Help with Installing JCR Rock Sliders

I had some difficulty installing the JCR stage 2 rock sliders. I got the frame mounts bolted in without much trouble but I'm having some issues with the pinch weld side. most of the bolt holes will go completely through the pinch weld but a couple of them are offset and hang too low off the pinch (about half of the bolt hole is on and the other half is off the bottom).

How much of the pinch weld does there need to be under the bolt hole through them? (I hope that question makes sense)... and since I have one that's halfway off I was thinking that I should try to pull pinch weld lower but I don't know of a good way to do it, any suggestions?

Thanks a lot, I appreciate the help.

When I mount sliders, I always do the pinch seam bolts first. Then I do the frame side bolts. You want as much pinch seam under the bolt as you can get.

the_weirdo said:

When I mount sliders, I always do the pinch seam bolts first. Then I do the frame side bolts. You want as much pinch seam under the bolt as you can get.

Click to expand...

This sounds like the way to go

You can pull down on the seam and try to line it up better with the holes you're going to drill. You can also put a floor jack under the slider and push it up into the rocker to get those holes lined up.

Every unibody XJ has been driven, wheeled and maintained differently. On a product like that, the manufacturing gets you close, but some persuasion is usually required to get it to fit the way you want it to.

I did put a floor jack underneath it and got it up as high as I could get it with the frame mount loose. The pinch weld mount side was as high as I could get it before mounting the panel side and the seam was still too high then.

Since it's only one of the holes on this side and I can physically see where the rocker panel is a little dented upward it seems like pulling it would be the right way to solve this. What I need a clever trick to pull the pinch weld downward, I already tried some vice grips with a piece of square tubing attached to the handle and smacking it downward, It would have worked but the teeth kept slipping on the pinch weld no matter how tight I got it so I need another idea.

Not sure if this will be on issue on the stage 2's, but test opening your doors before you drill/bolt everything. On the stage 3's they curve up and can interfere with the door opening.

But yah, use a floor jack to get the pinch seam mounts as high as practical.

Drill the hole where you assume it will need to be once it's pulled down, then put a bolt or something similar in that hole to pull or hammer down? I have an attachment on a slide hammer that I can bolt to a flat seam to pull things like that.

Not having one bolt on the pinch seam shouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be nice to get them all if you could.

I got one step closer. I lined up the slider again then took your advice about placing a hole in the pinch seam where hopefully the slider would go. Then put a length of chain around the bottom of my floor jack and put both ends of the chain through the bolt, one end on each side, a few washers on both the pinch seem and the sides of the chain and cranked the nut as tight as I could get it. I put the perch of the jack under the body frame rail and slowly raised. I could see the pinch seem pulling out a little so I grabbed the blow torch and heated up the area a little to relieve some of the stress and tapped gently with a hammer. I kept repeating that process with firm constant pressure from the jack. At the end I got the extra half inch I needed to install that bolt hole.

Haha, I only need 4 more bolts on that side to finish one of the two sliders.

God... I hope the other side isn't as bad, on that side I'll try bolting the pinch seem first since on the side I am working on right now has me worried about stripping the frame rail bolts with all the adjusting I've been doing and crookedness of the holes.

Overall the slider looks and seems great, it's a shame my pinch seem isn't in the same condition. My pinch seems aren't too terribly banged up compared to others Ive seen. But I think the whole thing is off a little because I used those points to hold the jeep when I was pulling the frame straight after I bought it. It was in a minor accident but just enough to kick over the frame slightly.

Thanks for all the help guys, I'll keep you posted as I get closer to finishing. I wish I would have taken pictures of the pinch seem pulling as it might help others and only requires a jack, some chain, a bolt and a hole =)

Cheers

I have custom sliders that another member built, have pinch seam rails. I used some self tappers for the ones that did not line up.

JCR Rock Sliders = Big floor jack

I had a HORRIBLE time with this too - heck if you drill where they lie, you'd be in the air right?

I bolted the frame and then jack the bars way up - they ask you to put a nut in between the body and bar as I recall - I put some flat bar and then really jacked it up to touch.

Next I used an angle drill from the back to make my best guess into the bar hole - it was tough - do this at a bit of angle to be on the meat of the body pinch weld.

Once you are through at an angle, tilt drill horizontal while running, and it will semi-straighten the hole and you can bolt them up.

I went middle to each end, back and forthy.

I have JCR all the way around and while it's neat stuff, I had bad fitment issues all the way around and it took a lot of fine tuning to get everything working.

Maybe this will help someone else and a picture says it all. I needed to pull the bolt hole for the slider down about 3/4 inch and this worked like a charm

So I got both on, and properly I might add =) All pinch weld bolts through. I learned it was much easier to get the pinch seem bolted properly (thanks to the previous posters) and then jack the frame rail arms into place, drill and bolt. It was also well worth the $25 I spent on a HF pneumatic right angle drill, it was the perfect size to drill all my holes, I used a center punch and eyed the bolt holes, then a small bit followed by the 5/16 bit. I only wish my first side came out as good as my second side. With all the removing and screwing back on the frame rail bolts I'm worried that I weakened the self tapped bolt holes. On that first side I also only got 3 bolts through one of the frame rails as it had a large hole in the frame rail.
Maybe I can weld that hole up so that I can get my four bolts?
I'm fairly new to welding so if anyone has advice on that it would be really appreciated?

Thanks everyone!

Qban said:

So I got both on, and properly I might add =) All pinch weld bolts through. I learned it was much easier to get the pinch seem bolted properly (thanks to the previous posters) and then jack the frame rail arms into place, drill and bolt. It was also well worth the $25 I spent on a HF pneumatic right angle drill, it was the perfect size to drill all my holes, I used a center punch and eyed the bolt holes, then a small bit followed by the 5/16 bit. I only wish my first side came out as good as my second side. With all the removing and screwing back on the frame rail bolts I'm worried that I weakened the self tapped bolt holes. On that first side I also only got 3 bolts through one of the frame rails as it had a large hole in the frame rail.
Maybe I can weld that hole up so that I can get my four bolts?
I'm fairly new to welding so if anyone has advice on that it would be really appreciated?

Thanks everyone!

Click to expand...

We use the same plates for all of our box sliders, sometimes they end up with one hole over a frame hole as you have seen. It's not a big deal. Three bolts per plate is more than enough.