Floor pans, well, lack there of!

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toothofwar
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Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by toothofwar »

I'll get photos tomorrow, just got to late and dark to get good ones tonight. So when I got home this evening, after being on ready for 3 days to head to hurricane relief( now we are not going...... **** red tape politics), I decided that it was time to tackle the floor pans. I have a long weekend, so what the heck. After fighting every bolt I touched and having to drill out the retaining trim self tapping screws, I pulled out the carpet. The carpet was in surprisingly good condition. The backer was a different story. So I got down to metal and was totally disappointed. I don't really know how anyone road in the passenger side. The hole was almost 18 inches long and 8 inches wide. Also a previous owner had a front drive shaft detonate and slashed and bent the crap out of the trans tunnel. I'll get the grinder and wheel out tomorrow and see just how bad the damage is. I have front and rear floor pans, but it don't have the little pieces that meet up with the rear inner fenders. Anyone got any pointers? Thanks guys and gals.

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toothofwar
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by toothofwar »

I'll have more updates today, I worked till midnight last night and only got the passenger side demoed. There is so much rust...... I didn't get a picture, but the area in front of the rear wheel well was completely gone. Today I'll be fabricating the new pieces I need for that area, the far front floor board (my new pans don't go up enough on the firewall to eliminate the rust, so hand shaped pieces it is), and the patch for the trans cover where the drive shaft ripped up the floor. Any suggestions on reinstallation?Tips,and tricks would be greatly appreciated. ImageImageImage

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fulsizjeep
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by fulsizjeep »

Good luck with that mess. I have scrapped FSJs with less rust.
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tgreese
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by tgreese »

Ugly, but fixable IMO. The best repair is to cut out the rusty steel and replace it, either with panels you make or commercially made. Compared to most body work, floors are easy because a) they aren't visible after the repair, and b) they are fairly flat, so making panels and fitting them in is fairly easy. Do you have an air compressor? After you scrape out all the loose material, you could clean it up with a hand-held blaster (TP Tools). Tractor Supply sells 50# bags of coal slag that's cheap enough to sweep up and throw away.

If you aren't averse to hackery, you can do something like the well-known roofing tar and road sign repair, and get a few years more life. There are plenty of coatings and treatments on the market, but none will last as long as replacing the rusty steel.

The main problem with rust is self-propagation. When steel rusts, it expands and pulls away from the good steel. This exposes fresh steel to the elements. Any successful treatment requires removing all the flaky rust. Any remedial treatment expects you to reduce the corrosion to tightly-bound surface rust at worst.

The CV failure is pretty common. Floor damage isn't such a problem - usually it whacks a hole in the transmission case.
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toothofwar
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by toothofwar »

Fulsizjeep, any other vehicle I'd definitely agree with you. This was my late brother's jeep so I'm tackling this for 2 reasons. 1) it will never be sold. 2) sentimental aspect will keep it in the family for generations hopefully.

Tgreese, when i got this jeep from my late brother's wife, I also got an 83 cherk for parts to use on this one/ sell to fund parts. That was 4 years ago, I got digging in it the other day and found a large box buried in the back. In it was a complete 4 piece set of new, made in USA, floor pans! This is what fueled this project. I had also found a smaller hole behind the CV joint spot that someone had cut out for some unknown reason. Today I got those 2 holes patched, built 3 more panels to attach to the new floor pans to cover the area affected by the rust, and of course, got the rusted areas cut out and removed. I have it all mocked up and ready to weld in, but the 95o weather and humidity finally took me down and I had to wrap it up for the night. I did manage to snap a couple of pics. I'll take more tomorrow when I do final fit and weld. I also got some undercoating and sprayed the bottom of the new pans and all the sub flooring while I had it all cut out. ImageImageImageImage

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rapom
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by rapom »

Looks pretty good!
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tgreese
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by tgreese »

Good progress!
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by XSapper »

Any more progress? This something I am going to have to tackle soon.
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by toothofwar »

Sorry, between work, rain, and my welder having a conniption fit, I have not had any more progress. I will say this. The little piece in the back right directly in front of the rear wheel well is a major pita! Also, just some friendly advice, when cutting metal with cutoff wheels, make for sure the nice new looking carpet you pulled out is well away from the spark area. I now have another item in the bjs cart I have to buy!

