Boatside Rockers

Well maybe they're semi-boatside rockers

Here's how I'm doing mine

First I cut out a section of my banged up rockers to see what it looked like inside

I decided I would cut at the black line on the top side


Then looking at the bottom, I decided to cut just inside of the pinch seam and I'll fold that lip up and weld the new 3/16" plate to it


Here's what it looked like after the cuts were made




Then I ground off paint from the edges that I'll be welding to, and I put some holes in the top edge for the spot welds. I also pre-folded the lower lip to the correct angle for the plate to set flat against it. Once I weld the top edge, I'll apply some force inward on the lower edge to snug up the two panels before I spot weld the lower edge.



I drilled holes along the bottom edge of the 3/16" plate, then clamped it up in place and started spot welding the top edge.

I put the doors back on and they are very exposed on the bottom edge now, I'll have to do something about that later!



Once I welded all the top spot welds, I then put a jack under the lower edge starting at the back, and pushed the plate up tight against the body


And here it is after all the spot welds are done


I started at the back and used the jack and a square piece of tube and kept moving it forward after every few holes were welded up. Some of those spot welds look better than others



Since those bottom welds fill the 3/16 plate, I can grind those flat and still have plenty of the weld strength left. The upper spot welds I'll just kind of knock down the rough edges and still leave a little mound of weld material.



It would be pretty easy to add a long piece the same width as this one, and tie the boatsides into the rails, but I'll wait until I decide if I want some sort of frame stiffeners. I also am not sure I want to add the weight. My goal all along has been to keep this rig light.




Here's a piece of the old rocker and it shows how much clearance I gained


I still have some work to do on the ends and the doors before I can start painting

More later

Terry,
I have been checking out rockfrogs.org for a few years now and have followed your build.Sorry about the wreck, but great job on the new xj. I have rotted rockers and have been grinding and cutting metal off of my xj for some time now. I just yesterday purchased a new Miller 180 and will be cutting out the floor and replacing it as well as some creative rocker re-inforcement due to rust. I like what you did. Keep up the great work and nice job! Thanks for the fresh idea.

Matt

Thanks Matt, I don't envy your rust problems!

I was pleased how clean these rockers were inside when I cut them open. Makes it almost like working with all new parts!

And the Xota will ride again someday, as a trailer queen this time :laugh3:

awesome project, i plan to do this in the future after i get the frame stiffeners.

nice work

87xjco said:

And the Xota will ride again someday, as a trailer queen this time :laugh3:

Click to expand...

What happened to the Xota?

looks pretty cool. i had thought of doing this recently... my previous plan was to also cut out my rockers, as they're very rusty like you said yours were and replace them with tubing and tie the slider into the "frame" somehow. your fab work looks good, but i'd be concerned with other stuff bending if you slammed on the boatside because it doesn't seem to be too well supported. go bash it on something and lemme know what you find :scottm:

Went to work on the rear door this morning

While it was still on the vehicle, I used a marker and followed the new edge of the rocker, and made a line on the door, the top edge of the tape is where that line is



On the sides of the door, I wish I could cut at the black line, but that won't work because of the hinge, so I'm gonna have to cut where the red line is.



The I cut the piece out of the door


In an effort to get a straight fold, I first clamped a piece of thick steel to the panel


Then I flipped the door over, I used a body hammer and also a sander along the fold area, that will heat up the panel a little and I'll keep pressure on it while I'm sanding and hammering on both sides of the fold


Used a couple of screws to hold the outer panel tight against the inner door frame, and then started welding it


Then I kept working that panel tight against the frame as I welded


Primed and sprayed the bottom with flat black paint, I'm glad my ugly welds are on the bottom

More ugly welds on the back end of the boatside, I 'll grind those down a little before paint


Then I hung the door back on


The back looks a little weird hanging out there, but not much I can do about it


Front side

Moving on to the front door, I need it to look like the back door


Cut it out and basically did all the same procedures as the back door


Got it finished and back on the vehicle, I also re-shaped the fender to match the door


Drilled and tapped a hole and used one of the original fender bolts


A comparison shot of the finished left side and the stock right side

A+ for creativity and nice fabwork. I like the way you solved the problem.

My personal opinion: I worry about the long term reliability simply due to the lack of firm support for the 3/16's plate. From the pics, it looks like a couple good hits and the sheetmetal around the plate will deform. Although pictures dont always tell the whole story, do they?


-jm

Terry- Beef those up now before they get used. I have 4 years on mine now (same design but skinned with 3/8" UMHW as well.) and they're getting pretty beat up. It starts with the rockers bowing then progresses to buckled B pillars. I wish I would have tied mine into the cage from the beginning.



-Jon

Um. I guess I'm fooling myself, thinking I won't get into them much, but I'm sure I will.

Talked me into it though, I'll either add one big plate that ties them to the rails, or maybe 3 smaller plates.

Thanks!!

Kaczman said:

Terry- Beef those up now before they get used. I have 4 years on mine now (same design but skinned with 3/8" UMHW as well.) and they're getting pretty beat up. It starts with the rockers bowing then progresses to buckled B pillars. I wish I would have tied mine into the cage from the beginning.



-Jon

Click to expand...

Whoa.. you were using your body as support for a slider?

More food for thought. 2x4 3/16 tubing in place of the rockers. Then a peice of 3/16th plate from the rocker down to the frame stiffners.



http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b20/reichy/Tuttle July 26/100_0190.jpg

THAT looks awesome and more what i was leaning towards... i plan on using 2x6 1/4 wall. super heavy but if i tie it in right it will act as a serious frame stiffener too.

winkosmosis said:

Whoa.. you were using your body as support for a slider?

Click to expand...

Well I've been convinced to add support

My thinking was...

Using a 5' piece of 3/16" steel and welding it to a structure, even though the structure is thinner metal, really makes a triangle shaped truss, much stronger then the flat piece of steel itself. And since it's angled, it's gonna deflect off of rocks, much better then the stock rocker ever would.

After all, everything is the body on a unibody design. Seems to me that this truss has more support around it then the rails do, the support around the rails is only the floor panels, where as the rockers have pillars adding to the structural strength.

It seems in most of the wheeling I've done with this rig, I just have a few times where my rockers didn't quite clear, but it was close.

But my friends have pointed out that I do tend to try the hard lines and scrape or pound through wherever I can That's why my rockers are already beat up in only a few months of moderately difficult trails.

So now I'm starting to worry if tieing into the rails is enough, Im gonna go ahead and do that with another 5' piece of 3/16", but maybe it's time to start putting in a cage and figuring out a way to tie the cage into those boatsides too.

How about making a complete triangle so there is less stress on the thin part of the unibody? When the side pushes up, that would cause the floor between the sill and the "frame" to compress, but it would help if you have another piece parallel to the floor.

All these things make me uncomfortable, because they are like levers acting on points where they bolt/weld to the frame. If I was doing something like this, I would go all the way across the vehicle, so when a rock pushes up on the rocker/slider with 1000lbs of force, it's not pushing on the unibody with 5000lbs but instead acts like a seesaw so the force pulls downward on the other side. But I'd also want the steel to be as stiff as possible, especially in the middle. I don't know if you can add fluting or weld on square tube on top of it, or what.