Member looking for Jeep/Rust Help

Dasfinc

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Sep 28, 2007
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Welp; going to Target in [MENTION=4700]Miss Esa[/MENTION]'s new Cherokee we heard some unpleasant clunk from the rear suspension coming into the parking lot, and I noticed the rear passenger side suspension was sitting nearly 2 inches lower than the driver side.

I knew going into getting the Jeep that the rear leafs both looked pretty spent, and inspecting the underside nothing stood out to me as having 'collapsed' at the time.

I had some more time to spend under the truck today, and found that the rear bump stops were about gone, which between that and the tired rear leafs likely explains the Clunk we heard. Unfortunately I made a different discovery up stream from the bump stops that neither myself or the PO were aware of:

fynbYv3.jpg


May be hard to gauge from the picture, but there is a solid 6-8 inches of Unibody frame missing that's about 1.5-2 inches wide under the passenger side rear of the truck. This is located between where the front and rear of the leaf mounts up to the unibody, so I'm rather alarmed to find this as I was about to drop a few hundred dollars on new leaf packs and rear suspension.

So First question: Is this an immediately dangerous/structural problem given where it's located in relation to the suspension?

Second question(s): How on earth would someone go about getting this repaired? Anyone have a shop where they've had this kind of repair done that they'd recommend? How much would it cost?
 

10sec

I haz dat teddy bear smile.
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A body shop would rape you hard, you need to find someone like Jeff to fix that for you. My guess would be at least $200+ for all the labor trying to cut out the dead metal and weld in new stuff where there's enough of the OEM Jeep metal to weld to.
 

Dasfinc

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Sep 28, 2007
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i put on some patch parts on a few different vehicles. Do they sell anything that fixes that? I know they have other jeep frame rust patches and shock tower rust repair parts. Too lazy to look.

Since these are Unibody, there doesn’t seem to be patch panels readily available like there are for Wranglers since those are body on frame.

You don’t happen to do side work where you’d be interested in tackling something like this do you?

I’m really bummed out about this and I already have more money that I’d like to have in this to find out it’s not worth repairing...
 

GoldPanther

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This is why XJs suck, they are good jeeps but they all tends to rust to hell. It's fixable that's for sure but will take a lot of patience to fix it. back in the day when i worked at A1 auto my brother the mechanic used to do miracles fixing jeeps.
 

Dasfinc

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Sep 28, 2007
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Wheaton, IL
I’ve seen plating/support kits for that area but don’t think they’re specifically for rust repair. Ruffstuff specialities I know makes something. Maybe it could give you ideas.

I saw those kits, but yea, sadly none are for rust repair, just reinforcement.

my suggestion is to put it up on craigslist and offerup, NOT facebook, and not here.
then sell it at night and hope the new buyer doesnt look underneath it.

I have some level of Morality issues with that.... My wife is also quite fond of it, so if I can get it sound without spending 10 million dollars I'm not opposed to keeping it.
 

Bob Kazamakis

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I saw those kits, but yea, sadly none are for rust repair, just reinforcement.



I have some level of Morality issues with that.... My wife is also quite fond of it, so if I can get it sound without spending 10 million dollars I'm not opposed to keeping it.
I figure at the very least you can see what people do to reinforce that area.
 

Dasfinc

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Sep 28, 2007
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Wheaton, IL
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