Too much rust?

Mon0cle

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Supporting Member
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Jul 8, 2017
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53
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Hey yens. New to the forum, hell, forums in general. Tons of great info just messing around in here. Great job guys. Anyway, last year traded the minivan on a jku for the wife. 3 kids fit in the back just fine...ish. Then of course daddy had to find a tj for himself. 97 sport 5spd with a solid 4.0, 130k on it for $3500. Oddly enough, the engine and tranny really are in great condition. The question is, do I find another one? Or have some fun getting it mechanically sound, then have some fun with it. I can do all the work and actually enjoy the wrenching part of it. I have a great frame guy for that part of it. I think the pictures tell the story, what u say?

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Welcome to the forum and Jeep world, sounds like the bug has bit you as hard as it has the rest of us here.

Let me preface this by saying I live in SoCal so we don't see rusty frames etc. since the roads aren't salted out here. So if that's normal for the Pittsburgh area I'm glad I don't live there. But if it were me, since I wouldn't enjoy tearing that suspension & chassis apart to get the rust cleaned up or sections replaced, I think I'd keep looking. I'd start looking on Craigslist in areas where the roads aren't salted and try to find one in better condition. That just seems like a LOT of rust and getting it in good condition may prove pretty frustrating.

The Jeep itself doesn't look too bad but yowsa, that chassis and the axles are pretty rough on that particular TJ. And by the way, '97 is a very good year. That was my first Wrangler (it was stolen) and I preferred that model year to the '04 I have now.
 
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That old girl is a bit far gone...IMHO, unless your looking for a wrenching project. If you're looking for a jeep to drive, I'd keep looking. You're going to have 6 months to a year into getting that back into "safe to drive" condition. The hole in the frame above the skid scares me. If its rotted through there, I'd almost guarantee that the bottom is rotten in that spot too.
 
The body seems to look good in the pics, but those underneath pics scare me a bit, and I live in rust hell (Nova Scotia). I'd consider looking for a good frame and swap the body over.
 
Oh... my... god...

Yeah... That is wayyyyyy too much rust. Some of that rust looks like it's gotten to the point where the metal wouldn't even be salvageable. I wouldn't touch that thing with a ten foot pole! Unless of course you want one hell of a massive project.

That honestly may be some of the worst rust I've ever seen.
 
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Thanks for all the rapid replies. Great group you all got here. Im feeling you all. If I had the room I would do the frame swap. But I'm thinking the same thing, a bit too far gone, shame. My wife's getting sick of me taking "short cuts" everywhere we go in hers. Oh well, the search continues, Thanks again all.
 
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Thanks for all the rapid replies. Great group you all got here. Im feeling you all. If I had the room I would do the frame swap. But I'm thinking the same thing, a bit too far gone, shame. My wife's getting sick of me taking "short cuts" everywhere we go in hers. Oh well, the search continues, Thanks again all.

Good idea to keep looking. How far are you willing to travel? There are great places to look in the west, southwest, and south that will have much better under bellies. and what's your budget? I enjoy checking out craigslist and spending other peoples money.
 
i'm not sure how someone lets their vehicle get that bad to begin with.
I live in the salt belt as well, but after every snow/salt event, I make sure that we go to a car wash and at least spray the under belly to get rid of the salt spray. I figure since I wax my vehicles before winter, the painted sections will be fine until it warms enough to wash the entire vehicle.
I'd pass on that one.
 
If you like wrenching then find one that all the wrenching will be fun on. Improving suspension, gearing, adding bumpers, etc. Spending all that time on rust is a waste when you could be doing stuff you'll enjoy, jmho
 
Good idea to keep looking. How far are you willing to travel? There are great places to look in the west, southwest, and south that will have much better under bellies. and what's your budget? I enjoy checking out craigslist and spending other peoples money.
Lol, who doesn't love spending other people's $!!! I think I'm going to sell the KLR and get myself up to 10k. Radius? If I can drive there and back in a day, I'd make that trip. I think I'd like to find something unmolested/damn close to stock. I think I'm starting to dip into a different trend though...
 
I'm still blown away by that rust... I mean wow! I guess over here on the West Coast, we don't ever really see that sort of rust on vehicles. That would be one hell of a project, I'll say that much.
 
... and the search continues. His post, "Mileage is 118,700k but for a jeep with a 4.0 engine that's nothing. It's a 5 speed manual transmission (only way to go for a rubi!). Everything works as it should, ac front and rear lockers. New clutch and clutch master cylinder put on at 108k miles. Oil was changed every 3k. Put on a 2" bds lift kit (coils and shocks) along with quick disconnect sway bar mounts at 110k. Everything on the front end was done within the last 5k miles this includes tie rod with new tie rod ends (did a zj conversion for the heavyer duty bar) a long with a new adjustable track bar and stabilizer. Dual tops factory hard top and rampage aftermarket soft top" He was pretty meticulous, in the past 10k miles he also changed ALL the fluids, 2 alignments ( one after new tires, another aft all the suspension). So what u guys think for $9500? And if I'm getting out of hand with the pictures/ continuing the trend, let me know.

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That looks pretty good, esp for the price. I'd be very interested. As a point of reference, I paid 9800 for mine with a hard top, missing rear seat, and 126,500 miles, bone stock and needing tires.