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Boatsides

Starboard M

NAXJA Member
NAXJA Member
Location
WA
Well, I finally started a project I have been planning for a couple years now.



I have been constantly getting hung up on my rock rails so what better way to solve the problem then do some boatsides. I also needed a good place to mount a cage off of.


I would have simply followed what XJ ranger did in his writeup, as well as other people had done, but my situation was rather unique.


I have a two door. I want to retain full use of my doors. I want to be able to roll the window down as far as possible. It needs to be "water tight" as it sits outside most of the time. It also needs to be semi quiet as I do not have a tow rig and I drive it to the trail. So with those goals in mind, I decided to start cutting the shit out of my Jeep:scared:




Pictures:

How it sits now. ~6.5'' of lift and ~102'' WB.
021.jpg


This is the clearance I had AJs rocker guards. 24 3/4'' front, 23 1/2'' back.
025.jpg


026.jpg


Unfortunately my driveway is not flat, so I had to put the back on ramps to get the rockers flat. It looks like it isnt because the rear has slightly less lift then the front.
049.jpg


Door and front fender off
051.jpg


A 2 door door with manual windows and locks weighs in at 65 lbs. I will be trying to lighten things up a bit by removing everything I can.
058.jpg


I cut out the bottom hinge:
057.jpg


There is more metal behind it then I thought there would be
054.jpg


And then moved it up. Its only tack welded right now to make sure everything works.
062.jpg


And this is how Im going to get the window to not roll down as much.
060.jpg


You can see the nut that is above the window. There is a pin just to the left of that. That is how the window attaches to the roller mechanism. I am going to remove that nut, flip that bracket so its now pointed to the left, and put the nut back on. I will take more pics as I suck at describing it.


Everything below the red line will be cut off. Plan is to do 2x6 1/8 wall for the new rockers, HREW 1 3/4 tube for the legs going from the rocker to the frame, and skin it with 1/2'' UHMW or similar.
020aa.jpg






Thats it for now. Im hoping this will take less then two weeks, but I usually underestimate how long it takes me to do things, so we shall see.
 
I am so excited for this! How soon do you think it'll be done?
biggrin.gif

Billy

At the rate I work, about 5 years. It took me almost 4 years to do a simple axle swap, and I dont really have any experience with body work soooo.........:wow:



I think I might have one side done by this weekend. I dont start work until next week, so I have all week to mess around with it. Updates later tonight.
 
one of those wheels looks shinier than the other - didnt like the cracked one? :wierd:
 
one of those wheels looks shinier than the other - didnt like the cracked one? :wierd:
Spare:)




Alright, so some process.

This is what attaches the window to the roller mechanism. Unbolt the nut, and rotate the bracket.
002.jpg


And flipped.
003.jpg


The bracket now sits above the bottom of the window so you can cut the bottom of the door off. I found out that the window wont roll all the way up, so I will have to figure something out about that, but thats later.


This is making me not want to put the fenders back on. A friend was telling me not to put them back on, but Im not sure it would look very good with a full bodied XJ with no fenders.
004.jpg


Ohhhh, you mean this isnt what you meant when you said to make half doors?
006.jpg


This is how far the window now sticks up when its rolled all the way down. I think I can get it down a bit farther, but we shall see. Anyone know how to cut window glass?
008.jpg


Here is where I will be cutting tomorrow:
009.jpg


Finally, I shaved off almost 20 lbs when cutting off the bottom of the door.
010.jpg



Thats all for today. More coming tomorrow.
 
you're using 2x6x1/8" for the rockers? seems a little flimsy... i would think 3/16 would be the minimum... besides that everything looks sweet and keep it coming
 
you're using 2x6x1/8" for the rockers? seems a little flimsy... i would think 3/16 would be the minimum... besides that everything looks sweet and keep it coming
Two things on that. One, I will be doing an extra bar like my AJs super rails had which should take most of the rock rash damage.

Two, XJ Ranger had a damn good idea of using 1/8'' angle iron along the lower part that is exposed to rock. It will double up the thickness, without adding a lot of extra weight.
Matt,

Do you ever have rear passengers? I imagine this would make it really hard for them to get back there.

