Does this frame looked painted?

[AdrianBrewster33]

Looking at buying an LJ with low mileage. I found one that’s 4 hours away and asked the owner to send me pictures of the frame. It seems to be a fair price, but when I pulled the carfax, the Jeep spent most of its life in New York.

he assures me there is no rust. The angle of some of the pictures makes me think the frame has been painted. What do you all think?

I’ll obviously get a better look at it when I go pick it up but I don’t want to drive that far if it’s been painted over.

 

[mrblaine]

Looking at buying an LJ with low mileage. I found one that’s 4 hours away and asked the owner to send me pictures of the frame. It seems to be a fair price, but when I pulled the carfax, the Jeep spent most of its life in New York.

he assures me there is no rust. The angle of some of the pictures makes me think the frame has been painted. What do you all think?

I’ll obviously get a better look at it when I go pick it up but I don’t want to drive that far if it’s been painted over.

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Yes, it is absolutely painted. I don't see any bare metal on the frame anywhere.

 

[SvtLdr]

Looking at buying an LJ with low mileage. I found one that’s 4 hours away and asked the owner to send me pictures of the frame. It seems to be a fair price, but when I pulled the carfax, the Jeep spent most of its life in New York.

he assures me there is no rust. The angle of some of the pictures makes me think the frame has been painted. What do you all think?

I’ll obviously get a better look at it when I go pick it up but I don’t want to drive that far if it’s been painted over.

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I'm assuming by "painted" you mean "painted over existing rust in an effort to conceal a bad frame."

Those pics look good to me. It appears to be a clean frame but not "suspiciously" clean. You can still see a bit of surface rust in the likely areas. It's possible it was kept in a garage thru the NY winters. Might be a contributor to the low mileage? I hope it works out for you - clean, low mileage LJ's are not easy to find.

 

[Apparition]

Frame looks pretty good. I'd plan on some rust inside if it's been in NY.

How many miles?

 

[SvtLdr]

Frame looks pretty good. I'd plan on some rust inside if it's been in NY.

That's a good point. Just because it's clean on the outside doesn't necessarily mean the same is true inside.

If I were in the market and this LJ checked all the boxes, I wouldn't let that possibility keep me from driving 4 hrs. to check it out.

 

[MutantNinjaTJ]

It looks like it's worth the trip to look at it. The frame was painted but looking at the pics I think the frame is solid. Better hurry as they sell quickly.

 

[Irun]

From the pictures, there's nothing that would make me not want to look at it. I don't see any noticeable swelling around the openings. FWIW, painting the frame isn't a bad thing. Maybe they're just more obssessed with keeping rust away than I am. Oh wait, that's not possible!

 

[Andy-WhiteTJ]

I agree with @Irun. Look at all the openings. The edges are crisp. This was definitely kept in a garage if it was in NY. I would know.

 

[MaximusLJR06]

I wouldn't hesitate to go look at it. Frame looks good.

 

[Viking Jeeper]

 

[bromel]

Looks good to me. Get ready to pay $$$.

 

[AdrianBrewster33]

Love all the encouragement folks. Alright, I’m gonna go check it out. It’s 22k and has 70k miles, but it’s got about 20k worth of work and is frankly one of the nicest looking LJs I’ve ever seen.

I’ll check the inside of the frame, for sure. Maybe I’ll see if he will let me drop the belly pan to see in between, too.

 

[Viking Jeeper]

Dont get too discourage if there is some frame rust at the transfer case skid. I've had two TJ's and both were virtually rust free but had rust there. Its fixable.

 

[Westtown Willy]

I don't see any noticeable swelling around the openings.

Exactly, painting is irrelevant as we don’t know why some may or may not have done it, the assumption that it automatically means they’re trying to hide something is silly. Can mean that, doesn’t have to mean that, assume it means that & you may screw yourself out of the shot to buy a nice rig.

Eons more important is that lack of swelling around the openings as you said, & other signs the steel is compromised, or scaling, or roughness or other signs of rust no paint can hide, we can usually spot these things from a mile away here in the belt. Once you see those outward signs you barely need to stick your finger or boroscope inside to confirm suspicions… it’s when you don’t see any of those things that the finger & camera confirmation processes become far more important.

The OPs pictures are not the best angles but look good enough to certainly warrant a closer look in person to decide whether or not to purchase. I see one potential red flag, last photo of the inside right rear of the frame looks squared off, like a cap, & I don’t see any factory holes (though off the top of my head I can’t remember if there are any in that stretch) which is usually a dead giveaway of a cap. Where there’s caps there’s danger of course.

Still, I’d say bring cash & be ready because the probability that the frame doesn’t detract from the decision is higher than average.

 

[SvtLdr]

Exactly, painting is irrelevant as we don’t know why some may or may not have done it, the assumption that it automatically means they’re trying to hide something is silly. Can mean that, doesn’t have to mean that, assume it means that & you may screw yourself out of the shot to buy a nice rig.

Eons more important is that lack of swelling around the openings as you said, & other signs the steel is compromised, or scaling, or roughness or other signs of rust no paint can hide, we can usually spot these things from a mile away here in the belt. Once you see those outward signs you barely need to stick your finger or boroscope inside to confirm suspicions… it’s when you don’t see any of those things that the finger & camera confirmation processes become far more important.

The OPs pictures are not the best angles but look good enough to certainly warrant a closer look in person to decide whether or not to purchase. I see one potential red flag, last photo of the inside right rear of the frame looks squared off, like a cap, & I don’t see any factory holes (though off the top of my head I can’t remember if there are any in that stretch) which is usually a dead giveaway of a cap. Where there’s caps there’s danger of course.

Still, I’d say bring cash & be ready because the probability that the frame doesn’t detract from the decision is higher than average.

I agree that something looks odd in that corner of the frame rail, but the lower control arm mount looks original to me. The caps I've seen have a different bracket design. Visibly different than the OE bracket...

 

[TheBoogieman]

It’s 22k and has 70k miles,

 

[Mike_H]

I'll say this... If they painted over it to hide rust, they went to great lengths to control overspray. The fact that the control arm bolts and body mount bolts aren't black makes me think it has not been painted to his anything. Go look.

 

[tr21triton]

I'll say this... If they painted over it to hide rust, they went to great lengths to control overspray. The fact that the control arm bolts and body mount bolts aren't black makes me think it has not been painted to his anything. Go look.

i thought the same thing, no overspray what so ever.

 

[fourpointzero]

If you're not there or on your way there now, you might miss this one. That looks well maintained. Ive seen a lot of shyt here in NJ and that LJ looks promising.

 

[someguysjeep]

holy crap .................that's about as close to great as your ever gonna find from that area. there is nothing there that would trigger any alarm of frame rot. the fact the question is even asked for a frame in that condition is eluding to people getting to picky and your beloved TJ's are gonna disappear real fast if y'all start questioning stuff in that condition.

there are 2K TJ owners that would snatch the keys out your hand b4 you could finish asking about a trade on something in that condition.

on the other hand ya it's crap junk that sucker make mine worth more.......every 1 that hits the salvage yard makes mine worth a dollar more.