SitRep: I lifted the carpets. Don't ever lift the carpets unless you are very prepared for what you may not find: floor. It would seem that, through the vehicles life of neglect, people have had the carpets up before, in order to patch a gaping hole in the floor the size of Cincinnati. The remedy: grab the nearest scrap appliance you can muster up, slice a hunk of metal out of it, and affix it to the floor with a thrifty assortment of rivets. As more carpet came up (that which wasnt frozen to the vehicle), it became more apparent how much work I was in for.
Side note: If anybody ever decides to restore or semi-restore a vehicle for road use (which I highly reccomend; the experience is terrific), make sure you don't look at the project as a whole. I ended up with 4 pages of "things to fix" on this vehicle, and would never have tackled it if i looked at it all at once. The key is to break it up into unbelieveably specific tasks (which more than doubled my list length), and organize the tasks into a timeline (if you just dive into it, you'll likely bog down and give up). I broke my list down to the point of even listing each bolt that needed drilling out (writing out every single step, no matter how long the list gets, actually makes it feel like less work). This may sound nerautic, but as i checked off items from the list, it felt like i was flying through them (it's really just a psychological trick, that broke it into a set of small rewards, instead of large tasks).
The trunk carpet also came out, revealing a number of rusted gaps between the floor and the rear seam (fixing that was broken into about 5 sub-steps), followed by all the wall-carpet, which were in fairly rocky shape. Being a luxury SUV, Jeep put extra thick, supple carpeting in these beasts. This was great for the debutante types that swept them from the showrooms, but not as ideal for 8th owners (such as myself). The carpets tend to collect moisture, and hold it for long periods of time. This would in turn fog up the vehicle to an insane level once it warmed up enough, and also managed to rot out the floors from the inside out (thus explaining why i didnt realize it when i first examined the vehicle). I started taking stock of what needed fixing, and decided to start amassing my tools into the garage (which was then organized, at least initially). That being said, I didnt manage to do much more than tinkering through the rest of December (it was too cold anyways).
Also, in my zeal, I removed the hood, thinking that it would help in allowing me to access the engine. While that may have been true, i stupidly put it beside my house in the garden. A stiff winter wind blew between the houses and knocked it over onto a rock, putting a dent (albeit small) in what was arguably the most rust and dent free panel on the vehicle.
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