Body Armour 4x4 Extreme Rock Rails Instal tips

[Tycho]

After just about ripping off one of my plastic side steps on a recent trip thought it time to get some side armour. Was originally looking to go chassis mounted but the options were limited and expensive. I wanted to offer some side protection so a straight bar under the rocker wasn't going to cut it either.

Settled on the Body Armour 4x4 Extreme Rock Rails.


This is the box that arrived:



Was about 6ft long and heavy.

I had read a couple of reviews which were mixed with the negative ones refering to difficulty of install. The instructions that I viewed online prior to delivery seemed OK but lacking in real detail so here are a few tips from my experience for anyone looking to install the same. 2Dr installation would probably be a little easier but no guarentees

-Buy a 12mm closed end ratcheting wrench, low a profile as possible- this will be extremely useful in fastening and undoing the 8mm horizontal bolts through the pinch seam that are note easy to get to (4 in total)
-have a 8mm or so chainsaw type round file on hand to slot or alter the above pinch seam holes (two of which you will have to drill out ot 8mm)
-The supplied rivnuts are not normal rivnuts but rather flimsy looking wall anchor type fixings- this may allow some side to side movenent for final alignment but I broke one off and had to carefully enlarge the hole to take a normal 6mm rivnut.
-The supplied rivnut tool is crap and was missing the 2 inch bolt. I made up a new tool by welding a T handle onto a long 6mm bolt and used a nut with a couple of washers and a 10mm closed ratcheting spanner to compress the rivnuts- if possible use a grade 8 bolt as there is a fair amount of wear on the thread after several uses. A normal rivnut gun will not tighten these rivnuts as the threaded section is too far away from the face although you could use a normal gun for final tightening.
-Secure the central vertical bolt loosly first to support the side rail then line up and secure the back bolts then finally place a trolley jack under the front corner and jack up to get the front horizontal bolts in- may need to file out one of the holes if still does not line up.
-This is definatley a 2 person job due to the weight and size of the rails. The side armour plates are 1/4 inch steel and heavy.
-Tighten all the lower bolts up before marking the position for your side body panel holes- may still need to use the jack to lift and get the ront section closer to the body.
-One of the front three panel holes has a bit of steel about 10mm behind it. Don't bother trying to drill this just tighten the rivnut slowly and feed it in as space allows, it will work.
-Allow 6+ hours if you have not done this before





I'm happy with the final install and looking forward to seeing how they perform. just need to spray paint black the visible sections of pinch seam at each end of the rails.

[revvinkevin]

I have these same rails and have tried twice to out them on. I swear I think they are warped, it is impossible to get both ends to touch the body. I sold my Rubi rails to get these and can't make them work. Not cool.

[adressler]

I think mine are the same way. Trying to figure out what I'm going to do.

[Tycho]

One other trick to try is bend the pinch seams vertical where the holes are. You may find that they are bent slightly back under the body which could cause the sliders to pull away from the side of the Jeep.

[joesjeeps]

Any updates?

[boxcar]

Mine were not form fitted at all, It took 2 bottle jacks to make them straight. I put the lowers on first, then jacked them in place. The locations of the bolts were not always in the meat of the pillars, one bolt I ended up thru bolting. They look good and are not ever coming off, but the install aint for the squimish...

[Tycho]

Mine are holding up well. They havent had a real hard workout except the passenger side rail as a step but still solid as. No rust or coating issues and we have had a wet winter here. I did attach a couple of non slip tape bits where you step and these are working well. Painted the rear pinch seams also as discussed. Retrospect main suggestion would still be to invest in a proper Rivnut gun and use proper rivnuts on the sides.

[joesjeeps]

Thanks.
I've got some 1/4-20 better quality rivnuts (ebay) that I'm going to try and set with a proper tool (Harbor Freight, maybe not so proper ). The included fasteners just seemed cheap and I wanted the smallest head on the rivnut so if the armor is removed, the reinstalled screw will be the only thing that remains visible. Even though the new 1/4-20 fasteners are slightly larger than the supplied M6, the drilled hole will be smaller with this style of rivnut. I think the ones supplied may be easier to set without a special setting tool, so that's why they included that style. I already had the Harbor Freight tool, so I just needed to upgrade the rivnuts from the aluminum ones that came with HF toolkit to the thin set steel ones I found on ebay. I also plan to "paint" each rivnut with liquid electrical tape just before crimping to hopefully seal things up a little better. On test fitting, the rockers have a slight curve inward to approximately match the body contour and the fasteners should draw it up the rest of the way. I know some others have had trouble there so I'm hoping for the best. Just trying to set aside a few uninterrupted hours to get them on. For those who are wondering, I bought them from AutoShepard, $275 with free shipping. There was a $10.00 off promo code I found to get that price.

[Tycho]

Trust me once these are on you won't be taking em off

[joesjeeps]

Installed these by myself with the aid of a transmission jack instead of a helper. It would have been simpler and quicker with a helper, but got it done. Installation went ok and looks good. I did two deviations from the less than ideal instructions. On the nutsert installation in front of the door hinge, I loosened three front quarter panel bolts and slightly pulled the outer panel further away from the heavy inner pillar. My step drill couldn't drill deep enough otherwise and the nutserts I was substituting needed to be fully seated before setting them. On the two per side vertical long bolts, I didn't want to hack up the tub and disturb the paint and e-coat by punching out the factory weldnuts, drilling new holes, and installing the included nut plates. I drilled new holes approximately an inch to side of the center holes in the rocker mounting plate and ran the supplied rocker bolts with some heavy duty fender washers into the factory installed weld nuts. The Jeep weldnuts and rocker bolts were both were M8's so the fit was fine. Perhaps at the expense of some strength, I don't know, but it seemed to be a better way to do it. Also used anti-sieze as always on all the fasteners and spray on undercoating before and after installation..