Floor Drain Plugs

by Scott Rozman
Posted: October 30, 2000
Last Revision:

 

There's nothing like the convenience of being able to take a scrub brush and bucket of soapy water to the interior floor of your Jeep.  While the extra noise of not having carpet in a Cherokee is a sacrifice, it does make life nicer in other respects.  In the event that you take on some water, this is also the quickest way to drain it out.  Here are some floor drain plugs that I added to my 88 before I used "Herculiner" brand bedliner to coat the whole floor.  This was a slight improvement over the location that I used for these same style drain plugs on my 86 Cherokee.  I also feel that the thicker 1/8" metal helps the plugs work better and eliminates some of the cutting action, if you just have sheetmetal.

After removing a ~2.5" plug that is part of the normal Cherokee floor, I welded in a piece of 1/8" steel that I had drilled out with a 1" bit.  1" drill bits tend to be expensive, but I had purchased this one to drill holes in my rear bumper for attaching shackles.

Here is a bottom view of the new piece.  It was MIG welded only from the top.

 Here is a test fit of the plug I am using.  These are commonly found boat plugs made for a 1" hole.  They cost about $2.50 each.

 Here is the same hole after the "Herculiner" had been applied to the floor.  I had used the angle grinder to flatten out the weld, but this coating really helps to even things out.

I now have a total of 4 drain holes in my floor, 1 in each of the front foot wells and one under each half of the back seat.  Under the seat, I used the two existing 1" holes, with the plugs removed.  All remaining plugs have been sealed up with the floor coating.

© Copyright 2000 Scott Rozman
All Rights reserved.
Photos: Scott Rozman

[MADXJ]