| The idea of replacing my rocker panels with
solid steel has been in the back of my mind for quite some time. I have
seen a few examples of others doing the same thing most notably
Tom Hawranek on his
German web site. However, I wanted to keep a look closer to stock with a
tube coming out of the stock rocker and running along the side of the Jeep
as I have seen on one of the concept rescue Jeeps. Finally, I managed to
dent one of my rockers on nothing more than a dirt mound one day. Upon
further inspection, I found the rockers filled with rust. So, the project
began. |
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I first made a couple trial cuts to see what the
inside of the rocker looked like, and fit up a 2x4 piece of wood to simulate the
replacement rocker/rockrail. |
| I used a 4.5" angle grinder with a cutoff wheel to slice
through what was left of the metal like butter. After deciding that my replacement would
be made of 1.5" high rectangular tubing made to look like it is protruding from the
stock rocker, I continued to trim all the necessary metal. In preparation for this
extensive trimming, I removed all four flares, and the front fenders (which required
removing much of the front fascia.) |
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Shown here is what the rocker looks
like in stock form.
[Large Image] |
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Shown here is a closeup of the
front of the stock rocker with the fender removed.
[Large Image] |
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Shown here the trial cuts of the
front rocker.
[Large Image] |
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Here is how I trimmed the rear of
the front fenders to mate with the new rocker.
[Large Image] |
| I designed a fairly complex combination of steel pieces to
make up the shape of the rocker replacement: |
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Drawing shows the cross section of the
new rocker replacement.
[Large Image] |
| It starts with two 1.5 x 3 x 3/16ths rectangular steel pieces.
I needed a total width of about 5", but I could only come up with 1.5 x 3 steel. I
also determined that the body tapers to the front as compared to the pinch seam under the
body where the stock rocker panel attaches to the rest of the body. So, I took two pieces
of the rectangular steel, cut one at the proper taper and width, butted it to the other
full width piece and welded them together. This created a full-length 1.5" piece of
steel that followed the body taper and extended out to the front and rear flare width.
This part sounds straight forward, but in reality, I had a number of warping problems.
When I cut the rectangular tubing on the long taper with a cutting torch, the resulting
two pieces looked like bananas! I had to use a combination of chain, a hydraulic jack,
various pieces of steel and a BIG I beam to make a press to straighten the needed pieces.
Even though I clamped and supported the cut piece and the solid rectangular piece, they
warped some while welding also. I straightened them as best as I could. I then added a
piece of 2.5"x1/4" flat stock along the back edge of the tapered composite
piece. This flat stock dropped down to and ran along the factory pinch seam. It was
ultimately spot welded to the pinch seam through many small holes drilled in the factory
pinch seam.
This was followed by the addition of a custom chunk of steel to the top of this
composite rocker replacement to simulate a small portion of the stock rocker above the new
rock rail. This piece holds the 1.5" rock rail down from the edge of the doors about
¼". It is supposed to make the rock rail look like it is protruding from the stock
rocker panel as well as keep dirt from sitting right at the bottom of the door, which a
rocker replacement extending out from the bottom edge of the door would tend to do. This
piece of steel was a real bear to make without a milling machine. I started with a
full-length chunk of ½"x1.5" solid steel. This needed to be trimmed on one edge
to match the slight curve of the body as seen from directly above or below the doors. Then
it needed to be tapered from ¼" above the bottom to the back of the steel piece in
order to follow the taper of the body as it extends inside the door openings. I did all
this machine work with a portable band saw and a grinder! Finally, the ¼" edge needs
to be ground along the bottom some to match the angle of the old rocker metal.
I also decided to add a number of ribs to the top
of the replacement rocker that fit up inside the cavity of the rocker and
provide support against the existing body metal. They are made from 1/8"
plate. It is kind of hard to describe it, but if you are looking at the
inside of the rocker, you can see how these ribs fit. |
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Shown here the front end of the drivers side piece
before finish trimming to length. Notice the two pieces of rectangular stock, the door
edge piece, the ribs, and the trimmed piece to match the old rocker panel. |
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This shows the rear end of one of the pieces.
