Fabbing up some rocker protection, Update w/ pics

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richardekirby
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Fabbing up some rocker protection, Update w/ pics

Postby richardekirby » Mon Aug 23, 2010 11:25 am

I went to the steel yard over the weekend and picked up some stock to make my own rock sliders/nerf bars.

I've been thinking about them for a while and was not sure what route I would take. I thought about doing something similar to the rockslider design. My wife wants a step and the rocksliders do not provide much of one.

I decided to use 2"x4" 11ga tube as the step, 1 1/2" 11ga square tube to run to the frame, and 1/4" flat steel for the mounting tabs. My goal is to produce the same results as rocksliders. That is to be able to use any point of the step as a jacking point.

Anybody else take on this task? I'll post the finished results when I'm done.
Last edited by richardekirby on Thu Oct 07, 2010 6:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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GOTGOO
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Postby GOTGOO » Mon Aug 23, 2010 1:15 pm

Can't wait to see them! Sliders are my list of future projects. There are few guys on thenewx.org who built some sliders.

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Postby GOTGOO » Mon Aug 23, 2010 1:39 pm

I was also looking at these weld on ones for $140 and 67" long. Seen some guys running them on the new x also. http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/Toy ... 16782.html

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Postby xd9-g19 » Mon Aug 23, 2010 5:30 pm

I'm in the same boat as you, protection/running board, I think thats why im gonna go with something similar to AJ's Off Road Super Squares like the one in the link.

http://www.ajsoffroadarmor.com/product. ... 270&page=1

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richardekirby
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Postby richardekirby » Tue Aug 24, 2010 6:06 pm

I've never seen those before. The PolyPerf rock sliders are very affordable and look durable. I really like the RockRails from AJ's. They are nice but still $350. I was thinking about that kind of design with the square tube, but it would make fabrication a lot more difficult.

Another thing I'm considering is the topside finish. I thought about cutting a strip of diamond plate and either welding it or screwing it to the step. The other option is to put bed liner on it.

I'm curious on how much it would cost to powdercoat these. I've only done intakes before, so I don't have any idea what something this size would cost. I may just have to paint them.

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Postby NVSteve » Wed Aug 25, 2010 7:12 am

richardekirby wrote:The other option is to put bed liner on it.
Do it. I'm pulling mine off this weekend so that I can apply bedliner on them. Paint just doesn't cut it. I have numerous rust spots on mine from road crap that has worn off areas of the paint. I figure it would be a lot easier to apply a couple layers of bedliner than 50 layers of paint. Plus, the bedliner should be absolutely perfect for this application.

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Postby richardekirby » Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:35 am

NVSteve wrote:
richardekirby wrote:The other option is to put bed liner on it.
Do it. I'm pulling mine off this weekend so that I can apply bedliner on them. Paint just doesn't cut it. I have numerous rust spots on mine from road crap that has worn off areas of the paint. I figure it would be a lot easier to apply a couple layers of bedliner than 50 layers of paint. Plus, the bedliner should be absolutely perfect for this application.
I never really thought about coating the entire bar with bedliner. I'm going to have to look into that. That may be the most cost effective way to go.

I'm surprised your supersliders did not come powdercoated. With them costing as much as they do, you would think they could include a more durable finish than piaint.

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Postby NVSteve » Wed Aug 25, 2010 12:35 pm

richardekirby wrote: I'm surprised your supersliders did not come powdercoated. With them costing as much as they do, you would think they could include a more durable finish than piaint.
They were, but having something painted so close to the ground doesn't work very well on my vehicles. All the rocks thrown by the front tires, salt during the winters & all the bushes a couple of feet high combine for a year round brillo pad effect. I'll see if I can post a couple of photos to show the before and after when I goop them up this weekend.

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Postby richardekirby » Wed Aug 25, 2010 4:54 pm

NVSteve wrote:
richardekirby wrote: I'm surprised your supersliders did not come powdercoated. With them costing as much as they do, you would think they could include a more durable finish than piaint.
They were, but having something painted so close to the ground doesn't work very well on my vehicles. All the rocks thrown by the front tires, salt during the winters & all the bushes a couple of feet high combine for a year round brillo pad effect. I'll see if I can post a couple of photos to show the before and after when I goop them up this weekend.
I get ya. The paint would be used as a repair. Yeah, in that case, I would clean them really good and coat them with bedliner. Let me know how that works out for you.

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Postby richardekirby » Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:00 pm

I've been working on them the last couple of afternoons.

First, I had to decide what shape they should be. I used a 2x4 stud and the original boards as a template. The stud was close enough to the size of the steel tube and a lot easier to work with. I decided to go with a fairly simple design that I could do with my limited shop equipment.

