Rear quarter panel rot what to do :-/

So i thought my 98 XJ was fairly rot free untill i got her home and realized i over looked some things. The lower part of bother quater panels are rotting. The drivers side i can probably fix my self fairly easily, just a smal hole the size of a tennis ball. The passengers side how ever not so good. All in all not so bad for a vehicle thats spent almost 20 years in NY/NJ. Does some one make a patch panel or diamond plate or something? Heres some pics.

That is worse than my 85. 10 years ago I removed the rot, and primed it with a special primer that turns rust into primer, neutralizes the rust and leaves a top coat, I applied it inside and outside on the rusted areas. Has not rusted since. The stuff is about $300/gallon but I only used an $8 bottle, 8 oz I think.There is one brand, I forget which one that is way better than the others, it has a thick tan-orange color to it. I do not think it is Permatex that is the good one, but I could be wrong. I did not fix the hole, just stopped the rust.

Removing and stopping the rust is part of the goal. But this hole is big and I'm getting dust and water in the cab. I found that Key parts makes a panel for this area. Quadratec has it for $50 but I'm not sure if it will cover the whole area, or how to go about installing it or preparing the area to install it if it won't cover the whole area.

My first question is, should you be driving? I mean, you didn't see that and Ray Charles could've seen that! Lol. I'm just messing with you. I would cut them off and roll the crease. Clean up as much as possible and coat with rust converter. Good luck!

mcnamaag said:

My first question is, should you be driving? I mean, you didn't see that and Ray Charles could've seen that! Lol. I'm just messing with you. I would cut them off and roll the crease. Clean up as much as possible and coat with rust converter. Good luck!

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Lol yeah i know right. I guess i was so excited that the floor pans were rock soild i forgot about the rest of the jeep. Oh well i still got a smokin deal on it.

After watching "bleepin jeeps" youtube video on how to cut and fold the rear quarters i guess thats probably the cheapest and easiest method to fix it. Plus i can probably do that my self. I think i'm still going to have to patch up the passenger side but i guess i'll cross that bridge once i get there. I particularily like what this guy did by extending his bumper under the quarters with steel tubing. Looks very nice. http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/cut-fold-rear-lower-quarter-panels-right-way-1007865/#/forumsite/20623/topics/1007865?page=1

I ran into the exact same issue with my 99. I was very excited at how clean the Jeep was, but when I pulled those bumper caps, boy it was shocking! I looked at several patch panels, but nothing was going to repair the inner panel. Bit the bullet, and did the cut and fold and am very happy I did. Managed to cut out all of the rust and stopped the water intrusion. I actually had a burned out electrical connector that I am sure was a result of the water. Glad I did find it when I did since I think it could have started a fatal fire if left unrepaired. Since I had planned on replacing the rear bumper, I used Aresfab cut and fold rear bumper. It looks very clean and gives it a finished look that the typical cut and folds don't (in my opinion)

The same thing happened with my low-miles '98.


They make a patch panel for the outside and i added some scrap 16ga on the inside. Everything got a generous coat of seam sealer and fluid film.









This jeep was worse and it was before I had a MIG welder.


I ended up doing something similar to cut-and-fold quarters, but there wasn't enough metal so I had to make a piece.




I didn't ever upload the final pictures of that project, but I added a support rod to the bottom so the plastic trim piece had something to bolt to. This is similar to what you see under some truck-beds.

While you are working on the quarters, make sure to remove the stupid bag of wet insulation that caused the rust.