This is yet another article
describing the replacement of (rusted) rocker panels on an aging Jeep Cherokee. The featured
approach is somewhat different, however, since not only the rocker panels are cut
and removed, but also the doors are shortened. This was an extra benefit, not only
because of the extra ground clearance gained under the rocker panels, but also this
eliminated some rather ugly areas on this Jeep. The lower door skins were dented
and rusted from all the years of off-road (and on-road winter salt) abuse. The
doors were in dire need of severe restauration or replacement. The removal of
the lower skins thus was the "miracle cure". |
This modification requires some welding skills, but a MIT (mechanically inclined technician)
should be able to do this without major problems given enough
time. This is a fun project, simply because useless sheet metal comes
flying off the Jeep!
Make sure to also look at the other articles regarding rocker panels here on
madxj.com. One is by Jeff. A, and another by
Scott R, for
example. |
The Parts: |
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There aren't really many parts involved in this
process, other than some 2"x6"x (3/16") box steel, some angle iron, a few
pieces of flat stock, and some miscellaneous small hardware if the
new rocker panels are also to be used as air tanks (as it was done in this
case). The lower door skins could also be replaced with some 1/8" "diamond
plate", but this entirely optional (not featured in this article).
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The Tools: |
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your shop can muster that cut, grind, melt, and weld metal. Essential tools are
a chop saw, an angle grinder, a swazall, and a welder. Other typical
tools include the various torx tools that alway plague the Jeep mechanic,
etc.
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The Concept: |
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Inspired by various similar rocker panel
replacement projects, I myself started to wonder how the best solution would be
for my case. Based on Jeff's cross section drawing of the XJ's rocker panel,
I turned my attention to the drawing board myself (computer, that is).
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I started with sketching out the OEM rocker panels, shown on the left.
These are sketches only, and are not intended to provide a basis for
measurements.
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Here is a drawing of what I had in mind. If this does not make much sense at
the moment, follow along, --the step by step break-down
should explain all this eventually.
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The Procedure: |
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First a look at how it startd. Rust and dents.
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Then some probing. Before the hacking starts, a careful look
or two probably won't hurt.
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Now it's time to start removing interior and exterior parts.
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The doors have to come off. Shown here, the rear door, the misc.
shims and backing plates, along with the tools to remove the doors.
Of course, none of these annoying torx
bolts (doors and fenders) went back on. I replaced them with generic
metric hex bolts (M8 doors, M6 fenders).
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Starting with the rear door, I checked out the inside of the door
to see if anything could get before I cut it.
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The idea is to cut and grind away all that is shown in red
in this drawing. Obviously, this includes part of the lower door skin
too.
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I decided that it is no problem cutting through the lower doors and
moved on by starting to cut out more of the rocker panels.
I started out carefully. The red arrows indicate where I left
the sheet metal sticking out. At this point, I quickly realized
that there is no advantage whatsoever to leaving this sheet metal in
place. Leaving it there, would mean that a weld bead would run out there,
but by removing the sheet metal, I could run a bead right under the door
seals. Let that bead be ugly, no one will ever see it! Of course, they
ended up nice, but nobody will ever see them! ;-) This concept
will be clearer in the next images.
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Outlined here is the part of the sheet metal that was left standing
in the image above. Here it is removed between the pillars.
The following are several more shots from different angles.
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This abstraction shows the current stage. That's all that is currently
left. The original rocker panels are gone.
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Here's an attempt to show where the original rocker panel once was (red).
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Here it is also evident that there were several places that needed
patching up (rocker panels and floor boards). This is also what
triggered this modification --rust. I had to patch sizeable holes
in the foot well, rocker panels (to inside), and rear wheel well. I
also reinforced the areas where the rear spring hanger is located.
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At this point I also realized for the first time that my new rocker
panels will be tilted downwards to the outside. The red circle shows
the angle dictated by the A-, B-, and C-pillars. That was indeed a
pleasant surprise, since I had wondered about the effect of a 6" wide
flat area under the doors and water and mud collecting here. With the
slight tilt water will drain off, which is a great advantage when it
raining on the way to work. The new and wide rocker panels should have
a little self-cleaning effect that way when driven while it is raining.
