Rocker replacement/mini boat sides.

[JESSE A]

So after wanting to do this for a long time i finally pulled the trigger, unbolted the jcr sliders sold them, came up with enough money to buy all the steel i needed. so far i have one whole side completed the doors were trimmed 1.75in and the whole rocker was removed. I followed madxjs write up and erics xj (thanks),but also made a few little changes of my own, all in all im very happy with the results and cant wait to wheel it!

first thing first remove the doors.

then i cut out the rocker, just leaving the bases of the pillars,

i kept my carpet and seats in whilke doing this so i used a street sign to put between the carpet and the floor to keep the heat from burning my carpet, and it worked pretty well.

this is where i deviated from there write ups,i kind of combined the two, i added two small strips of angle iron and then put 3x3/16 flat stock over to help the 2x6 from upward hits, so basically i put erics and mad xjs ideas togeather.

im not going into full detail you get the idea and can see from the other two writeups that were really helpful,it is a great way to gain clearence and protection at the same time, difficulty for me i would say 6 out of 10 just a little nervous to make the frist cut.

 

[Jump This]

Nice work Jesse!
Do you think it will give enough protection to keep the doors off most of the rocks?

 

[squirrel80]

I might have to sell my Protofab Sliders and do this mod.

 

[JESSE A]

Nice work Jesse!
Do you think it will give enough protection to keep the doors off most of the rocks?

I think they will be ok I wanted them to stick out a bit further but not as far as my jrc sliders, they were constantly getting hung up on rocks, so time in the rocks will tell.

 

[Mark817XJ]

Looks good, hard to tell from the pics but it looks like you had a hard time welding the thin metal on the pillars to the 2x6 with the flux core, I did as well.

What I did to tie it all in a little bit was mini-boat side it. I took a piece of 4"x3/16" flat bar and welded it in at an angle. I'll post a picture in a second, it has worked really well for me in the rocks.

 

[Mark817XJ]

Excuse the welds, I did this two years ago; first time I picked up a welder and it was a stick and I did it upside down. You get the point thoigh of how it is mini boat sided.

 

[95' heep]

very nice. I am going to repair my rotten floor panels and do this same time to make it a whole easier.

 

[JESSE A]

Excuse the welds, I did this two years ago; first time I picked up a welder and it was a stick and I did it upside down. You get the point thoigh of how it is mini boat sided.

mine are done the same way with 3x3/16 flat stock, i just added the angle iron for a little extra support under the flat stock

 

[EricsXJ]

Jesse, job looks great!

Nice work Jesse!
Do you think it will give enough protection to keep the doors off most of the rocks?

Depending on the trails he runs, I would recommend running doorless. You can easily pick up door damage by leaning into the side of big rocks. I got real lucky on 2 occasions I can think of where if I had doors they would have been trashed. The flip side is you need to watch the pillars. My hinges scraped and I watched them flexing all over the place but amazingly they still came out straight and the doors fit back on. Just something to think about.

 

[EricsXJ]

Also Jesse, I didn't see it in your pics so I'll ask - are you going to tie them into the frame rails? I do recommend that. There have been some (XJranger I think) that ended up tweeking the body without them.

 

[JESSE A]

Also Jesse, I didn't see it in your pics so I'll ask - are you going to tie them into the frame rails? I do recommend that. There have been some (XJranger I think) that ended up tweeking the body without them.

Ya I did tie into the frame rails with some flat stock I feel like it will be strong enough,I didn't want to loose too much ground clearence.........I'm debating adding a 1.5 to 1.75 tube to the rocker to get it to stickout a little further like my old jcr sliders.......what do you guys think?

 

[JESSE A]

finished up the other side today came out pretty good added some supports i think its going to work well

 

[Kiefer316]

Any side shots? Also any plans to maybe paint it to body color? I think that would look pretty cool!

 

[JESSE A]

i can get some more shots later, im going to keep it black its easier for touchup considering there are going to get all tore up

 

[camarors8992]

Looks awesome, more pictures would help out a lot. I'm just curious where all the welds are and such.

 

[Mtb Jak]

Ya can we get more pictures of the welds and supports?

I am debating getting this done out here before I head back to NY.

What size metal did you use for the main part?

Thanks

 

[JESSE A]

i used 2x6x1/4.......look at erics xj or madxj, they have better write ups with way more photos.

 

[Mtb Jak]

ahh you gotta cut the doors... that looks like a pain in the ass!

 

[JESSE A]

ahh you gotta cut the doors... that looks like a pain in the ass!

its really not that bad,the clearence is totally worth it, i have more rocker clearence than some guys on 37s and im on 35s, i know lift is a big factor in that but im pretty low.

 

[IslanderOffRoad]

Man Jesse, I wish I had the time, skill, and balls to do some of the fab you do. That Jeep's come a long way in the past year.