I have this disease...

You will have fun. YOU WILL HAVE FUN!

Well, I picked up the XJ from the dealership today. I drove it back 25 miles to my house in 100°F, rush hour traffic. It drove great. Well, as great as a 22 year old XJ with 225k miles on it could drive. I lit up the rear tires a few times (mostly accidental, the first time ) All the gauges worked surprisingly. I hit 75MPH a few times and aside from a small shimmy in the front end, it did great. I did find that the front brakes drag a bit. As I got closer to my house, I swore I kept smelling hot clutch. But when I stopped at a stoplight and smoke poured out of the front fender wells, I knew what it was. Oh well, I'm pretty satisfied for $1300.

After some research on common XJ issues, I can safely say that mine suffers from them all. Rear main seal leak? Check. Bad window regulators? Check. Heat soaked injectors? Yup. But I don't see those as faults. They are character flaws. And what a character this thing is. It oozes character. It definitely needs a name...

The JEEP needs more cowbell.

I hear that ceramic coated headers help with the heat soaked fuel injectors.

Nice buy!

That 4L six must actually be a lot of fun behind the 5-speed.

When it ran well, my Jeep was a bundle of fun.

I was surprised how well the 5 speed puts the power to the ground. I broke the tires loose a few times from a stop which sent the rear suspension into a siezure... I was giggling the whole time until the brakes almost caught fire...

I didnt know Jeep put a 5 speed in these until maybe a month ago when I was digging around on Wikipedia. Thats when I had my heart set on a 2 door, 5 speed, 4wd XJ. Its almost like a Wrangler but without the ridiculous resale value.

Its a fun little truck that has its share of quirks, a huge aftermarket and tons of XJs littering the junkyards. Why did I not do this sooner?

Very fun as a 5 spd. A friend had one in a 4 door 4x4 and it was a champ. His brother had one more like yours but it was a 5spd 2wd 2 door with the 4cly.

They can do massive burnouts.

It was pretty fun driving it... I was afraid to break one of the leafs because of the axle hop...

Today I was poking around the inside and decided to investigate the hatch area. Why does the carpet feel crunchy? After peeling the carpet back from the edge of the cargo area, I discovered an 8 inch hole in the floor. Rust everywhere towards the hatch threshold. I'm not too put off, I mean, I wasn't expecting a show truck. There is some rust under the back seat by jack as well. I was chuckling when I peeled back the carpet and saw the ground. The rest of the floor is fine. I would of taken a pic, but the hatch struts are shot and it was too damn hot outside.

It's Florida and it's an early body. If the floor sheet metal is the only rust you have, consider yourself lucky. Did you check the floor the entire length of the exhaust system and in the passenger foot well? The passenger foot well gets baked from the outside and often soaked on the inside. Most of the rust in the floors of mine is above the exhaust system.

Hmmm... I kinda poked around but I didn't pull the carpet up or crawl around under it. The 110° heat and the booming thunder made me forfeit... I'm half tempted to pull all of the carpet out and power wash it at the car wash.

What would be an easy and cheap way to patch the hatch?