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XSapper
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by XSapper »

toothofwar wrote:Sorry, between work, rain, and my welder having a conniption fit, I have not had any more progress. I will say this. The little piece in the back right directly in front of the rear wheel well is a major pita! Also, just some friendly advice, when cutting metal with cutoff wheels, make for sure the nice new looking carpet you pulled out is well away from the spark area. I now have another item in the bjs cart I have to buy!ImageImageImage

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volkswaben
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by volkswaben »

Looking good! I feel your pain man, my floors were rotted out as well from the moisture under vinyl mats. I had to fabricate patches to fix the floor. I am prepping the floors for some Al's Heat and Noise reducer and bedliner now.
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candymancan
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by candymancan »

You should see the rust on my 90.... im still not done with it.. my floors werent as wide spread as yours. but i had to cut like 6x6 patchs here and there on both the drivers and passenger side.

the hardest rust to cut out and weld nee patchs in were those corners where the rear passenger seat sit on that ledge that goes up.. the lower floor pan as it goes down.. the corners were so rotten i could smash my foot down hard and go right through.

I fixed it all all thoguh.. then moved onto frame rust... But this year ive been meh on repairs still have the rust by the gas tank to tackle..
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9L Limited 219k
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0 I6 laredo 430k
1990 Jeep Grand Wagoneer 155k
1976 Jeep J10.. 85k(repaired)
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by AMCGrandInquisitor »

Just a curious question, did your new front floor pans have pre-drilled holes for the seat track mounting bolts/studs?
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by toothofwar »

Unfortunately no. I had to measure and drill holes for the lower seat belt and for the seat tracks. One of the studs for the passenger side tracks (the rear stud closest to the trans hump) needed to be welded to the bottom of the rear floor pan.

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candymancan
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by candymancan »

Btw glad your fixing it.. When someone in this thread said they toss wagoneers to the scrapper eith less rust i cringed... Anything can be fixed... Just gatta have the passion and effort to do it. And i often feel if my wagoneer could talk itd thank me lol
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9L Limited 219k
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0 I6 laredo 430k
1990 Jeep Grand Wagoneer 155k
1976 Jeep J10.. 85k(repaired)
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toothofwar
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by toothofwar »

My welder is down at the moment, so not much progress has been made. I'm needing to get this thing back wrapped up before the really bad weather comes. I don't think my little gti will do very well on snow and ice. I would feel a lot better with the wife in the jeep.

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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by candymancan »

I used a harbor freight 90a flux welder on mine. It welded the frame and floorboards just fine.. I cut off my rear leaf spring brackets to get the shackle off.. welded em back on with 90a flux and its been fine for almost 2 years.. repaired the 1.8th thick frame as well..

Also made and welded a torque box on the 4.0 grand cherokee 1.8th steel. A frienda 98 cherokee xj had a bent control bracket on the front dana 30 axle tube we cut the bracket off and i welded a new 3.16th one on.. It been over a year now and he wheels it and nothing has happend..

Welded stuff on a 3.16th angle iron aquarium stajd as well... For a 135g fish tabk total weight is about 1600-1700 lbs with water and the fish tank weight..

So yea.. I remember people laughing at this welder but it works great once you find the right settings. Just wear a welder respirator aka p100 respirator as flux core welding releases alot of fumes you dont want to breath in

if you need a cheap welder. Give the 90a or i guess 120a they changed the name a try.. Its like 100$ in harbor freight. Just ignore the settings on it.. I found they list the wire speed too fast for thicker metal and too slow for thinner.
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9L Limited 219k
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0 I6 laredo 430k
1990 Jeep Grand Wagoneer 155k
1976 Jeep J10.. 85k(repaired)
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toothofwar
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by toothofwar »

I have a miller renegade 180 with fluxcore right now. The carb was full of crap so I went in a cleaning spree and ended up breaking the tab that holds the float pin.... so looking for a new carb now. I could run me a 240v cord outside, but I have never used it off wall power. Only off the built in 5500 watt generator. The welder just plugs into the 30 amp plug on the front of the machine. I am assuming it can be unplugged and used on a cord. I'll have to do some research and report back.

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candymancan
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by candymancan »

Youd need to run that from like a washing machine or dryer plug i think
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9L Limited 219k
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0 I6 laredo 430k
1990 Jeep Grand Wagoneer 155k
1976 Jeep J10.. 85k(repaired)
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toothofwar
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Re: Floor pans, well, lack there of!

Post by toothofwar »

Picking up a 240v extension cord Friday. So hopefully this weekend I'll get some welding done.

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