Keep the updates coming!
Billy
I havent had my rear seat for about 5 years. It was to much of a PITA to have people get in the back with a two door, so I just took it out. I will also be adding a internal B pillar hoop with shoulder harness bars, so even if I wanted to put it back in...... No wonder people like midgets.


Even if I did though, it would be about the same as getting in the front. You would just have to use the rocker as a step, and then get yourself threaded inbetween the B pillar and the seat.
 
Two, XJ Ranger had a damn good idea of using 1/8'' angle iron along the lower part that is exposed to rock. It will double up the thickness, without adding a lot of extra weight.
I just never did it, and decided to let my 2x2x.120 dent!

its working well right now :roll:
 
I believe 1/8" is URF approved
dunno.gif

Billy


Never! :D

I've beat the crap out of 3/16", the edge needs to be 1/4".



This is a very ambitious project, and it should be nice. I was going to do something similar to the yellow XJ before I built the buggy, but I was only going to cut the lip off the bottom of the door. This would make the bottom of the door even with the lower door jam, which is still raising the rocker a good amount.....figuring out how to angle the rocker up to that point.

What you're doing should be real nice when you're finished.
 
hmm all this thought of using different wall thicknesses has me thinking. i could score 16 ft of 2x5x1/4 for 50 bucks from a guy in my local club that wants it gone, but you bring up a good point about only the edge needing to be 1/4" wall. the rest, if braced properly, 1/8" should do just fine. i'll have to price out the 2x6x1/8" locally and see what i find. thanks for the idea and i'll definitely be watching the rest of this project as it pans out.
 
Never! :D

I've beat the crap out of 3/16", the edge needs to be 1/4".



This is a very ambitious project, and it should be nice. I was going to do something similar to the yellow XJ before I built the buggy, but I was only going to cut the lip off the bottom of the door. This would make the bottom of the door even with the lower door jam, which is still raising the rocker a good amount.....figuring out how to angle the rocker up to that point.

What you're doing should be real nice when you're finished.
I was constantly getting stuck on my rockers especially following the SWB Jeeps. The XJ wheelbase is nice, but the breakover angles are not as good as a YJ, TJ or CJ. I hope it will be worth it.

If I were not doing a extra "door bar" like what AJ does on his rock rails, I most likely would have done 1/4'' 2x6, but since I will be adding a door bar, it should take most of the punishment and allow me to run thinner rockers.

hmm all this thought of using different wall thicknesses has me thinking. i could score 16 ft of 2x5x1/4 for 50 bucks from a guy in my local club that wants it gone, but you bring up a good point about only the edge needing to be 1/4" wall. the rest, if braced properly, 1/8" should do just fine. i'll have to price out the 2x6x1/8" locally and see what i find. thanks for the idea and i'll definitely be watching the rest of this project as it pans out.
I mocked things up today using 2x6 and it fit perfect. I had a piece of scrap 2x5 that I set into place, and it was to narrow.

Tomorrow I will get some better pictures of the 2x6 in place, and throw on some 2x4 and 2x5 to show what Im talking about.
 
Last edited:
So I didnt get much done today. It was cold and windy, so I stayed inside and played xbox. Ahhh, summer. :illegalflipoff2:

I did some cutting, and put in the 2x6. I got two 6 ft pieces of it, and I cut off about 3'' of one of those. Angled and caped the ends, and tacked into place.
004-1.jpg


First tryparty1:
001-1.jpg


For some reason my Jeep has sat crooked since I got back from Goatmans JV run, so this should be a bit more angled when I finally figure out why its sitting weird.
002-1.jpg


I ended up cutting everything to the pinch seams in both fenders. In the back you can tell that the inner fender well is made up of two pieces, and I simply cut to the inner one. For the front, its the thing that people are always hammering out of the way in the inner fender. I angled the 2x6 to avoid the tire as much as possible. I have pushed the front axle forward, so I wont have any trouble with tire clearance.
005.jpg


And finally, its starting to come together.
008-1.jpg



Tomorrow I will be drilling some holes in the frame, and getting the spreaders bent up.
 
When you are done you can come and do mine...
 
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