I Drilled 58 Holes In My Truck Body ?

[Sweetums]

Drilling the first hole in perfectly good bodywork is the hardest. It gets much easier after that because it's no longer "perfectly good bodywork". ?

The armor looks great!

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[TARHEELKIDD]

Wow! Braver than most, lol. Looks good. Love your Jeep name.

 

[Lunentucker]

Looks like the @Metalcloak ones have the matching black screws, but not the recessed flush fit like yours.

https://metalcloak.com/aluminum-rocker-exoskin-pair-jl-wrangler-4-door.html

 

[Mad Mac]

Necessity may be the mother of invention
but damage is the father of modification.

At least it was in my case.
A teenage guest bashed in the left front fender
on my new to me unmolested '98 TJ.
It was no problem taking the angle grinder to that fender
but cutting off the pristine fender on the right side
made me nauseous.
Involuntary Transitioning

 

[JTenn]

Looking good! I've cut both of my Jeep hoods to install the poison Spyder louvers but haven't had the balls to install side armor like that yet. Maybe one day, as I do love the look!

Thanks. I like the look as well and the additional protection. But that first hole!! I had the first plate mocked up and taped in place and just sat there for a while asking, do I really want to do this??? All went well so now I'm glad I did. If you ever work up the nerve to do it, just go slow and check your work before you begin. It's honestly not that bad.

 

[JTenn]

Wow! Braver than most, lol. Looks good. Love your Jeep name.

Thanks. I actually took a few weeks to think of a good user name before joining the group. Then one day it just came to me. This really is a great group of folks on here.

 

[JTenn]

Looks like the @Metalcloak ones have the matching black screws, but not the recessed flush fit like yours.

https://metalcloak.com/aluminum-rocker-exoskin-pair-jl-wrangler-4-door.html

If I ever decide to change them, I will just powder coat the heads. They're stainless so I would rather keep them in place. The black oxide flat heads will rust. Black would look better though.

 

[Lunentucker]

If I ever decide to change them, I will just powder coat the heads. They're stainless so I would rather keep them in place. The black oxide flat heads will rust. Black would look better though.

It's just my OCD. My problem, not yours ?

 

[JTenn]

It's just my OCD. My problem, not yours ?

No, I can relate for sure. I have alot of black accents on my truck and stainless flat heads just stick out. Well figuratively. I will eventually correct it, lol.

 

[TARHEELKIDD]

Thanks. I actually took a few weeks to think of a good user name before joining the group. Then one day it just came to me. This really is a great group of folks on here.

Your user name is cool too, but I am referring to the Jeep name on the hood.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

I don’t understand why people freak out about this. The body is full of holes. The cab has huge holes in the floor. Mud, which is basically blasting grit, from water crossings, gets caked all over the underside of the truck around these factory holes. In 120k miles I had zero corrosion issues on my TJs ARB sliders. I do pressure wash the underside of my truck when I go through mud, along with the brakes and engine bay. A lot of people never do that despite all of those scary HOLES everywhere. Aaahhhhhh!!!

Measure twice and cut once unless you’re OCD, in which case you measure 15 times. Also, drill 1 hole, insert the rivnut, mount the panel and use that 1 correct hole to align the rest of the holes. Use the panel as a drill guide for pilot holes and enlarge to rivnut size. Easy. You deburr the holes, paint, and optionally RTV the rivnut.

Meanwhile the factory has created all sorts of pockets around pinch seams that trap mud and debris and promote body cancer. The lower back side of the body front fender opening for example. Then people happily drill holes in their frame, the one place where you can’t cut out the rust and rivet in new material and fill with bondo. You can easily cut out and replace an entire rocker panel on a body-on-frame vehicle. But I’ve never seen one of these types of rocker guards cause problems if they were done correctly.

 

[RubiAR]

Since working as an A&P mechanic, it has opened my eyes to a lot of what causes corrosion. I would recommend (long term fix) to "wet seal" the screws, preventing any galvanization between the 2 metals. Not sure what grade steel either of the 2 metals are, but they may have varying levels of alloys; or if one is galvanized and the other is not, you may run into issues. Not to concern you (I'm sure it'll be fine) but I like to over-engineer. Looks good though!

 

[JTenn]

Your user name is cool too, but I am referring to the Jeep name on the hood.

Oh duh!! That made me laugh. Sometimes I'm way too literal. But thanks.

 

[40x40]

Thank you. This was the first and so far only body damage I've had. I've broke the passenger tail light out 4 times and actually exploded it the last time. I already had a new one back in the shop so no big deal. I went to Walmart and bought a $7 trailer light and wired it in to get me home. It was beautiful!! Lol I have now built some lights for off roading. Got everything on Amazon and have about $30 invested. They're not pretty but they don't stick out and it only takes about 3 minutes to swap them in.

when i enlarged the trailer light photo i heard banjo music!

 

[40x40]

I don’t understand why people freak out about this. The body is full of holes. The cab has huge holes in the floor. Mud, which is basically blasting grit, from water crossings, gets caked all over the underside of the truck around these factory holes. In 120k miles I had zero corrosion issues on my TJs ARB sliders. I do pressure wash the underside of my truck when I go through mud, along with the brakes and engine bay. A lot of people never do that despite all of those scary HOLES everywhere. Aaahhhhhh!!!

Measure twice and cut once unless you’re OCD, in which case you measure 15 times. Also, drill 1 hole, insert the rivnut, mount the panel and use that 1 correct hole to align the rest of the holes. Use the panel as a drill guide for pilot holes and enlarge to rivnut size. Easy. You deburr the holes, paint, and optionally RTV the rivnut.

Meanwhile the factory has created all sorts of pockets around pinch seams that trap mud and debris and promote body cancer. The lower back side of the body front fender opening for example. Then people happily drill holes in their frame, the one place where you can’t cut out the rust and rivet in new material and fill with bondo. You can easily cut out and replace an entire rocker panel on a body-on-frame vehicle. But I’ve never seen one of these types of rocker guards cause problems if they were done correctly.

measure once and cuss twice

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