ZUKIWORLD Online | Suzuki 4x4 Editorial and Forum
ZUKIWORLD Discussion Forum => Suzuki 4x4 Forum => Topic started by: olija on July 24, 2007, 09:52:28 PM
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This weekend, me and a friend are going to be cutting off my rusted, dented, uglied up door sills on my 4 door Trackick and we are going to be welding in some 2x4 rectangular tubing instead. I did alot of research and found that the drivers side door sill houses the wiring harness, so I was wondering how exactly you go about cutting the rocker panel off without cutting your wiring up. Any suggestions?
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Slightly off the subject, what size and thickness tubing are you using? I am planning the same mod. Thanks!
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This intrigues me. I can't help you but would love more information and some pictures of how you did this.
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I used a zip cut (1/16" cutting disc) on an angle grinder. Just go deep enough to cut the steel and no deeper and you shouldn't hit any wires. The cutting wheel is easily controlled. The wires are on on the drivers side. I didn't take any pics during the process but a wrote a little thing up on Word document. If you want it PM me your e-mail and I'll send it.
Regards
Jim
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you can pull the harness out threw the kick panel. its not to hard. then you could relocate or put back. stan
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Really like yours Jimiweld...looks seamless!
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I used a zip cut (1/16" cutting disc) on an angle grinder. Just go deep enough to cut the steel and no deeper and you shouldn't hit any wires. The cutting wheel is easily controlled. The wires are on on the drivers side. I didn't take any pics during the process but a wrote a little thing up on Word document. If you want it PM me your e-mail and I'll send it.
Regards
Jim
This is really nice, I wish I had of done mine like this, but I only needed one side replaced...
If you look at his pics of where his box tube meets the sheet metal below the door, you can see there is enough room on top of the box tube to keep the wires, looks like about 1/2" - 3/4" tall cavity.
(http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=18225.0;attach=4013)
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Hmm, I'll keep that in mind when cutting on Saturday.
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Making the Tube Rockers
Step 1
Measure the length of the rocker to replace, at this point make them a bit longer to allow for cutting and fitting later on.
Step 2
Either weld two pieces of 2�x 2� square tube with a 1/8� wall thickness together as shown or purchase 2� x 4� tubing with a at least a 1/8� wall thickness. I think the two pieces welded together is a bit stronger as it has the center web in it but realistically either will be strong enough.
Step 3
At this point if you are thinking about running big tires and are going to need to do any trimming to the fenders or front floor area to clear the tires I would suggest getting that done and have the tires fitting how you like them before putting the rockers in.
From the bottom of the door measure down about ½� to 5/8� and scribe a line approximately parallel to the bottom of the door on the existing rocker and across onto the front fender and rear fender area of the body. Have a friend hold a long aluminum drywall ruler for you and you can stand back and adjust it as needed until your happy. It’s flexible enough to match the body as well to keep a straight line.
Step 4
I used a 1/16 cutting disc on an angle grinder to cut out the old rocker. I just followed the line and cut it off. I cut the front fender and rear fender portion out at the same time. On the backside or under the truck I came down a good 1� or so and cut across the rocker. Just be sure not to let the grinder go in too deep on the drivers side, there’s a bunch of wires that run through that rocker.
Step 5
Fitting the new rocker isn’t too hard. Push the new rocker into the area that was just cut out, let it come to rest on the inside rocker that was left 1� long (the underside of the truck) as shown, this will give you a pretty good lap joint to weld to. Fit it in there and hold it in place with a couple jack stands or something. Mark the overall length once you have it positioned how you like it, take it out and cut it to size then refit. Now you can take the front fender off to allow for welding since the rocker is already fit. I flattened out the bottoms of my front fender a bit and let the rear portion sit out a bit more and tapered it in to the front, I kind of like how it looks like that.
I tack welded it front, back and middle on the outside and then the same on the underside or backside so that it wouldn’t twist while welding. You can weld it like this or you can put in the additional 1/8� thick material that I used. I have a vertical band saw so it was easy to cut the material to fit. I like the 1/8 material as the rocker area to weld to is thin and mine was still slightly rotted that makes it easy to blow holes while welding to the raw edge. I found that the 1/8� flat bar made it strong and easy to weld. Now you are performing an edge joint (no raw edge) where it is welded to the existing rocker material and the visible area is easy to weld since it is 1/8� material to 1/8� thick material and if done nicely no grinding is required where visible. Where I tig welded it you could easily mig weld it as well, I just tig welded as I could fuse the material together and not have to grind later.
Make sure you put lots of tack welds all over before welding, also clean all rust and paint away from the areas to be welded, it will weld much nicer. It’s always a good idea to stagger your welding (weld 2 – 4� long beads and then move to another area). This will help to reduce overall distortion. Allow the welds to cool between beads on the drivers side, don’t forget those wires are in there and you don’t want to melt them by overheating the material
Step 6
Make end caps for the tubes and weld them on.
I think that’s about it.
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Very clean looking the way you made your sliders
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Thanks, I followed previous instructions from the site and it worked out well.
Jim