Anyone here running the rear panel armor from Hot Metal Fab and care to post pics? It seems like a very worthy investment to help protect our vehicle's weak and vulnerable ass-end especially if you're a forest dweller like me, but I don't think I've seen a single person post a picture of them or even really mention they exist. I assume maybe because most people aren't keen on riveting their body? Not sure
Would like to hear some experiences before I commit. I get there's really not much to them to report on but still. I think they'd look real good if they were color matched to the 4Runner

3rd Generation 4runner Quarter Panel Armor — Hot Metal Fabrication
96-02 3rd Gen 4Runner Quarter Panel Armor

Looks a little Mad Max for me, but I'm sure it works!!! I figure that's something I will add AFTER I smash in the QTR Panel. Beat it out, rivet on some armor, and hit the trail!

That's ironically what I'm trying to avoid as I've already done that twice, once with my hatch and once with my rocker panels And why I would paint them to match, to help them blend in a little better. Though I suppose it would cover up a dent nicely! My family does have body armor on our CJ and it's worth it's weight in gold for sure I will say

wouldn't that spread the damage to the area where the armor attaches to the body? if so, that would make the damage bigger. or perhaps i'm just overthinking it

It's 10GA sheet steel which is pretty thick, about 9/64", so it's right between 1/8" and 3/16" if you wanna compare it to a skid plate. You would have to take a pretty gnarly wallop dead on, and even then you could always replace them and give yourself a new body panel

I can tell you that Caleb does a $h!t ton of bends on those to follow the contours - fairly complex piece, there.

I'm a fan.

It seems like to me for $500 you could just have the dents fixed at a bargain body shop. If you're wheeling hard enough that big dents are part of a weekend trip, might want to also accept that it's never going to have a straight body again and just have fun!

Agreed. Or buy these after you have big dents there already.

Putting these on requires drilling a bunch of holes in your truck so it's not like they are easily removable and preserve the factory look underneath.

That said, they look like they are quality parts, if I ever find myself in that situation I would consider these to cover up whatever happened underneath.

I hear you but $500 is extremely optimistic for decent body work, at least in my area that's Sanchez-with-a-deadblow tier. $300-500 is common price just to fix door dings around here - hell, the dent on my hatch is fairly light and I couldn't get quoted less than $1000 just because it's pinched near a seam. If it was a flat panel, maybe, but things get complex real fast when you have a giant radius, sharp lines and creases all in one area
I also never really understood nor agreed with the rhetoric of "You just have to accept your car will get damaged if you 4x4." Yes it's true to a point but that doesn't mean you can't nor shouldn't do what you can to mitigate it. To rephrase no you shouldn't take your car to a rock garden, expect nothing but the best and be disheartened by a small bump - but it's equally silly to say "well it's gonna happen so why do anything to stop it?" By that metric we should all toss our skid plates and "just accept" busted pans are a thing to deal with, or stop carrying spares and "just accept" flats are part of owning a car
The plates should be very easily removable if that's what you're talking about, they're attached to rivnuts with regular screws. The rivnuts themselves, not at all lol
Factory look went out the window long ago when the bumper mounts and front end of the frame were torched off for a tube bumper and winch But I get what you mean, that's what I was talking about when I said these might seem "rare" cause not many are comfortable with drilling into the body
In the end I'm thinking of just waiting till I take a hit there anyways since they cover up the area so well

I don't get drilling into your body to add armor to then protect the body you just drilled holes into. Unless it's already mangled, then I guess it makes sense. Not hating at all, these bends and contours are amazing. Just my personal take on it

No that's perfectly logical, that's pretty much how I'm starting to look at it, in a way it's a one step forward one step back

Jason at opt.offroad is running my quarter panel armor, as well as a few others. Should be around 20 sets floating around, no one seems to want to send updated pics.

The idea behind these was to prevent rear glass popping from deformation of the body that the glass is attached to. I've got the perfect example of this.
They're otherwise a "skid plate" meant to help you slide along rocks, trees and other obstacles as opposed to those obstacles digging into the body potentially causing a hold up. Whether or not you consider that a stretch, that's up to you.

I haven't yet added the rub rail option which is what these REALLY were meant to have...but no one has specifically asked for it even when offered.

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Thanks for the reply! That's very informative. Do you have any pics of it with the rub rail? I'd be interested to see how those would look. These plates look like a quality piece and will be something I definitely keep in mind

I suppose it's a bit of Murphy's law, what could happen will happen. Other than tame forest roads, I've only done one wheeling trip that required a spotter. I dented and bent a few things from that trip, partially from lack of experience but I did learn that I could either go wheeling more and give up having a clean and straight 4Runner or stop wheeling. I chose the latter. Even with a skilled driver, it's only a matter of time before trail rash and dents start to appear, it's just part of the experience.

None yet; my own 4runner is under the knife, but I suppose I could fab the rail up and tack it on just to show it as an option.
Thank you for your kind words! These were prototyped out to v18 to get the fitment right, and have 22 bends featured to contour them to the body. Everything is done on my CNC machines for repeatability and accuracy, every time.
Fun fact; eimkeith and I have been discussing panels for LC80's...should really rustle some jimmies 8)