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Evolution of Lower Quarter Panels (pics)

EricsXJ

NAXJA Member #616
NAXJA Member
Location
Reno, Nevada
I just added this article to my site. I thought you might also enjoy it here (also posted on JeepForum).

Evolution of Lower Quarter Panels
(and adding real corner protection)
8/11/06

As my Jeep has gotten bigger, I've had to make some modifications to the lower quarter panels behind the rear wheels. Some guys decide to leave them as is, others add protection over them, and others do the popular "cut and fold" mod. Sometimes the rear bumper plays a big part in what people choose to do back there, myself included. Well, after trying several different options on mine, I wasn't satisfied. I've always wanted that area to look good, and be strong, but I could never achieve both at the same time. But finally I just buckled down and got to work. The following is the "evolution" of what the rear corners of my Jeep were to what they are now.

This first photo is from back in 2002 when I first got my prized AEV rear bumper. The bumper's contours are the same as stock so this allowed me to keep the stock plastic end caps for the bumper. This was a good thing back then because I hadn't trimmed my fenders yet.
rbump04.jpg


After moving up to 33's in 2004, the fenders were trimmed and I no longer wanted to use the stock end caps any more. At the time, this presented a big problem for me since leaving the bumper ends open just didn't look good to me. I decided to cover the lower corners with aluminum diamond plate covers from Rock Lizard Fabrications and fabricated the inner corner pieces (that attach to the bumper ends and the back of the Jeep) myself.
diamond31.jpg


This looked very good and I even added a spot for my air hose quick coupling under the tail lights. While this looked great, it only lasted until I did my first trip through the Rubicon Trail. I knew that the aluminum guards wouldn't add a whole lot of protection, but I guess I really underestimated how weak the lower quarter panels really are. Compliments of the Rubicon:
r59.jpg


Not knowing what to do from there I just left it like this for almost 2 years. With the Jeep now on 35" tires, I don't mind seeing a few battle scars here and there, but these dents just bugged me everytime I looked at them. I think its also because it shows how weak they were, as the dents seem to get bigger after each trail ride I did!
 
I had always wanted to do the "cut and fold" mod to the lower quarters which virtually gets rid of them (they are tucked up) but my problem was still what to do with the bumper ends and how to protect the corners after I folded the panels up. I had seen some unprotected panels get smashed and that would be very hard to fix since you can't easily push out a dent in a crease or corner. But it was time to do it. I pretty much followed this write-up on NAXJA which is one of the first write-ups to be done on this mod: http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=29750
fold01.jpg


I used Herculiner to cover the sheetmetal so it would match with the bedliner and paint that I had previously used during the fender trim project.
fold02.jpg


The good thing about folding these panels up is all the clearance that you gain. Also you can see that my particular bumper doesn't even extend all the way to the end of the tail lights. This was also good for a little extra clearance, but offered even less protection to the corners.
fold03.jpg


That wasn't good enough for me because I would frequently smack the bottom corner of the bumper when coming off of a big rock. The bumper has held up to the numerous hits but I felt it would be nice if I had even more clearance. Plus it would add to the look of what I was going to do next. So off came the bumper for surgery.
bumpertrim01.jpg


I cut the corners off and welded in a piece of 1/4" thick steel. Not only will this look better but the angle will be a little more forgiving against the rocks.
bumpertrim02.jpg
 
Next was what to do to protect the corners of the Jeep and the body panels that I had folded up earlier. My idea was to make some guards that extended from the bumper ends out and forward. Of course they would have to attach to the frame rail to be strong enough so this is what I did for that. The next picture shows a 1/4" thick bracket from 4" angle iron. Learning my lesson from my rock rails, I knew that the bracket would need to wrap around the underside of the frame rail to withstand upward forces, and using the same hole and bolt for bumper's mounting brackets was a no-brainer.
corner01.jpg


In the next picture you can see what I have in mind as corner guards. You could call them mini rock rails! I chose 1.5" square tubing for these that are 3/16" thick. Also note the broken tail light from not having any protection here before. You might also notice that this was done before I chopped the corners of the bumper off. So the pics are out of order somewhat but its better for the write-up this way...
corner02.jpg


Here are the finished pieces before paint and the final welding to the bumper. What was hard about making these was that none of the angles for proper fit were 90* or 45* angles. You can see that in the picture below this one as well.
corner03.jpg


Here's some of the better welds I made. My welder is a Lincoln Electric 135-Plus and I'm using FCAW (flux-core) with .035 wire.
welds.jpg
 
Here's the finished product on the passenger side. Note the angled corner of the bumper also!
corner04.jpg


