Finally got some armor for my truck!


Before shot of the 4Runner as she sat yesterday morning.


Rock sliders after sanding, alcohol wipe down, 2 coats of self etching primer, and 3 coats of spray on bed liner.


Frame before.


Frame after grinding and alcohol wipe down to get our welding surfaces prepped.


My buddy Chris grinding bed liner overspray off the rock slider welding pads. These surfaces got wiped down with alcohol just before tacking them to them frame.


Here we've got the sliders up on jack stands and are test fitting them to the frame.


Got them all lined up and are tacking them on.

That's my buddy, John. I'm not a welder, but he's pretty good. (A full cage he did for an FJ is pictured below.) He's using a Millermatic 210 Mig Welder.


After backing off a few feet and checking the tacked-on position one last time, John really gets down to business.

Video of some of the welding: Welding Rock Sliders on a 2000 Toyota 4Runner - YouTube

I didn't catch it on camera, but at one point Johnny had an ember pop over his mask and into his upward facing ear as he was laying on his side welding. He rolled quick, tossing the mask and got it to fall out really fast, but was definitely a bit singed and freaked out. Pretty sure we had to stop for an quick beer break after that.


Hipster shot with some grungy filters and other post-processing stuff from my iPhone. I love Snapseed.


Finished welds. We were hanging onto the roof rack and jumping up and down on these rocking the whole truck like mad. They're not going anywhere. At least not anywhere the truck frame isn't going as well.

After this we let everything cool, then wiped down all the grinds and welds under the car with alcohol, shot them with self etching primer and then hit them with two coats of undercoating.




Shots of the final results.

There's no pics, because it's not that interesting, but we also removed my Spidertrax wheel spacers. They were a great product and I loved the stance, but they made my 265/75r16 BFG A/T's rub at full lock and when stuffing. The spacers had been put on to clear the Tundra brake upgrade we did last spring. We popped them off and did a test fit (expecting to have to grind the caliper or the wheel a bit) and the Tundra brakes fit fine inside the factory rims with no further modification. Suh-weet!


After the sliders were on and the spacers were off, we took a quick romp through the woods running over big rocks and stumps and such at different angles to see if we could get the tires to rub or detect any interference between the body and the rock sliders. There was not a squeek, grind or rattle out of anything.

Here's a couple parting shots with another rig these guys have built over the last few years...



Its got a Chevy V-8 (LS-1 I think) and 4 wheel disc brakes off an F-250 along with that full custom cage John and Chris did. (And a bunch of other trick shit as well.)

Anyway, it was a good weekend of wrenching with my buds and I wanted to share the pics. Enjoy.

Great sliders, ive had mine on about a week and already been tested off road. I notched the pinch weld above the 4 legs on each side to tuck them up higher. Nice finish you put on them.

Those look great.
Nice detailed write up also.

yep need me some of those now! they look great man!

This is a great thread! I Just got the Toytec Lift lift on and have my sliders order in now can't wait! still debating about trimming the pinch weld or not, play in by ear when they get here!

yep looks amazing!!! these are the sliders i am strongly considering right now. I really like them..

question for you though is how far from the side they actually sit. doesnt look like they dont stick out too far .

are you willing to sell your wheel spacers?

I trimmed my pinch weld then made sure to paint the bare metal afterwards. I am very happy with the decision, they look great tucked up nice and tight. Pictures in my thread.





hey buddy, I have a couple of good pictures in my thread that show how far the kickout projects out as well as the main body. The construction of the sliders is top notch!




I have some 1 inch spacers for sale, pm if you are interested.

oh yeah i forgot that you have these slider lol and you actually had the picture that i was wanting to see. yep perfect amount of kickout and looks great. thanks a million bud!!!

Looks great. Clean truck. What suspension are you running?

Love the post and pics - I was thinking about the 4x innovations, but I think you've changed my mind. Looks great. Did you get the HREW or DOM?

Yeah, we actually considered that, but I wanted to have some clearance between them and the body in case they deflect any. It also seemed liked a pain in my ass.

The stick out further than the body, for sure, which is the point. They don't stick out much further beyond that.

Thanks. Bone stock suspension at the moment.

HREW

I can't speak for 4x Innovations, but this set I got from Savage was a top-notch product. It's easy for me to recommend them.