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Here the attention turns to the door modifications. This illustration
shows the door cut off and the orange lines show where the doors are
are either closed off after the cut or are reinforced with diamond
plating.
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Here is the rear door. The lower door skin is cut off (red ellipse)
The red arrow points to the bottom of the door that now has a gap.
This gap will be closed later, along with the diamond plating of
the lower door skins.
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This is the front door being prep'ed to be cut off. Here I used a
hand-held 7-1/4" circular saw with a metal cutting disk. With the
blade set to an angle of something like 15 degrees, the cut should be
fine. I cut a bit into the door since I only set the saw to 7 degrees,
but this was of no further consequence.
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Mock install of the rear door with the new rocker clamped in its
approximate final position.
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Since the door line was raised, I also had to modify my fenders.
Here I simply bend the bottom of the fender over to the inside. A
bolt welded to the rocker panel will hold the fender neatly in place.
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The next step is to weld on the angle iron to
strengthen the lower floor board edge. The 1/8" thick angle iron will also
facilitate later welds to the other angle iron. There is only one weld for this
angle iron since welding from underneath directly to the floor boards
didn't seem worth the extra hassle. The floor boards are thin due to pitting
(rust), and I only replaced the areas where there were holes, rather
than going the extra mile of replacing the entire floor board.
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Shown here is the angle iron to reinforce the lower edge of the
floor boards. With the rocker panels raised, this area had to be
addressed. The angle iron, even though it is only 1/8" thick will
hopefully be strong enough to withstand a rock. Even if it should
get dented, what's the difference, the flimsy floor boards would cave
in either way (and are quickly dented back out again too).
I used three sections of angle iron here, since nothing appears to
be straight (anymore) on this XJ.
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The focus is now on the new rocker panels. This illustration
shows the angle iron to be added to the box steel. Welding the angle iron
on now, will avoid up-side-down welding later on. I tack welded the
angle iron with the new rocker panel held in place under the vehicle. The
up-side-down tack welds were annoying enough and I was glad I had this idea
before it was too late.
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Aligning the angle iron and tack welding it. Initially, I had planned to
run an entire length of angle iron here, but I decided against this. I
used several 1' to 2' sections instead and leaving 1" to 2" gaps.
This is to drain mud and water out of the hollow areas between the floor
boards and the new rocker panels. Water and mud gets in there anyway
somehow, judging by all the dirt that came out when I removed my old
rockers. This way at least, venitlation will help drying out any
moisture trapped in there. Also, I placed the gaps around obstructions,
such as the big reinforced seat belt bolts, etc. (red circle).
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The rocker panel ready to be welded to the Jeep (with the angle iron
in place). The following images show the construction of the new
rocker panel, which is actually quite labor-intensive.
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It all starts out with determining the proper length. This was not easy.
I erred on the conservative side, but regret this a bit now, as
I wish I had gone an inch shorter, especially after the 1/4" end caps
added another 1/2"!
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Since a 2x6 is too large for my chop saw, I received a tip from Scott
R to use the hand-held circular with a metal cutting blade installed
to do the angled cuts. The angles are only to follow the XJ's
body a bit, and other than adding work, they have no function.
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The short winter days required to work into the
night quite often. Here I am cutting the rocker panels using the above
mentioned hand-held circular saw. Sparks were flying every night,
much to the amusement of the neighbors.
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Test fitting the rocker panels cut to the final legth, minus
the end caps.
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Getting ready to install the fittings for the air tank. I added
an extra plate so that the tapered 1/4" are seated well. To
make threads for those fittings, a special tap for tapered threads
is required (few dollars at any decent hardware store, such as Sears.)
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The fitting installed.
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Before welding the rocker panels shut, the inside should be clean,
since trapped metal shavings and grinding dust may interfere later
on when the rocker panels are used as air tanks for compressed air.
