[bryans98tj]

Well I sold my Olympic Reversa-Bars today and started fabbing a set of rocker guards. Basically i'm about $70 into it and almost complete. Here is what I did:

went down to a local metal shop and had them cut me some 11 ga steel (about 1/8") at 52.5" long x 8" and bend it to a 90* at about the 5.5" mark. Then I got it home and popped off a couple flare bolts and tucked it up under to draw lines to cut. To cut the angles I used a sawzall:


Once that was done I cut them and found that I needed to notch the underneath in order to clear the tub due to how much it wrapped under. In hind sight I could have gone with a 7" and it would have been perfect:


After all the cuts were done I marked holes one one side for drilling then transfered the marks to the other guard. The bolts I am using are SS 5/16" button head bolts by 1" long. You could get away with 3/4" and save a few bucks. I opted to use nylock nuts just because I like them. When drilling I stepped the bit size from 5/32" then to 5/16". This may take a little more time but you will get more accurately placed holes:


After the holes were drilled I started grinding the corners down and then used an 80 grit flap wheel to make it look smooth without any rough edges. I painted them up with Duplicolor bed liner since I expect that I will need to toch them up and I like the stuff. I pushed them back into place, drilled some holes and mounted them up:




Well thats about it. Overall I am very pleased!

-b

[hillcityTJ]

good job, looks pretty good...

[bryans98tj]

Thanks, i'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. Saves alot over buying them and you get the satisfaction of doing it all yourself. I know I could of shaved some of the cost by getting them at 7" instead of 8" and that would of also saved me about 3 hours worth of cutting and grinding to notch them. Also I used SS 1" button head bolts with nylock nuts. All of that hardware cost $20 and I could of used 3/4" instead and just a regular Grade 8 which would have made it less then half the price but I like the SS hardware and it matched all the others on my PSC trail corners.

-b

[rhelton04]

Looks good man, nice job.

[CNY]

I liked in the first pic, how you had them under the flairs (unlike most of the ones you can buy. Then, you cut them off.

Oh well. Looks good, and a nice personalized touch, not just someone's bolt-on.

[bryans98tj]

Biggest reason they ran under tha flares is I still had to cut them to fit. I thought of keeping them full length but decided against it.

[Lime Jeep]

I will be making some rocker gaurds myself soon, and i was wondering if i should put them under my fender flairs or around them...if there under them is the fender odd looking, because of the gap created by the rocker?

[Lime Jeep]

Got any shots from under the jeep, i was wondering about the coverage on the bottom

[Mudinyeri]

Just a couple thoughts/questions:

1. Did you do any sort of backing plate inside the tub?
2. Did you place any sort of gasket material between the gaurds and the tub? If not, the gaurds will scratch your paint, moisture will collect and rust will start.
3. How did you connect them to the under-side of the tub?

[ghiradelli777]

could you use RTV between the two surfaces??


i dont care about scrathes....

[bryans98tj]

Bringing this back alive. Since I was in such a fabbing mood after doing a bumper for a buddy I figured I would get off my lazy butt and finish my rocker guards. I have had some 3/16" 2x2 sitting around for ever and finally decided to put it to use by angle cutting the edges and attaching them to to rockers. Started by closing off the 2" then ground down my rockers to metal which took a long time. Consider they had about 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of Duplicolor bed liner, 2-3 coats of OD and 3 coats of Hammered they were pretty tough to work through. Finally remembered that my welder was out of gas so I ran down to the weld shop and piced up another bottle. Got home went to weld and realized it was running like crap. Even with the wire speed on 7ish it was acting more like 3-4. Figured out that the wire was not well placed in the drive wheel and all was well. Here are a few pics:

Close up of one of my welds. Not too bad:

From the front:

Side view:

Mostly finished. Juse needs final paint:

It all stitch welded around the top and bottom. About 15 different wleds total. I may sell this set off to finance my next pair which will extend more to the underside.
To answer a few questions: Yes I use an interior plate on the tub for weight distro; No gasket used right now. I pull them off pretty regularly gut will do a gasket soon; This pair only extends about 4" under but the next ones will go way under.

Thats about it.

[bryans98tj]

And final paint then mounted:

[accord387]

nice stitch welds. Good job man.

[WalterD]

What was the reason to ditch the reversa bars? I have been looking at getting a set for my Jeep.

[bryans98tj]

Originally Posted by WalterD

What was the reason to ditch the reversa bars? I have been looking at getting a set for my Jeep.

Trails up here in the PNW are real tight and you can use all the room you can get. It also helped me fund my projects such as this . IMO the Olympic bars are well worth the money they cost. Alot more so then some companies charge for somthing similar to what I just made.