So...The Wife Rolled the XJ

[seu83]

About two weeks ago I get a call at work and my wife said she just wrecked the XJ. She was on a back road that wasn't real well maintained, hit a small patch of ice, and ended up in a field. Luckily both her and our youngest son were both completely fine but the jeep has seen better days. It rolled 1 1/2 times and ended up on the drivers side. Once we got it back on it's wheels it didn't look to bad. All the body lines still looked straight(except for the roof). The hood opens fine and the spacing on each side was still good, same with the liftgate. Same with the doors except on the drivers side because the roof was crushed down a little. I spent the last two weeks trying to get everything straight again or at least close enough. I was able to get the roof back into shape for the most part with a floor jack and a 2x10. Then I started on 3 large dents on the roof. One right above the drivers door and two right above windshield. The ones by the windshield came out pretty easy but the one above the drivers door is being a pain. I've already tried pulling the head liner to pop these out but all of the dents are behind supports so I've been using a stud welder. Any other suggestions on how to pop the one out over the door?

Before:
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg631/seu83/IMG_0091.jpg

After:
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg631/seu83/IMG_0243.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg631/seu83/IMG_0246.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg631/seu83/IMG_0260.jpg

[cantab27]

glad to hear wife and the young one are fine..........cant help with the dent thing but....looks like the xj stood up well for what its been through....

[seu83]

Thanks. Yeah I told her she didn't have to drive it anymore but she said after seeing what it can take thats all she wants to drive now. I think once this is all fixed and painted I'm going to lose my XJ, lol

[cantab27]

well maybe a roll-cage might be next mod if shes gonna drive it...... jenssen on here is a panel and paint man.... he will have some ideas.....

[JENSSEN]

well maybe a roll-cage might be next mod if shes gonna drive it...... jenssen on here is a panel and paint man.... he will have some ideas.....

more pics!

I can fix that!

[cantab27]

more pics!

I can fix that!

what ,,chop it lift it and throw some 37s under it..:D

[XJ4IV]

Im assuming that your insurance was liability... all things considered you guys are VERY lucky folks especially since NOBODY was hurt ! a roll over in a XJ is usually fatal for the jeep I think the field she was in was so wet that the jeep mostly sunk in the mud more than impacting it which was the saving grace!... I USED to do body work and the ONLY thing you do with that kind of dent is cut out and remove or do what your doing already stud welder and a slide hammer... the trick is to place the stud in the right location AND pointing in the correct direction and that can prove to be a hard task as well but overall your WAY ahead of most of us... we dont have the stud gun LOL

[4.3LXJ]

Jensen is the man, I will defer to what he says. XJs are tough, they just wrinkle easy.

[Brasscatz]

REALLY glad everybody's ok. Good luck with the Jeep, can't wait to see it good as new!

[Carves]

Good to see it was only the XJ that was injured.

I'd probably be looking for a roof section and a good welder ... but perseverance, hammers and body filler also achieve good results.

[seu83]

Thanks again guys, I'll have to get some more pics up tonight when I get home. I kind of figured that I wasn't going to be able to get all of that dent out above the door but as long as the new glass doesn't leak I'll be ok with it.

[xj98]

Survived better then my escort. Now my xj is my DD which isn't a bad thing but the escort got 40mpg on a good day! I was rear ended while I was going 65mph! Good luck getting your dents out. http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g354/bambam0417/facebook2.jpg

[bluedragon436]

Glad to see that everyone was able to walk away with no injuries!! As far as the XJ, especially if the wife wants to take it as her new DD, maybe you should look into a roll cage.. Just for further protection in case of an accident... I had a friends XJ that he bought after it had been rolled over at least once, it wasn't dented nearly as bad, but we were able to get all the dents out, even the one over the drivers door like yours using the same technique you are using right now, and then just filling in the final smaller dents using some Fibertech... I love that stuff way more than the Bondo, it flexes better, and doesn't crack up as easily as Bondo does... I have been very happy with any XJ's that I have seen after roll overs and accidents.. def. makes me feel safe in mine..

[BlueXJ]

Glad wife and everyone is OK.

[seu83]

Sorry guys for taking so long to post some more pics but I did a little more work to the roof. I was able to get the two large dents above the windshield almost completely out. I just hit them with some spray paint for now until I can get a chance to repaint the whole thing. As for the dent above the drivers door, it's still there but not nearly as bad as it was. One thing that I'm not having much luck with is getting the fender flare back on. It looks like the tabs are still on the flare but I've never had to mess with these before, any suggestions?

http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg631/seu83/IMG_0286.jpg

http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg631/seu83/IMG_0283.jpg

[4.3LXJ]

Definitely looking much better

[Brasscatz]

Looks like you've got some great work done! I'm impressed!

[bluedragon436]

It does look good.. The easiest way I found to get the flares back on after I painted them was to remove the the metal flare strips and snap them back to the flares, the bolt it all back on after you snapped it all together

[Mudderoy]

I can't remember, was a minimal cage discussed? Might be an easy sell to the wife, and peace of mind for you just to put in a loop over the front seats.

[vwfoolwhy]

First off glad the Wife and Kido are alright.

Second you've done a lot better then most with getting the roof in shape. XJ's are tuff, any body shop will tell you roof damage on an xj they stay away from. Besides chopping and welding in a replacement it's almost imposable to get right.

[JENSSEN]

Great job !

If you are ambitious you can re-skin the roof with a drill, spot weld remover and a small mig welder,..

[Brasscatz]

I had another thought..... I think a big ol' roof rack would disguise some damage too if you were worried about the looks. I didn't see that mentioned in here when I skimmed... sorry if it's not an original idea