In this post we’ll continue building out the 2x6 rocker for the passenger side.

Finishing Up The A Pillar

Before I could weld up the outer rocker I needed to finish the A / B Pillars so I’d have something to weld it to.

With all this metal laying around it was about time I started putting it to use.

While the 2x6 rocker mod (aka rock sliders) for XJ isn’t uncommon by any means, I’m planning on taking a slightly different approach in how I tie them into the unibody. My goal is to hide the welds, and also leave some hidden access holes that’ll let me spray fluid film down into the rockers each year before winter.

My new metal brake finally arrived.

Before settling on the Woodward Fab Boss 16, I spent several hours researching metal brakes and looked at a ton of different models across various manufacturers such as Baileigh, Tennsmith, Grizzly, JET, Eastwood, and Enco.

Just shy of two years ago now, I embarked on the largest rust repair job I’ve ever done on my XJ. It took me several months, but I was able to replace the entire rear cargo floor including the crossmembers, gas tank bracing, and unibody frame rails along with welding in rear frame stiffeners over my newly made frame rails.

Preface

I’ve been driving my Jeep around for almost 6 months now with no rear bumper. I know, I know, not the safest choice but I don’t drive far. Why? Because 6 months ago I wrapped up an extensive rust repair project on my XJ where I cut out and replaced the entire rear floor along with the unibody frame rails and crossmembers..

Delaying the Inevitable

When it comes to my cars, I like to bunch up my repairs / mods into batches where I’ll focus on one small sub-category of tasks before moving onto the next. I find this to be a great way to break down massive projects into manageable chunks, and is a technique I learned from my software career.

It’s hard to explain, but driving a car at night that has an auto dimming rear view mirror is a real treat. It’s one of those things that you’ll never notice when it’s working, but as soon as you don’t have it you’ll notice its absence immediately.

The epoxy primer I used on the underside of my repairs is some pretty good stuff, but I wanted just a hair more protection down there. And after all can you really say you did a rust repair job on your Jeep if bedliner wasn’t involved? Because of that I picked up some UPOL Raptor liner to spray. I bought the 4qt spray kit because I wanted some leftover bedliner to spray my new rear bumper later on but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The least exciting portion of this project by far was closing up the two holes left in the floor directly below where the rear seat goes. I initally cut these holes in the floor way back at the beginning of the project because I needed to remove the original frame rails.

One of my biggest concerns about my custom fabricated frame rails was the vertical welds joining the frame sections. Vertical welds like those are a big no no when it comes to frames because they’re especially prone to failing. The common fix for this is to weld on fishplates that help brace the welds but since I’d have to weld on 6 fish plates on each frame rail I figured it’d be simpler to just go with frame stiffeners.