Got the passenger's-side done. It ended up being more work (more on that later); but still took me less time than the first side since I already had solutions to many of the surprises. This time I removed the speakers/crossover BEFORE cutting out the rocker:




One thing I didn't anticipate was the amount of rust. The body mount on the driver's-side rusted out years ago and the passenger's-side has not; so I assumed the rust would not be as bad this time. Boy was I wrong. The rocker panel was rusted out well above my intended cut line:








A filler piece was cut from a rust-free portion of the removed rocker and welded into place. Then bondo was applied to even things out. Let me take a moment here to say I hate working with bondo/body filler. Really, I hate proper body work in general. If it goes much beyond a 2x4 and some spray paint, I start losing interest rather quickly <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />






The seatbelt bulge was very rusty as well:




I cut it out with the expectation I'd have to rebuild it. Come to find out the actual seatbelt mechanism is pretty high up and I could just leave it as-is. I wonder why they chose to make the bulge so deep? Maybe it become necessary space if you ever need to remove the seatbelt mechanism... guess I'll cross that bridge if I come to it. One nice thing was that with the bulge cut out I could cut one long piece of metal to box in the holes up into the body instead of several small pieces:






Even though the bulge was removed, the slider still needed clearanced... on both ends this time, actually. The legs are the same length as the driver's-side; but for some reason still made contact with the body. My guess is that the body and/or frame is jacked. Really, I KNOW the body is jacked because it has some small creases where its torqued slightly. With some of the action its seen off-road, I am not surprised:




The rear ABS modulator is also on the outside of the frame on that side, right by where the rock slider was welded on. I had to remove the modulator and its associated skid plate (which was impressively beefy for an OEM piece) to cut the slider off. Couldn't just have it hanging by the brake hardlines for fear of kinking one; so I put a large c-clamp on the frame and zip-tied the modulator to that:

[img]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y80/strawmyers/Rock%20Sliders%20Project/IMG_0938.jpg[/img]


Jumping way ahead, that piece could not go back in its original location once the slider was moved up or the hardline would be constantly rubbing against the slider's leg. Easy fix was to redrill the holes in the skid plate/mount down about 1.5" to move the entire assembly up on the frame. Of course, all bolts got a good coating of anti-seize before going back in. The original mounting location put everything flush with the bottom of the frame. Now they are up higher and even better protected:

[img]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y80/strawmyers/Rock%20Sliders%20Project/IMG_0953.jpg[/img]


The final steps were the same as the first side. Tack the sliders in place, then check check and recheck that everything is correct before burning them in solid. Tape everything off, lightly sand the area to be painted and wipe down. Primer, primer sealer, and 5-6 coats of "bright red" spray paint. This time I painted the slider first and in hindsight shouldn't have knowing that I was going to paint the body the same night. I hit it with a hair dryer until it seemed set up well enough; but several areas still got newspaper stuck to them when I taped the slider off to paint the body. No big deal, a couple of days with moisture should take care of that. And with that, this project is officially done! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

[img]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y80/strawmyers/Rock%20Sliders%20Project/IMG_0950.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y80/strawmyers/Rock%20Sliders%20Project/IMG_0954.jpg[/img]