cutting unirail

i built some rock guards that go the length between the wheel wells and mount to the unibody frame rail and to the roker panel and are bent to mold to the shape of the panel. my question is this will cutting a hole in the unibody frame rail weaken it structural to where i will need to worry about it? or if i make small wholes to get nut/bolt in there will it be fine? my unirails are not plated and i figured i could just make an existing whole a little bigger to get a wrench and nut in there. but if its a bad idea i will figure something else out

Bolt holes will be fine. 3" or larger holes may not be.

Bolt holes will be fine but anything with a sharp or drastic end to it such as using a grinder with a cut off on it to cut a hole in the rail will create a stress point. I just recently tore apart a buddies rig that was completely plated front to rear including the inside of the frame rail and found quite a few cracks in the body still. The fire wall had roughly 4 small splits forming, there were cracks inbetween a few layers of the rail/plating towards the front of the frame, a few sections in the rear also had cracks forming where the plating and rail would meet near the floorboards. Along the A and B pillars we found a few cracks and splits forming towards the roof line/windshield area.

I plan on plating my xj front to back sooner or later but in the end I know that if I wheel it hard for a long time it will for cracks.

FYI the xj was a 97 with a Rock Krawler 3 link long arm setup, locked rear, inner cage, running 33s. The rails were plated beautifully, and before any cracks were formed but it just came down to years of hard wheeling on a unibody. Unfortunately hes now building a YJ but I got to take his long arm setup off him for dirt cheap