Rust now what

While prepping to lift my 99 I decided to pull off my fender flares and open up the wheel wells and take care of a golf ball sized rust bubble that showed up on my drivers quarter panel next to the taillight. I found that my plastic bumper end cap was held on with hopes and dreams and the passenger side wasn't much better. I also found in the front that where my left foot sits and the passengers left sits the metal is really bad. And my rockers are so so. I've already cut out the bad metal from the drivers quarter and it looks like I did the quarter fold. This is more of a dd than an off-road rig and in the winter I have a 10 mile journey on poorly plowed roads so it's more of a mall crawler so I want it to look nice and have some function. I've priced out all the metal I need and I'm at about $600ish plus ship and maybe one month downtime on the dd while I do this, and probably add 25% to both cause that's how projects seem to go.

Now the actual problem.

With my work schedule and by the time I get all the money together to do this we are closer to winter than fall.

Here are my options;
1. Say screw it lift the XJ and when it rusts beyond drivability it sits as a monument of Jeepery
2. Find a rust free shell 95- which kills need for emissions test and transfer 99 goodies
3. Buy a Grand Cherokee in the $1000 price range cause when I'm done I can steal many parts from it. And scrap/sell the rest.
4. Just keep driving the XJ as is and scratch build a wrangler, it's about the same price as a new one but without stock parts, I've priced it out. And I'd imagine the XJ would last long enough and supply some parts when it met its end.
5. Least desirable, become a normal person(as the parents-in-law says) and finance a newish vehicle even though my XJ has outlasted 3 of them with minimal problems.

The eternal quandary ! So what do YOU really want to do ?

Being in SW Michigan, or for that matter anywhere in the rust belt, we all have to decide at what point it no longer is worth it, to us, dealing with the problem.

So far, I'm lucky, I only have the lower pinch seams on the doors starting to go on my 2000 XJ. It's really used more as a work truck, plow and winter driver. But I've been pondering the same issue. Although, just doors shouldn't be that costly (or they sell just the lower section of the doors). You can still find very clean XJ's around the area, but they will cost you. From what I've been seeing, easily over $5k.

You might look somewhere down south, or southwest, and probably get a pretty clean, rust free, body. Again, if you really want to stay with a XJ. Grands, have similar rust problem, from what I can see.

please do not do #5 no1 needs more debt and payments on things

sheet metal..if your not a scrapper...you might want to try keeping your eye out for stuff thrown away. check local Free section on craigslist.
some people thrown out solid steel work table. you pick it up. free sheet...boom. material.

if you check out my build thread i kinda had this ordeal. bumped fenders and caddied bumpers etc. welded on rustys rockers. anything could look nice with plenty of paint and sanding :)

I don't know about body panel, but the floor boards can be replaced with almost anything since it really isn't seen. I have the floor panels on both sides to do on my 93 soon..

What metal do you need? A sheet of 16 gauge at your local steel supplier should be a tenth of that without shipping and with 4'x8' you will have all you need. If you don't have a welder there's that cost and the assorted tools like a grinder and welding helmet etc that will add up but at harbor freight you should get away without hurting the wallet too bad. All in all with a good quality lower end welder you should be able to take care of it for much less than you allotted for that grand budget. Plus now you have a welder and other tools you can use (and save on) later or sell and recoup some wallet grass with. ;)

Sent via messenger pigeon. I talk, he types.

I agree with what everyone else said above. Buy a smaller MIG welder and a sheet of 16G sheetmetal and have some fun. Worst case scenario you bought yourself a welder you can use on other projects and you still have a rusty Jeep.