"Frame" damage

[JC]

While I was fixing my brakes today from their catastrophic failure, I noticed something kind of strange looking on the frame area where the rear bump stop is.

It was crunched!
There was a crease protruding outward that was about 4-5" long. It stuck out a little less than .5".
It was directly above the bumpstop, like the Jeep had hit or landed on something very hard on that side and the axle mushed it up.

So should I worry about this, or leave it alone. I'm going to take some pics of it with our (non digital) camera and maybe someone can post them for me. (It will be a day or so though.)
It looks localized and I can't see anything else that looks out of place or wrong.
So what do you all think about this?

[Ryan, aka: CheapXJ.com]

that's totally not good.. I'd like to see pics. scan them and send them off to rma802@students.jwu.edu, i'll post them up for ya.

That sounds like something more like from a rear impact than from coming down hard though..

[JC]

DAMN!

I'll email the pics to you, but I just started a new roll, so I'll have to go shoot em up real quick. Do you prefer a certain format?
(jpeg, bmp, other)

[Ryan, aka: CheapXJ.com]

doesn't matter.. whatever's easiest for you to send (i'll size and compress them anyway... no biggie)

[rocrunner]

hmmm... sorry if this is a stupid idea, but I can't rememeber if your style cherokee is a full frame jobber or not. If it's a unibody, make some frame connectors for it. Don't worry about tieing them into the floor pans or anything. Just subframe to subframe. You can also make a "cap" to fit over the damaged area, and have it welded in to re-inforce it. Might as well do the other side too. An old demo derby trick was to fill the rails with concrete.....

[JC]

Finally got a pic showing this. I hope it is clear enough and not too big.

I didn't even notice the chunk missing directly above it until I took the pic.

Nice wheel well huh. icon_smile_wink.gif

http://comp.uark.edu/~jcwells/frameshot.JPG

[Cable XJ]

I'm thinking mice.