Shot of the driver side, from the back.
corner05.jpg


Shot from the top that shows how much they stick out. I didn't want them sticking out too far, so I placed them so about half of the 1.5" square tube is out from the fender, or 3/4".
corner06.jpg


My incentive for finishing this project was the very next day we had planned another run through Strawberry Creek. The "painted rock" obstacle had cracked my passenger tail light before (which was lucky compared to what damage others have gotten - hense the name "painted rock".) The other big scratches on the side were from a previous trip through the Rubicon, not this obstacle. But that being said, I'll let this picture speak for itself.
corner07.jpg


Overall, I really like how the project turned out. I'm pleased with the looks, and even more so I'm pleased that I have strong corners now with much more clearance than before!
corner08.jpg
 
Cool thread Eric!! Now if I could get my welding skill anywhere near that...
 
I really want to do something similar for my LWB MJ, my quarters take a lot of damage :)
 
eric, got any side pictures, like of the whole jeep? want to show the wife what it'll look like when i fix mine. i smashed mine up the other day so its about time to trim some more.
 
nice write up.

i wish i had the skills to do fabrication like that.

well, the skills, the garage, the tools, etc....

any other write ups around these parts on your rig?

what kind of suspension are you running?
 
53guy said:
eric, got any side pictures, like of the whole jeep? want to show the wife what it'll look like when i fix mine. i smashed mine up the other day so its about time to trim some more.

Here's more of a side shot that what is posted above. That's about the best one of the whole jeep that also shows the new corner protection. Also you can see more recent pics in this link: http://www.ericsxj.com/pardoes/default.htm

2712.jpg
 
kndrewa said:
nice write up.

i wish i had the skills to do fabrication like that.

well, the skills, the garage, the tools, etc....

any other write ups around these parts on your rig?

what kind of suspension are you running?

You can see everything I'm running on my website www.ericsxj.com

The only thing I'm running that I haven't updated yet is I also raised my rear shock mounts and have OME long-travel shocks (#36L) back there. Fronts are still RE monotubes.

I'll be adding more updates to the site very soon.
 
hey eric, i took a look at the AEV site and couldn't find that rear bumper/tire carrier....did they stop making it? I'm very interested in the latch as I'm getting quite upset at the rigid co style latch. Also, are you going to do anything to protect the gas tank hoses? If so, what are your plans? I just smashed mine up the other day and I'm definately trimming them off soon, just getting ideas now.
 
53guy said:
hey eric, i took a look at the AEV site and couldn't find that rear bumper/tire carrier....did they stop making it? I'm very interested in the latch as I'm getting quite upset at the rigid co style latch. Also, are you going to do anything to protect the gas tank hoses? If so, what are your plans? I just smashed mine up the other day and I'm definately trimming them off soon, just getting ideas now.

AEV stopped making the bumper long ago and very few people got them. They kept saying they would put it in production again, but because it has not happened by now I think its safe to say they never will. However, the latch is simply a stock TJ door latch from what I was told, and it looks to me like it is.

I thought about covering the gas filler hoses, but they really aren't too vulnerable (knocks on wood...) on mine. With 3" backspacing my tires aren't going to throw very much stuff at them directly but I've also thought that they could be cut intentionally as vandalism or whatever since they are visible. I may cover them eventually and was thinking about using just a large section of rubber hose.
 
EricsXJ said:
With 3" backspacing my tires aren't going to throw very much stuff at them directly but I've also thought that they could be cut intentionally as vandalism or whatever since they are visible. I may cover them eventually and was thinking about using just a large section of rubber hose.
With the rising cost of fuel, I would expect we'll see more gas thefts...why keep those hoses readily viewable like that when you could slap a bent sheet of diamond plate under them to keep the hoses out of reach of sticks and thieves?

Edit: Forgot to mention that the pics and mods look great - nice work!
 
as always....good work Eric.
 
that looks awsome. THis is something i really want to do to mine.. i think i would use a wider steel and bring it out away from the body line .. so when you cage it you can just go flat to it. well done though

keith h
 
Looks nice! IMO you should cut a short piece of tube to fill in underneath the tailight. Just my opinion and you what people say about those ;)
 
Great writeup Eric. I am in the middle of the cut and fold method to the rear quarter panels and noticed in some of your pics that the rear hanger for your exhaust is not there anymore-what modification was done to the tailpipe? I remember way back when AEV had on their website a video of the mounting of the rear bumper/carrier-did you record/save this?-reason why I ask is the mounting of the rear bumper seems to incorporate all of the mounting points along the frame rail (looks like four to five bolts per side)-I want to modify the mounting of my rear bumper to include as many points along the frame and just wanted to know what you did about the exhaust/hanger. thanks
 
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