My Jeep CJ-X Project: Window frame cleaning and repair

Like the hood and the grill, I had to get down to metal and/or primer paint. After about twenty minutes yesterday, here's what I had accomplished.

In the process of cleaning, I discovered this little flaw, which I've learned is a sign of rust exerting pressure on the metal to point where it splits.

I drilled out the seam to see what was inside. It was not hollow, so I had to step up my treatment.

I just cut it off. Here's what I found. It's similar to what I've found in some of the hat channels that I've had to repair. I cut it at an angle to make alignment during reattachment easier.

I drilled it out with a half inch bit as a start.

This hole was my attempt to find out where the packed mud stopped.

I beveled the edges so that the welds will penetrate deeper.

I welded up the holes I had drilled where the metal had split, as well as the main cut line.

I don't yet trust my welds enough to avoid or skip overdoing them. So I found this scrap plate that will encircle where the split had been.

It's like a bracelet. A bit thick, but it won't interfere with the operation of the window when it folds down, and it'll keep the piece from stress-cracking or flying apart, which is nice.

Today, I cleaned up yesterday's work and added a few more repairs to my to-do list.

Needed another band around where I'd cut it off to be as confident as possible in its strength.

At this point, I figured I was done. Look how lovely smooth the bands are.

Not so. Peeking into one of the cowl seal mounting holes, I found more of that mud/rust. Out came the Sawzall to repeat the entire process one more time.

Cleaned out the hole and then welded it back together.

A third band smoothed out.

After dinner and the kids were in bed, I went back out in the garage to do a little more work. I'm feeling the pressure to get these body parts done so that I can get to painting this rig. First up this evening was a little rust treatment on the fenders.