XJ mini-boatsides

northwestxj · Oct 13, 2010

Started a project on my XJ about a week ago. Previously I had the standard cut out your rockers, replace with 2x4 rec. tube. After bending up the passenger side really bad a couple years ago, I had three triangular supports welded onto the reinforced frame. This worked for quite a while, but they slowly have both been bending up again. Because I don't run a whole lot of lift, I hit them quite a bit, and after smacking the drivers side real good recently and bending it up it was time to do something else.

I decided to cut them out and move them up 2" to the door sill. Then I am running 5 legs down to the frame on each side as tie-ins. To do this and keep clearance, I had to cut into the floor. The tie-ins will get a thin steel plate over them, and then a layer of UHMW, but I'm not that far yet. Onto some pictures...

The back ones will get tied into the leaf spring hanger as well.

Three of the tie-ins on each side are 1.5"x2" 1/8 wall, and the two in the second and fourth spot are 2"x2" 3/16 wall.

This is where I'm at right now. Still need to do most all the welding, cut ~2" off the bottom of my doors, reassemble interior, fenders, etc.

REWSTER · Oct 13, 2010

Looks good

DeftwillP · Oct 13, 2010

This is exactly what I want to do to mine including the hdpe. I've already plated my frame rails with HDO stiffeners and replaced my sliders with 2x6 3/16". The only difference: I didn't want to cut up the doors (even through they're removable) so I only cut up to the last bend before the sill (about 2" lower). I wonder how they'll look once they're skinned.

gyrene · Oct 18, 2010

Looks great. Do you have any pics before you started this?

John D · Oct 18, 2010

What thickness did you have the rockers that were bending? I cut out mine and replaced with 4X4X1/4" and I haven't bent them yet. Maybe I'm not trying hard enough :laugh:

I like what your doing here, good ideas.

Gold Cobra · Oct 18, 2010

Badass.

CTeunuch · Oct 19, 2010

Looks good. I just finished the same project with 2x6x3/16" for the sliders and 2x2x1/4" for the legs. The clearance I gained is awesome, well worth the work.

cardinal · Oct 20, 2010

in the process of this myself, im using 2x6 with 2x2 supports as stated above, trying to figure out if i should buy unibody stiffeners to weld the supports to

92xjunk · Oct 20, 2010

cardinal said:
in the process of this myself, im using 2x6 with 2x2 supports as stated above, trying to figure out if i should buy unibody stiffeners to weld the supports to

Yes you should. Do it now or itll be a pita later on when you decide to add them.

jeeperjohn · Oct 20, 2010

92xjunk said:
Yes you should. Do it now or itll be a pita later on when you decide to add them.

I just did this, it sucks. Definitely do the stiffeners first.

CTeunuch · Oct 20, 2010

cardinal said:
in the process of this myself, im using 2x6 with 2x2 supports as stated above, trying to figure out if i should buy unibody stiffeners to weld the supports to

Definitely do the stiffeners at the same time, otherwise you're just making more work for yourself down the road when you decide you want to do them. Have fun!

cardinal · Oct 20, 2010

thanks guys, steel will be here tomrw, i will have to order these up

dragthatsht · Oct 26, 2010

So? Hows it coming?

northwestxj · Oct 26, 2010

John D said:
What thickness did you have the rockers that were bending? I cut out mine and replaced with 4X4X1/4" and I haven't bent them yet. Maybe I'm not trying hard enough :laugh:

I like what your doing here, good ideas.

I used 3/16" for the rockers. But it wasn't the rec. tube that was bending, it was the sheet metal they were attached to. Mine lasted for quite a while, but I've been wheeling a lot harder in the last year or two and they didn't like the hard hits.

dragthatsht said:
So? Hows it coming?

Progress has been a lot slower lately due to work, but it's coming along. I got everything welded (tie-ins to frame, tie-ins to floor, rockers to door sill, etc). I have all the material for the skins, I just need to finish them, and finish the doors. Should have some time tomorrow and Wednesday to work on them, so I'll try to post up some pics...

chattacuda · Oct 26, 2010

looks like good work. I have mine up on the rack now for gears and am doing the plating and rockers while the rear ends area out of it. I like the way you raised the rocker to the sill plate. I am going to try it the easier way since I have quite a bit of lift already. Good luck with the rest of it

northwestxj · Oct 28, 2010

Well I got a little more done on this, so I figured I'd post some progress. The rockers are fully welded now and the skins are cut out. I ended up using 16 gauge cold-rolled steel to back the UHMW. I am using 3/8" thick virgin UHMW. I think this should be a good combination of strength and weight. Here's a few pics:

Legs through the floor, with herculiner back on them. Still need to put back on the plastic trim piece which will clean it up a little.

Still lots of leg room. Support isn't in the way much at all.

Not a real easy task to weld the rocker to the sheet metal. I was using .030 wire to start with and it wanted to burn through way to easy. I switched to .023 and got much better results. I was able to turn up the settings on the welder quite a bit more to get better penetration into the 3/16" thick rocker.

I added a small support in the back for a final place to bolt the steel/UHMW to.

Mocking up the 16 gauge.

Steel and UHMW skins cut.

Should get a little more done over the weekend. Finally getting a lot closer to done now...

DeftwillP · Oct 28, 2010

Gawd this is exactly what i want to do all the way down to the plastic. I think already said so in this thread, but I only did mine up to the ledge below the door sill. Still should make for pretty high clearance boatsides though.

EDIT: lol, I just scanned up and saw that I already said this verbatim.

northwestxj · Oct 28, 2010

DeftwillP said:
Gawd this is exactly what i want to do all the way down to the plastic. I think already said so in this thread, but I only did mine up to the ledge below the door sill. Still should make for pretty high clearance boatsides though.

EDIT: lol, I just scanned up and saw that I already said this verbatim.

Be prepared, it's lots of work. Hopefully should be worth it though. :greensmok

rossmiller00 · Oct 28, 2010

First off nice job! Second where did you order your plastic from and how much was it if you don't mind me asking?

_87_XJ_ · Oct 28, 2010

This is coming out really nice! :thumbup:

XJ mini-boatsides

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