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Using rock rails to straighten rocker panels.

JeepGuy

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Aug 24, 2006
Messages
1,212
Finally got to this project a couple weeks ago. Couple issues popped up along the way.

The passenger side rocker was too far gone, and I had already cut relief holes so I could try and get the door frame and body lines back into place (yes, they were that bad). I replaced the passenger side rocker (Toms Bronco Parts) and when I put the ski up against the body it was in almost perfect alignment with the door frame. About 1-8" - 1/4" down from the sill. I used Nut Zerts (1/4 x 20 thread) to mount the ski along the outside rocker and attach to the inner rocker. Now.... while alignment along the top was nice and straight, it was not so "straight" along the bottom. weird how a panel can look good until it is matched with a very rigid straight piece of plate steel lol... Anyways... I got each of the nut zerts installed, started the thread on each of the nuts, then tightened the out side rocker panel first, then the inside rocker panel second. It pulled the sheet metal flush and mounted good....

Drivers side wasn't so easy. I had to use a little persuasion along the outer rocker so the ski would sit flush. I did not replace this panel with the new one. That part wasn't so hard and the ski sits flush against the panel. Here was the issue that came up... When I put the ski up against the body, and flush along the bottom of the rocker fin where the inner and outer are mated together, it would only allow the ski to sit 3/4" to 1" below the door sill. I ended up cutting almost all of that entire fin off. Only then would it allow the rocker to sit as high or as close to the bottom of the door sill, to match the passenger side.

Interesting problem, because if I had done the drivers side first, the passenger side would have gone on real easy, but there would have been a huge gap between the bottom fin of the rockers and the actual ski.

Another issue that came up was just me being a little fast with the cutting wheel while aligning it to my War Flares. During the install, I unscrewed the bottom three screws so I could slide the ski up under the flare to mark for cutting. Well.... I didn't figure in how flexible these ski's are, and when I marked it to cut, I didn't realize the flares had moved in towards the door slightly front and back. So I thought I was going to have super close tine gaps (which would have been awesome) but ended up with 1/4 to 3/8" gaps between flare and ski front and back. Not a huge deal for me, just not what I expected to see.

I'll add pictures in a bit.
 
Last edited:

JeepGuy

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Aug 24, 2006
Messages
1,212
Pics of the install
 

Attachments

  • rocker.jpg
    rocker.jpg
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  • warflares.jpg
    warflares.jpg
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  • Pass ski Test fit..jpg
    Pass ski Test fit..jpg
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  • Pass Ski Installed.jpg
    Pass Ski Installed.jpg
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  • Pass Ski Inner.jpg
    Pass Ski Inner.jpg
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JeepGuy

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Aug 24, 2006
Messages
1,212
More pics of install... Still need to finish the Nut Zert on the drivers inner.
 

Attachments

  • Driver Ski Inner.jpg
    Driver Ski Inner.jpg
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  • Driver Ski outter.jpg
    Driver Ski outter.jpg
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  • Nut Zert Install.jpg
    Nut Zert Install.jpg
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  • Otter Nut Zert.jpg
    Otter Nut Zert.jpg
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  • Driver Ski Front.jpg
    Driver Ski Front.jpg
    111.6 KB · Views: 43

Rustytruck

Bronco Guru
Joined
Feb 24, 2002
Messages
10,875
if your planning to go Square tube then just skip the rockers and wait and do the square tube. why throw good money after bad just to throw it away again. For the cost of the sliders and shipping you could buy the square tube and a harbor Freight Titanium welder and be done with it.
 
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