Boredom took its toll on my Stubbs sliders

[paddlenbike]

This project was a good excuse to put my new Bosch jigsaw to work. I found this 16-gauge steel at the local hardware store and knew it had to find its way onto the 4Runner.

http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/4Runner/mods/sliders-mod1.jpg

http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/4Runner/mods/sliders-mod2.jpg

http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/4Runner/mods/sliders-mod3.jpg

http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/4Runner/mods/sliders-mod4.jpg

http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/4Runner/mods/sliders-mod5.jpg

The stock running boards did a great job of keeping the sides of the truck rock chip-free. I took one trip to Death Valley with the open rock sliders and picked up about 40 rock chips per side, these steel inserts should prevent this in the future. (Traveling hundreds of miles on gravel roads at speeds up to 83 mph (by gps) does a great job of blasting paint off just about anything.)

It took a lot of work to match the bends of the sliders. Tubing benders have a tendency to push the outside of the bend further out before bending it inwards (if that makes any sense). Stubb's sliders are built on a jig and have extremely high quality control, but each of the six steel plates were still just slightly different. The welding itself took no more than about 15 minutes.

[04 Rocko Taco]

i know some guys looking to do this exact same thing, good work!!

[4LowLocked]

That looks clean! great job! I hadnt even thought of the probs with the rocks shooting up after taking the running boards off - when i go to my sliders, i will have to look into this

[randver]

looks great :thumbup:. i have been wanting to do the same thing but more to help my daughter get in and out of the 4runner.

[Seanz0rz]

ive been considering doing this very thing with mine!!! looks good man!!

[garrett]

dang, how long did it take to drill all those holes? :flipoff:

[paddlenbike]

dang, how long did it take to drill all those holes? :flipoff:


It wouldn't be unlike me at all to do things the hard way!

[Good Times]

impressive work dude!!

[slosurfer]

:thumbup: Very nice! Looks much better than the ziptied dohickeys you had on at last years DV trip.

[ecchamberlin]

THat looks very cool. Nicely executed idea! Rig is lookin awesome.

[4runnerchevy]

Nice :thumbup:. For your rig, I would destroy them in a moment, but it looks good.

[YotaFun]

Very nice touch, I must do that once I get sliders.
And I might use the same pattern for my Satoshi mod.
Thats for sharing with everyone!

[Bob98SR5]

ken,

great execution. thinking about doing the same. ill have to bug you about this, the trunk led mod, and the other lighting mod you did as well

bob

[paddlenbike]

:thumbup: Very nice! Looks much better than the ziptied dohickeys you had on at last years DV trip.


hehe, I threw those ziptied rubber inserts in there a week before the March 2007 Death Valley trip and somehow they managed to stay intact. They were not exactly classy...you are sure right about that one!

These are welded as high as I could get them, if I come down on a pointed rock and have to replace one, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

The thought of using the leftover steel for a satoshi grill did occur to me. 16-gauge is a *bit* :confused: overkill, but it would look nice.

[elripster]

Cool! That's very close to what I'm going to make for my truck : Rock Boards.

Frank

[d0ubledown]

that looks awesome...and functional too!

[slosurfer]

I'm willing to bet that he loosened the mounts to lift up the body giving him more room to work and paint them. Good catch!

[ecchamberlin]

actually it is not loose. Mine were that way before my body lift and after. It has a sleeve spacer in between the nut/washer and the mount. Not sure why but it does.

I thought this was a strange design from the factory also.

[randver]

ya i have 1 on each side that looks like that too

[Seanz0rz]

same. thought that was strange.

[racer944]

Ok, I've gotta do that. My dog is afraid to get out of the back seats, and I think that may help him and the little lady NOT have heart attacks anytime he steps out...

[garrett]

all 3rd gen middle body mounts are like that...

[d0ubledown]

yep..very odd but thats how its supposed to look.

[Bandit Runner]

Very cool! I just posted a new thread about doing something very similar, but with flattened expanded metal sheet. I wish I would have seen your thread first.

http://www.ultimateyota.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=4099.0

I would appreciate any comments/thoughts.

Thanks,

[glenyoshida]

Beautiful work. I love the look of them. The way you have them set, fitting the lines of the sliders is so nice and balanced. I love the way it won't trap water and it'll let the dirt fall through.

[paddlenbike]

Thank you!

I forgot to post this picture. Shortly after completing this project we took a trip to the desert (Joshua Tree) for 4 days of wheeling. Even though the sliders had 2-3 coats of primer and 6 coats of paint, the gravel blew through it all and left me with this:

http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/4Runner/mods/sliders-work.jpg

But, the point is that they did their job. You'll note tons of chips in the bottom of the plates, and yet none of those rocks made it up to the body. Keep in mind those chips are from one extended weekend of wheeling, so clearly over the lifetime of the vehicle the paint is going to stay much nicer.

and thanks again for the comments!

[4Mogger]

I did the same thing to my 10 yr. old All Pro sliders. I made mine removable so that I could clean/repaint etc. Bolts are stainless.