Agent_Outside
New member
So I cooked my XREAS. I overheated the dampeners, they faded bad, and started leaking. Knowing I was going to replace the suspension and I could get the hydraulic lines and components off the frame rail, I picked up some RCI skids during their last group buy. After a long wait I finally got my suspension and put it on and then started on the sliders. Obviously the Limited rocker panels don’t play well with sliders because of their size, the solutions ate buying OEM trail rockers, going with Shrockworks rockers, or seemingly the most common - removing the rocker panels. I didn’t want to spend a bunch on money on replacing the rocker panels so I opted to go with removing them.
To start I grabbed a wire brush and some sand paper. I cleaned up surface rust and scuffed the paint then recoated the frame where the sliders will sit and let it dry for 24 hours.
Yesterday I started on the slider install. I removed a rocker and bolted up a slider and starting checking it out. It looked horrible! You lose the front mud flaps, it looks unfinished and/or broken at the bottom of the fender, and most concerning, there is a big ass gap where the bottom of the door seals are fully exposed. My concern is winter driving, mud flap is gone and your spraying up ice and snow directly onto the seal through the gap between the body and the door.
I sat there drinking a staring at it for a while *****ing and moaning about it before I finally worked up the courage to go for broke. I put down tape, marked my lines, traced my sons sand box bucket to get a consistent even radius and started hacking away.
I kept removing and installing the rocker tweaking the fit little by little each time.
This was the end result.
Overall I’m pretty happy with it. I can keep my mudflaps, it doesn’t look like pieces are missing, the door seals aren’t any more exposed than normal, and it didn’t cost me a dime. As an added bonus if I need the extra clearance it takes about 5 minutes to remove what’s left of the rocker panels and the mud flaps and I don’t have to remove the sliders to do it, I can squeeze them out.
The worst part besides committing to cutting it up was trying to make a template and mirror the rocker cutout on the other side. I didn’t take pics because it looks the same but I got the passenger side done today.
To start I grabbed a wire brush and some sand paper. I cleaned up surface rust and scuffed the paint then recoated the frame where the sliders will sit and let it dry for 24 hours.
Yesterday I started on the slider install. I removed a rocker and bolted up a slider and starting checking it out. It looked horrible! You lose the front mud flaps, it looks unfinished and/or broken at the bottom of the fender, and most concerning, there is a big ass gap where the bottom of the door seals are fully exposed. My concern is winter driving, mud flap is gone and your spraying up ice and snow directly onto the seal through the gap between the body and the door.
I sat there drinking a staring at it for a while *****ing and moaning about it before I finally worked up the courage to go for broke. I put down tape, marked my lines, traced my sons sand box bucket to get a consistent even radius and started hacking away.
I kept removing and installing the rocker tweaking the fit little by little each time.
This was the end result.
Overall I’m pretty happy with it. I can keep my mudflaps, it doesn’t look like pieces are missing, the door seals aren’t any more exposed than normal, and it didn’t cost me a dime. As an added bonus if I need the extra clearance it takes about 5 minutes to remove what’s left of the rocker panels and the mud flaps and I don’t have to remove the sliders to do it, I can squeeze them out.
The worst part besides committing to cutting it up was trying to make a template and mirror the rocker cutout on the other side. I didn’t take pics because it looks the same but I got the passenger side done today.
