Is this rust a purchase deal breaker?

Hi all,

I am new to this forum. I have found a reasonably priced 1995 YJ that I am very interested in purchasing. It checks all the boxes that I have been looking for. There is no rust on the exterior, even though it has the original paint job. However, I have found a good bit of rust on the underside. Can someone take a look at these pictures and give me your opinion on whether this amount of rust is something I should avoid, is reasonable for a 30 year old Jeep, and/or what kind of work I would be looking at to repair and/or prevent further rust?

Here are a few more photos.

Thanks! This is a one owner Jeep from Louisiana, so definitely not rust from salt. You are right, the bad portion is at the right rear side. The price is not bad, but not cheap enough to justify purchasing something that would require significant frame repair.

ACKyj said:

Damn. I'd say that looks pretty good by New England standards. The rear crossmember looks a bit crusty but could be cut out and welded in. I'd say you could probably do better in the south but I'd consider that up here in New England. Price? And more pictures please of the rest of the jeep!

Click to expand...

Here you go friend. Its a 4 cyl. with 158K miles. Asking $6,995. As you can see the rest of the Jeep is in excellent shape. The original front seats are in just as good of shape as the rear bench. It starts up right away and the engine sounds great. All the gears work and so does the 4wd. I really like the Jeep and would pick it up tomorrow if not for my rust concern.

I'm not sure if this will work, but here is a link to a short video I made of the jeep through streamable: Jeep Video

I completely agree. I’m going back today to look closer at the underside rust. If I’m still interested I will get a 3rd party quote to repair/replace the rusted members. If I offer all this will be part of my reasoning. Otherwise I will move on.

Thanks everybody for helping me think through this. I really appreciate it. I did return to the dealership today, along with my wife and son. I took a closer look at the rust again, when the lighting is better and I had a flashlight. I brought a large flat head screwdriver and probed the entire underside. Most appears to be surface rust, but there was quite a bit of rust at the right passenger frame hole. I stuck my finger in the hole and a moderate amount of rust came out. This first couple of pictures is that area area after I scraped it with the screwdriver for a few minutes. It appears there is still quite a bit of frame thickness, but maybe this is misleading? I did all this before the dealer showed up and pointed it out to him.

I did not make an offer after sensing the dealer would not be willing to go down much. He said the Jeep was owned by a city judge who stopped driving it and is ready to get rid of it. Years ago the Judge supposedly paid the dealer about $15K to fix it up after buying it in bad shape, including a new paint job, spray in liner, etc. There was a lot of salesmanship happening, but I believe the part about the owner's relationship with the dealer. It does have a full soft top and the tires have lots of tread, but they look old and possibly dry rotted a little bit. I LOVE the original seats and the paint job is near immaculate. It sounds like the judge didn't drive it very much, just for fun every once in a while. From external appearances, it is the cleanest Jeep I have seen around here and would have to travel a long way to find something better and not for this price. I took it for a spin and it was awesome! First manual I have driven in 10 years. I'm honestly torn, It doesn't feel that overpriced to me, but I also want to make a wise decision about buying a Jeep that I can keep for a long time. Any more thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks all! I have come to my senses and have moved on. I will find one eventually.