Notice how much wider the tapered piece of rectangular steel is on this end. |
| Once all this fabrication work was done, I fit the replacement
rockers in and marked where to trim out the ends. I then cut, welded, and ground pieces to
make the ends of the rockers match the shape of the original panels and have it look like
a piece of 1.5" rectangular steel is protruding from the stock rocker. I also capped
the ends of the replacement rockers. |
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The finished replacement rocker piece.
The whole thing has been etched and the part inside the rocker has been painted with
Por-15. |
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The two finished pieces. |
| At this point I needed to do a little prep to the replacement
rockers as well as what was left of the original rockers. I did the whole Por 15 process
on the replacement rockers including etching and painting them with the special paint. I
cleaned up the rusty spots on the body and coated them with Por 15 also in hopes of
slowing down (and dare I say stop) the cancer. |
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Driver's side cut
open
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Passenger side cut open
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| I then fitted the replacement rocker panels in one last time
and began welding them in. I removed the doors at this point to allow better access for
welding and grinding. I found the body metal at the edge of the door welded real well to
the edge of the custom machined solid steel piece. The small edge of the solid piece
heated and melted easily as did the sheet metal. Welding the pinch seam to the ¼"
plate was a different matter as it was hard to get penetration of the plate without
burning away the sheet metal. These welds are a little globular, but they are hidden and
seem to be holding up well. |
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The door area weld. |
| The final procedure was to grind down the door edge for a
smooth appearance and coat all exposed metal with Por-15. |
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The finished passengers side
before paint. |
| When reassembling the fenders and flares, I needed to do some
repair work to the flare attaching hardware. I snapped off most of the studs on the
attaching strips when removing the flares, so I repaired this situation by grinding the
remains of the studs off, drilling holes in the heads of the studs, and tapping them to
10-32. I then installed stainless steel machine screws with lock-tight in place of the
studs. This will hopefully allow easier disassembly in the future. I also took the time to
clean up the sheet metal strips, etch them, and coat them with Por 15. |
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The finished rear flare pieces. They are
trimmed as per the previous rear fender well trimming project. This can be found on www.jeepin.com. |
| The rear fenders were previously trimmed as shown in an
article on www.jeepin.com and used
the screws in the rocker panels for the lowest mounting hardware. Therefore, when
reattaching the flares, I needed to drill and tap a hole in the new 3/16" replacement
rocker panel. I did this for the front flares too. In the front, this screw holds the
flare in place well enough to also hold the trimmed lower rear of the fender in place. The
lower rear fender used to be bolted to the pinch seam underneath. Following
are some shots of the finished product in action: |
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Flat Iron Mesa in reverse |
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Flat Iron Mesa in reverse |
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Flat Iron Mesa in reverse. This pic is skewed as can be seen by the folks
standing in the background! |
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Kane Creek. A pretty good side view of the finished product. My friend Tom
is driving. |
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Rusty Nail. I am driving. |
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Rusty Nail. |
| I am pretty satisfied with the project although I think I
would have made them stick out a little further and I certainly chose the most difficult
method of building a replacement rocker. Others like Scott Rozman and Sean Rose have replaced theirs with larger
chunks of box steel, cut the flares to run along the top of the box and seem to be
very satisfied with quite a bit less construction hassle. I do think mine looks much
closer to stock and has a cleaner appearance though. Also, the Por 15 has peeled off in a
few places and has faded quite a bit due to the sun. I am not too impressed with this
stuff. I plan to cover most of the rocker (at least the top part) with a bedliner product
for better wearability. The under-side will probably stay Por 15 and get a recoat every so
often due to contact with rocks. |
© Copyright 2000 Jeff Ayers
All Rights reserved. |