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Final look inside the rocker panel/air tank.
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The end caps are welded on and ground down to shape. This may
have been some of the insanest grinding sessions I've ever had.
In order to weld the ends up air tight, I followed the advice of
some fellow Jeepers and used MIG welding to do this. I addition,
I heavily beveled the the rocker panel ends and the end cap plates.
With .030 wire and the welder set correctly this worked fine. Unfortunately,
I had some problems with the first welds, and after grinding everything
smooth I noticed that there were problems with the penetration. Even though
I repeatedly tried to reweld this (by grinding deep grooves) it seemed
rather difficult to get this closed up after the fact. The remaining welds
turned out great (especially after I finally started using my 10-gauge
extension cord). This is just one step where decent welding skills are
of great advantage.
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Once the caps are welded on, I flattened the outer rear corner at a
45 degree angle. I then drilled a hole and threaded it to fit a M6
metric bolt. This is to drain water that will collect when the
rocker panels are used as air tanks. The 45 degree angle has two
advantages. First, it places the bolt out of harm's way, and second, this
is the place where the rocker panels are the thickest and plenty of threads
should make a air tight seal here, especially if used with some sealant.
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Same as above, seen from the side.
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Before the new rocker panels are welded to the Jeep, I decided
to give them at least a simple coat of paint. Here I taped off
the future welds.
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The barbeque grill paint is applied and the areas of the welds are
cleaned up with the angle grinder.
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This overlay image shows were the new rocker panel will be located once welded on.
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The new rocker panel/air tank is now completed. "All" that is left is
to get it under the Jeep.
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Doing this type of modification in a driveway during the onset
of winter has its special challenges. Here I am getting entangled
with a major winter storm moving across the nation. Luckily, in this
area all that came down was some cold rain, and none of the freezing
rain and sleet happened.
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This bad boy drove me under the rain tarp shown above. This storm
dumped considerable amounts of snow up north and caused deadly
tornadoes down south.
In other words, a garage is highly recommended for this project!
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At night, during the nasty storm, the rocker panel finally gets welded to
the Jeep.
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A coat of rust primer is applied right after the rocker panel was welded
to the Jeep (looking at it from underneath to the back).
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Same as above with the overlay.
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Again, the drawing showing the final installation as shown in
the images below.
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Overlay of the final setup.
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Except for the door skins (diamond plating), the driver's side is
completed. The clearance under the rocker panels to the ground is
close to 27"!
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Some Herculiner was applied on top of the new
rocker panels to provide some grip when someone loads or onloads stuff
from the roof (no rack shown on this picture). The overal results were far more pleasing
than expected. Oh,yeah, some day this Jeep will receive a rear view mirror
again. (Update: A new mirror from a '98 XJ has been installed
now).
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A couple of weeks later I finally was able to do
the passenger side. Unfortunately, I managed to warp the 2"x6" steel!
Luckily it was not too bad and I was able to safe the project. The Jeep is
now a little skewed, but nothing too far out of specs (well, for a wheeled
uni-body rig, that is.)
Absolutely make sure to weld only short segments and let things cool down!
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Another image of the passenger side procedure.
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Cutting passenger side doors.
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A little re-cut was necessary since the first cut did not remove enough.
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Here is something that might prove difficult in cold climates: Ice.
Here some snow melted off the vehicle and freezing again further down.
I had to chip some of the ice off the rocker panel. The ice came off easily.
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Another image with the door opened.
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| This is quite a time consuming procedure. Other than some welding skills
(acquired during this process), this is not too difficult nor too expensive.
The box steel is the single most expensive part, and a 20' section can
be had for less than $4.00 per foot. Some local resellers may charge you as
much as $7.00 per foot, so comparison shopping may pay off. Other than that,
some consumables are needed, such as welding stuff and grinding disks, etc.
The hardware for the air tank is minimal. |
©Copyright 2001, 2002 Andreas Ritterbusch
All Rights reserved.
Photos: Andreas Ritterbusch
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