I Drilled 58 Holes In My Truck Body ?

[JTenn]

when enlarged the trailer light photo i heard banjo music!

Well this was up in the hills at Windrock so...........

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[40x40]

i don't know if it makes any difference but when i drilled holes in the box i put clear silicone in the holes and used stainless fasteners.

 

[JTenn]

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.

Couldn't agree more!! And that is exactly how I did it. Mocked it up as perfect as I could and drilled the first hole. Then installed the one bolt and re-mocked it again and drilled another hole and so on. Once I had it secured from end to end I transferred the remaining holes and went to work.

 

[JTenn]

i don't know if it makes any difference but when i drilled holes in the box i put clear silicone in the holes and used stainless fasteners.

I sprayed rustoleum in each hole before installing the rivnuts. All the fasteners are stainless.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

Couldn't agree more!! And that is exactly how I did it. Mocked it up as perfect as I could and drilled the first hole. Then installed the one bolt and re-mocked it again and drilled another hole and so on. Once I had it secured from end to end I transferred the remaining holes and went to work.

I even had a bad rivnut when I installed my ARB sliders. I started to freak out because I had a bolt sticking out and you can’t put too much torque on a rivnut. I ran a tap through it and it was good to go.

 

[JTenn]

I even had a bad rivnut when I installed my ARB sliders. I started to freak out because I had a bolt sticking out and you can’t put too much torque on a rivnut. I ran a tap through it and it was good to go.

They're not impossible to get out but on a delicate surface like a body panel you can make a real mess easily.

 

[Sweetums]

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

Years ago I made a lengthy post somewhere, it might have been the Xterra board or Reddit, I honestly don't recall. It was about the different types of mods: mods of necessity, mods of opportunity, and mods of desire.

 

[Camaroboi13]

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

It ain’t just a you problem ?

Would be different if it were a classic car with stainless trim, but everything being black on these rigs would make me consider my options as well with the hardware.

 

[JTenn]

Years ago I made a lengthy post somewhere, it might have been the Xterra board or Reddit, I honestly don't recall. It was about the different types of mods: mods of necessity, mods of opportunity, and mods of desire.

The mods of opportunity are the ones that you explain to your significant other why you NEED to get it done now!! This "opportunity" will never come around again!! ?

 

[Sweetums]

The mods of opportunity are the ones that you explain to your significant other why you NEED to get it done now!! This "opportunity" will never come around again!! ?

I'm fortunate that my wife enables my mods (when she's not competing for garage space/time/tools for her own mods).

She's always been very supportive of "The part broke, an OEM part is $X and will break again, an aftermarket part that's $X+15% will fix the problem for the life of the car, so really this "mod" is only costing us that 15% over stock."

 

[JTenn]

I'm fortunate that my wife enables my mods (when she's not competing for garage space/time/tools for her own mods).

Completely understand. My wife has a gator JT also.

 

[BUZZHEAD]

Hardest mod yet. Not in terms of difficulty but drilling 58 holes in the body of my truck hurt my soul. Ok, not really but I've been sitting on these armor panels for almost a year because I just couldn't bring myself to purposely poke holes in the sides of my truck. I finally worked up the nerve and pulled the trigger. I literally cringed every time I drilled a hole, lol. Now I just need to get the new black armor dirty so it matches everything else. Or wash the truck, yeah, I could do that. Na, mud is more fun.

Damn I have the same mod sitting in the living room.
I wasnt sure about drilling holes but now seeing yours.
WTF going to drill holes this SAT.

 

[Sweetums]

WTF going to drill holes this SAT.

 

[BUZZHEAD]

I will let my friend do it ,then I can blame him.

 

[kb5zcr]

I may be ignorant on this stuff, but I wonder why one couldn't use some type of adhesive to apply these instead of bolting them on.

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