruitful since it could take a lot of time and money.
This was my thought as well. Any reputable mechanic would probably be willing to sign-off on that frame being "unsafe". With enough mechanics doing that, you might have a case to take in front of the judge.
Of course in most cases it wouldn't even make it that far. All you'd have to do is threaten the dealer with it, and they'd offer to just buy it back. If they are a decent sized dealership, they'd probably do anything they can to avoid a potentially serious lawsuit.
This is one I wouldn't back down from though. No dealership should be selling something in that condition unless it's 100% fully disclosed when you're purchasing it.
I ended up having to have my frame welded in several places because it wouldn't pass inspection. It sucked because I didn't drive this one for the first year I owned it. Like you I just thought it was surface rust but it ended up being rotted out. The worst was in front of the rear wheels where the LCA sits. The driver side seems to get the most salt as its been the the worst side to work on for me. You can get a new mandrel bent frame from Throttle Down Kustoms. They start out at $3800 and go up depending on the options you want, but that's obviously a lot of work and $$.. Does your state have any lemon laws?
If the internal frame area where the transfer case skid plate connects is clean via borescope, would there be any reason to believe it could rot in between the outer frame and transfer skid connection area? I don’t believe my skid plate has ever been removed and I’m tempted to drop it just to look and por15 it. But I don’t want to tempt fate and break any bolts.
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