Detailing: Not only good for cars, but fab-work as well!

[LikeaRock]

I think my detailing eye paid off with this project, I had a lot of fun making these And I thought I'd show off the finished product :cheers:

I'm heading off for the weekend tomorrow on a wheeling trip with my brother and a group of his friends, I wanted to get these babies made up before hand because I plan on "testing the limits" with my rig, I just hope I don't go too crazy and do some real damage :notme: But even if I do, it simply means it's time to upgrade!

Total build cost: About $60
Cost of a brand spankin' new set with black powdercoat: For a GOOD pair, I've seen mainly $225+

Went to a local hardware store and purchased a 10' piece of 3"x3/16" Angle iron, 12 1" long 3/8" bolts along with nuts and 2 sizes of washers, some Rustoleum primer and Satin black paint. Tools used were an Angle grinder, TONS of cut-off wheels ad a grinding wheel, hand file. drill & bits, and a ratchet/wrenches.
I ran these suckers from wheel well to wheel well so I'd cover the whole body, cut the 10' piece into half and each half down to 56". The first 18" on the rocker was cut down to 1/2" tall to clear the front flare extensions. I thought about taking the ext.'s off but thought it'd look goofy so I opted for this route instead. Rear was basically the same, knocked off 1-1/2" to clear the rear flare. I remembered I had a couple cans on undercoating so I sprayed the inside to prevent metal-to-metal contact with the body and on the outside as well for a more "custom" look. Sprayed over that with the satin black and Viola, finished!
I know I didn't line up all the holes perfectly while drilling, I got a little anxious and rushed so I could see what the finished product would look like. They won't be on long though, I've already got a plan for some bigger/beefier ones :rockon Going to start work on a front and a rear bumper too. I'm picking up some differential skidplates in the morning as well :yay But I think I'll use them to design my own. I'm digging this fab-work, it's freaking sweet!

Yea it's dirty, but we just had a rain

I think I have to paint my underbody after looking at that...lol

Questions/Comments?

Dolan

 

[audiboy]

Well, they look like they will do the job. It's cool that you decided to do this yourself. I respect people a lot more if they do the modifications themselves. It's even better that you made them yourself. You should be very proud of the finished product. The only thing I don't like is the allignment of the bolts. I know you were excited to see a finished product, but the position of the bolts in relation to each other shows that you were in a hurry. You might want to think about painting the bolt heads to disguise the allignment and to give it a more clean look overall. I'd give it a 9/10 overall.

 

[jaybs02]

Nice fab job :bigups
I agree with Audi on spraying the bolts to give it a finished look.

"J"

 

[LikeaRock]

The bolts will get sprayed this morning before I leave, it's one thing I wanted to do. And FWIW when I say I meant for them to be aligned better, I still wanted them to be staggered top-to-bottom (Figured it'd hold the iron in place much better) but to have them lined up a bit straighter would have been nice. Like said though, it's another excuse to make a new set

 

[audiboy]

I wasn't trying to say that you should line up all 6, just saying that each group of 3 should be level. That's really the only negative thing I see though. Everything else looks great and gives a really clean look to your Jeep. The added bonus of functionality just makes it that much better.