Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I'm halfway through doing a bodylift on my '91 wide track and i ripped off the plastic sill cover's (i figured there woulkd be some rust and a crapload of dirt) and found the bracket that the factory spotwelded on to hold that plastic POS was pretty rusted- so I've drilled out all of the weld's and ripped them off.. only to find that the sill's directly behind have starded to rust.. (no holes and i can't poke a screwdriver through.. .. yet)

I'm wondering if i just get some 100x100 90* angle iron and weld it along the length (stitch weld 1'on, 1' off) i would killrust the rust and plate it first also..?

.. OR cut the sill completly out and replace with some RHS? .. both would act as sliders and give the body some strength.. the angle iron would be the easiest.. and i reckon will suffice?

I assume that this is commonplace in the wide track's that plastic sill is shite!

cheers

Hi Dave,

I did the same on mine, taking the plastic and bracket off that is, my sills weren't rusted too badly so I just killrusted them and painted over.

I wouldn't plate that section as crap will get in no matter what you do and rust from the inside out. A lot of guys have 45ed their sills, a quick search so give more details, this will give better clearance and given you use some decent thickness material be quite strong. There was a thread about this a couple of months ago. Just don't use chequer plate as if you do use it as a slider it'll catch everything.

How'd the BL go?

Greg

1st think i did to mine was remove the plastic trims & brackets !!
all i,ve done is 3mm alloy checker plate , folded with a 90' bottom edge !!
very surprising how strong it is , easy to remove as well , if needed !!

You can fit RHS, plate with heavy steel or whatever, but as per Moose, you don't need that much beef.

3mm aluminium will be more than strong enough. Rivet and seal in place, leave excess hanging down and then form it around the bottom of the pinch weld with a mallet.

Personally, I would use smooth as I think checkerplate/treadplate looks hack on a car and catches on obstacles rather than slides, but that's mostly opinion.

Made like this, the sills become strong enough to jack off and you won't damage them on obstacles.

Here some photos of the much more time consuming way to do it. We did this car this way because it was different (and very strong, with an actual gain in sill clearance. The sills were pretty rusty in this car.

3mm aluminium will be more than strong enough. Rivet and seal in place, leave excess hanging down and then form it around the bottom of the pinch weld with a mallet.

What Size Angle?

Just flat plate. Leave the bottom edge long and hammer it around onto the pinch weld.

If you use angle you have to buy very large angle (something like 150mm) to cover the sill and come down far enough to cover the pinch weld, but you only need about 50mm under the pinch weld. It's a waste of money IMHO.

Steve.

So, a 75mm or 100mm flat bar should do the trick?

I want to suss out some metal prices, tis all...

cjdeane10 wrote:So, a 75mm or 100mm flat bar should do the trick?

I want to suss out some metal prices, tis all...

I think you'll need about 150mm. The sill is about 100 tall and you need to roll the edge under the pinch weld.

Steve.

Cheers guy's..

I'm just going to hammer the pinch roll 'round and puttsome 3mm 100 by 100 90* angle iron on.. some nice 3/16 SS rivets should do the trick:

Greg/Just Cruisin- the B/L went pretty good only drama was that the very front passenger's side bolt snapped.. but vice grip's fixed that. (it snapped on my other suzi to-- but that was because I drive that with the 'more speed and i'll clear it' attitude...)

its a good kit mate.. couldn't recomend it enough!

one question while I've got you though Greg- are there meant to be some sort of metal cup washer between the factory rubber and the chaissis mounts (on the underside)?? because one had it- the other 5 just had either alot of rust or just mud/sand/dirt.. lol. oh well.

cheers

Welded in general or welded vertically?

Which is a good question, considering the factory suzuki gussets are welded vertically!

I agree that diamond shaped fishplates are superior and spread the load better, but for the application I can't see the problem with them done like this. They see very little load and almost no cyclic or fatigue load.

Steve.

welded?
I assume that was for Gwagensteve's pics?

I've got a q for that as well.. how do you go with those slider's like that.. those tube's supporting them must get hung up a fair bit?

is that the suzi you have photo's of elsewhere with a 'cage and 34's?

This car runs Q78's (over 35" tall) and chassis clearance isn't a problem. The bars are up pretty high. You can see that they are far higher than the stock body mounts.

We were going to plate them creating a kind of mini boatside if it ever looked like a problem.... but it hasn't as yet. They are much higher and more out of the way than conventinal sliders, but the biggest reason they aren't an issue is still the size (height and width) of the car.

These might give you a better idea or the size of the car and how out of the way they are.

If this car didn't have rusty sills we might not have done anything at all.

I can certainly see now why they don't get in the road.. big tyres for the ol' suzi...

is that one in the second pic a factory swb ute styleside.. or is that some sort of fibreglass rear window setup?? looks the biz..

Bad_Zook wrote: one question while I've got you though Greg- are there meant to be some sort of metal cup washer between the factory rubber and the chaissis mounts (on the underside)?? because one had it- the other 5 just had either alot of rust or just mud/sand/dirt.. lol. oh well.

cheers

Yeah, I don't understand why that's there, it doesn't effect the lift at all. My only idea is that it would prevent the rubber wearing excessively on the chassis, but given how quickly they rust out and that they do rust out thus starting the chassis rusting in a vital area it doesn't seem to well thought out.

ooh ill take that bender thanks!

Bad_Zook wrote: is that one in the second pic a factory swb ute styleside.. or is that some sort of fibreglass rear window setup?? looks the biz..

Yes, it is a factory SWB ute, but the cab back is Fibreglass just like a Maruti.

It was factory built as a SWB ute though, roof seals, B pillar and tub are all different, although the bulkhead, cab back and roof are all removable.

They were just a regular variant, (this car is only 400 chassis numbers different to Greg's black car (the one with 35" krawlers) but were never officially listed as a variant on price lists that I am aware of.

I have seen a few others but always thought they were just soft tops that had Maruti cab backs on them.

Steve.