$100 DIY rear corner armor
 

Posted in my build thread, but figured I'd toss up here as well. I stretched the rear of my 2-door JK 8" and as a result, couldn't reuse my MetalCloak Exo Skins (but this is still relevant for non-stretched JKs, just pointing out why I made the armor). Decided to make my own corners. Stole a page out of the Poison Spyder book and made it in two parts and welded together for a seamless finish.

I chose 10 gauge steel. 3/16" was too heavy and hard to work with and 1/8" was too thin. The 10 gauge flexes just enough the follow the curve along the side of the Jeep.

I used my MetalCloak skin as a partial template and then located the wheel well rearward. I didn't want the massive opening you typically see on a comp cut. For the cut I used a plasma cutter.

For the compound corner, I used my press brake to make multiple parallel bends. Not as many as I would have thought though. The bending took maybe 30 minutes. Nothing fancy here, I have the Harbor Freight 20 ton press and Swag Finger Brake kit.

All in, it took me about 2 hours to make the corner. I reused the existing mounting holes from my MC armor, which made things easier. For the rear, I just tossed in nutserts like the PSC armor would use. I've done so many nutserts that it took me about 5 minutes to drill the holes and put the nutserts in. I recall my first time when it took hours...

I still have to cut the openings for the gas fill and brake lights (going to use the round PSC lights). Also have some more body trimming to do.

All in, it will take around $90 in steel. I'll be making the fenders in a few weeks probably.


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Nice work! You should bend up a couple more rounded corners and send them to me :cool:

Very nice

Excellent job!

Haha. If you lived near by I'd hook you up. As an alternative, the next best and cheap option is to buy the AEV builder corners and weld the side to it (which is exactly what PSC does). Almost went that route, but the corners were $300, 1/8" steel, and therefore not worth the cost to me.

I've considered it, but it's hard to justify the cost and I'd have a hell of a time replicating the top edge that wraps around the tub. RROR looks like my best option, but 3/16's is overkill for my intentions. The search continues!

I did 3/16..i didnt try bending it though, i just had an extra weld.

I'm going to make a couple sets of just the corner radius for a couple friends. If I can get somewhat of a repeatable process, I'd be open to making some for a fair price. Those would be easy to ship. You'd just have to make your own sides and weld together. So, you could easily be under $200 all in.

Yeah, I was determined to have a perfect fit. And it was a justification for getting the bender :)

Yeah bender would be awesome. I lost access to my tube bender movingalso...