This is the steel stock I started with:
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I cut each end at a 45* angle then cut the outer 2" off at 90*.
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I cut the short sides off of some scrap pieces to use to cap the ends. I notched them where they would be bent and tacked them on.
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This is one end that I almost have complete. I need to fill in some more spots and grind them down.
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One thing I figured out while test fitting is that I really can't bolt the bars to the frame due to it being boxed. I didn't want to, but it looks like I'm going to have to weld them in.

I'm planning on getting a little more done tomorrow and over the weekend. I'll keep ya'll posted on the progress.

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Postby fleurys » Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:12 pm

here are how I did mine.. hope it helps you .

I call them hybrid because there is 2 materials involved : Steel and HDPE plastic.

I gonna test this new design during this season and see if they work like I want. My goal with these was to minimize the loss of clearance, be able to slide on rocks without scratching them and finally prevent rust...

So I designed something with rectangular tube 3 x 1 x 3/16 for the under tube and 3 x 1 x 1/8 for the side one. It's very simple design ..just 2 rectangular tube welded together at an angle. For the fixation, I decided to go with full <frame> bolt on. They fit so tight that they stay put without bolting anything. The U shape of the mount are basically the same size (or just a tab smaller) than the width of the rail. So they install using a small hydraulic lift and they fit like a glove. Using SS hardware again to hold them there. So rust should not be a problem on the fixation.


I then screwed 1/2 inch HDPE panels to the steel tubes with Stainless less steel screws. My hope is that they will resist pretty fairly to rocks and that once they are too much damaged, I can just replace the HDPE panels for a quick and cheap fix. At least that's the idea behind this. We'll see how they do during the season.

Here's so pictures :
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Postby richardekirby » Fri Aug 27, 2010 9:39 am

Those are pretty cool. I'll have to look into that mounting system. How wide are your frame rails? They look a little more narrow than mine. I'm sure I could find some channel or tube steel that matches the width of my frame. Looks like another trip to the steel yard.

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Postby NVSteve » Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:18 pm

richardekirby wrote:Yeah, in that case, I would clean them really good and coat them with bedliner. Let me know how that works out for you.
It'll have to wait a couple of weeks until I have another window of opportunity. I was able to remove them today, but it took me a few hours because all of the bolts & nuts were severely rusted and locked tight. When I had all the bolts removed, I couldn't get the damn slider out, so had to whack it a number of times with the hammer. As a visual, I was lying directly below the slider, with both knees propped up under one end as I was hammering on the other. Of course it all came tumbling down at once. I knew they were going to be heavy, but not that heavy. So, I spent the remainder of the day removing the freaking adhesive that was holding this gritty ladder tape to the sliders. Complete PITA. I'll have to apply a bit of primer to a few of the holes on the Path, then go out and get some new bolts. Sliders are mangled by rust on the underside.

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Postby fleurys » Sun Aug 29, 2010 5:22 am

NVSteve wrote:
richardekirby wrote:Yeah, in that case, I would clean them really good and coat them with bedliner. Let me know how that works out for you.
It'll have to wait a couple of weeks until I have another window of opportunity. I was able to remove them today, but it took me a few hours because all of the bolts & nuts were severely rusted and locked tight. When I had all the bolts removed, I couldn't get the damn slider out, so had to whack it a number of times with the hammer. As a visual, I was lying directly below the slider, with both knees propped up under one end as I was hammering on the other. Of course it all came tumbling down at once. I knew they were going to be heavy, but not that heavy. So, I spent the remainder of the day removing the freaking adhesive that was holding this gritty ladder tape to the sliders. Complete PITA. I'll have to apply a bit of primer to a few of the holes on the Path, then go out and get some new bolts. Sliders are mangled by rust on the underside.

Don't do the same mistake twice....get stainless steal bolts and be done with it...

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Postby NVSteve » Sun Sep 19, 2010 8:49 pm

Applied the bedliner last weekend & installed them this weekend. I also installed stainless steel bolts, so hopefully it will help. I used Herculiner, but I bought the $90 size. I should have gone with the small size because I have a ton of it leftover, but now it has me thinking of other applications. Anyway, very easy to apply. I used a 3" brush and wiped/dabbed it on-about 2 1/2 coats in all. The great part about this stuff is that you can just apply more over the top of it all if need be some day.

Sliders when newly fabricated & installed by Rocky Road:

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Removed & ready for prep:

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With Herculiner applied:

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Super shiny, but I imagine that will change over time. Doesn't really matter to me.


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