Opinions: too much rust?

[d-cannon]

I am interested in this particular Jeep. The body and interior look almost mint for 150k miles. The underside? Not so much. I do not see any rot, but this is more rust than I have seen on a local Jeep. What do y’all think… easy clean up or hard pass?

 

[TJ4Jim]

Looks fairly decent for an east coast Jeep, if you have concerns get into the frame openings with a scope to see what's going on and get some side shots where the skid meets the frame rail under the door area,

 

[bromel]

I see nothing immediately concerning, just surface rust. Feel around inside the frame holes above the skid plate.

 

[TheBoogieman]

It doesn't look like anything that couldn't be cleaned up and treated IF the INSIDE of the frame isn't too bad. What part of Va are you in?

 

[TWiG01]

I’ll echo that none of those photos look concerning. As the others mentioned, the inside of the frame is what’s important.

 

[hardtailpan]

Yeah, I agree with what's been said, but as always, its really hard to tell in pics. What you posted actually looks quite good. Need betters pics/inspection on usual culprits of rear control arm area and skid-frame junction. If you can scope the inside, thats ideal, if not, just stick your finger in every hole and feel around. Best if its clean and smooth, but in the rust belt you will likely get some scaling. Any questionable areas hit with a chipping hammer if you can and you don't piss off the owner. if the frame deforms or especially if the hammer goes thru the frame, walk away.

Looks pretty good though, looks a lot like my Sahara frame which for an East coast Jeep is great.

 

[Artsifrtsi]

Watch out, the northerners are going to think you are mocking them!

That's a little worse than my Florida TJ, but looks to only be surface, and like the others have said already, inspect inside the frame.

 

[d-cannon]

Thank you, all. I didn’t think it was too bad, but it has a lot more surface rust than my 5-year-older TJ that has 60k more miles (210k vs. 155k), was wheeled harder, and comes from the same area (the hills of Virginia). I am in the Richmond area, btw. So, it is a 2.5 hour drive one way to check it out in person.

 

[JEEPCJTJ]

I'll add to the probably nothing to worry about but check the inside of that frame. FWIW, I don't think I've ever seen the sticker shown in the first and third pictures before this thread.

 

[RobertJ]

You really don't know the condition of the frame if you don't run a scope through the inside. It does appear that it's mostly surface rust. One thing I'll mention though, is you're going to need new control arms and/or bushings as it appears they are pretty dry rotted.