FastboxR's Explorer with boat sides?

I have done a little bit of looking around on the forums and have not found anybody that has done a full boat-side to an explorer. Below there are two pictures that are a cherokee. That is what I am trying to acomplish. The other three pictures are of my 92 ex that I have taped up and am contemplating cuting. The top of the blue tape is where the slider would be welded to the A, B, C pilllars, cage work (inside and out) and the frame at a 45 degree angle. This set up would elimate about 12 inches of body that is currently hanging, that catches you up on the larger rocks. This would mean that I would have to make the body ridgid to the frame, have to cut the doors and pillar and to adapt all cage work to the new rocker/slider in one.

Let me know what you guys think before i do this and if you have any in-put on the logistics of this mod. The explorer is "questionably" street leagal and I would like to keep it legal as possible even though it is a trailer queen. I do drive it around town every once and a while cause its fun to drive and all the j**pers waive till they realize its not a cherokee, then they just look confused or discusted. That cracks me up everytime

I built the cage, sliders, everything by myself or got a hand from a buddy. Fabrication is not a problem. I will do a write up if the cutting and welding and lots of pictures if this is something anyone is interested in?

thanks for your time guys,

 

[RangerX]

all the j**pers waive till they realize its not a cherrokee, then they just look confused or discusted. That cracks me up everytime

Haha, that's excellent!

Izwack is doing a looong term rebuild that includes boatsiding, but if you finish first, you can be the first one!

Looking at your pics, what if you cut right at the bottom door hinge, that way you could still have functioning doors. I think that would be a plus. Maybe you wouldn't lose 12" of body, but it would be close to that...

 

[james t]

I want to see it done. I looked it over for a few days, but decided to stop at the bottom bodyline. Anything past that looks like it might be ALOT of work.

I still havent patched in the opening along the bottom of my doors. :

 

[crazyflights]

Would look cool

 

[fastboxR]

Well I thought about it and decided to go first. You guys can learn from my success or mistakes. I started by cuttin the bottom of the doors off. There is a clear ridge in the door that makes a clean line.

Then the old rock slider had to go.
You have to be carefull because there is a conduit with all the wires running though for the electrical in the back.

then i cut the rocker panel out 1/4 inch below the doors.

i used my large harbor frieght jack stands and sheims to hold the new rockerpanel/rockslider in place. I have it so it tilts in 5degrees and gradually goes out as it goes to the back tires.

Then i have started to put the ribs up to have that boat side appearance. The bottom slider part will be UHMW (plastic) in 3/8in and I am making a belly skid out of 1/2in.

I was sitting with my sliders 22in from the ground when i started and i am now at 30.5 inches. I gained over 8 inches. I worked on this project so far 4 hours saturday and 4 hours sunday and i am moving along fast. I have wheeling to do...

in the background you can see the explorers best friend even though its a dodge.

I am far from done but with a full weekend and some material will be ready to wheel. If there is any interest I will do a more complete write up with the pictures. I am working on both sides at the same time as to keep the two sides some what the same as the build progresses.

 

[Foxracin]

Looks good. Do the windows still roll all the way up and down?

 

[RangerX]

Awesome, love it!

 

[fastboxR]

Well the windows stop short about 2 inches but if you cut the doors i recomend using a grinder with a cutting wheel, cause i actually broke the driver window with the reciprocating saw. It rattled the window so hard it broke.. oh well, there is a lot of windows in the juck yard. I will post picts of the window stops and door mods that i do. I have an eddie bauer edition that came with power windows but I put manual doors on instead so that I would not have to deal with the electronic crap.

The build will resemble a high slider more than a boat side due to the fact that I am mounting the ribbed portion at a 25degree angle rather than a 45degree angle. I will still have a boatside plastic slider.

 

[jfiato]

subscribing

 

[james t]

That looks really good. Be sure to get some pics of the inside when you're done.

 

[Randall]

This is awesome.

 

[fastboxR]

Well its a little over mid week and I came home and worked on the project a little. I thought I would show you guys whats up on the project and what the sploder has done to it as far as internal cage.

Here are the pictures of the rear winch.

And here are the pictures of the ribs that I got done this week. I also got most of the sheet metal welded and the middle body mount removed and hard mounted to keep the body from moving independantly from the frame.

I have it so that the door seal should still work and i have fabbed up a partial floor pan. Once I weld and screw the new pan in I will re-rhino line the tub and you wont be able to tell.

 

[RockRanger]

Nice. More pictures and info on how you did it the better. I have been wanting to do it to my ranger but have been to scared to cut it apart.

 

[Stic-o]

nice job, been think about this for awhile

Matt come on by my parents and you help me experiment on the sport

 

[fastboxR]

Nice. More pictures and info on how you did it the better. I have been wanting to do it to my ranger but have been to scared to cut it apart.

Don't be scared to cut the truck up. That's. All part of the fun! I will try to post lots of pictures tomorrow after I am done workin on it.

Oh and by the way the body moves independantly of the frame normally, that is why there is rubber pucks between the two however, I have chose to make the body and frame one piece much like a cherokee. That is the only way this mod will have an longevity on our rigs. It gets even more complicated with a ranger that you are keepin the bed on. The pillars (A, B, and C) are now welded to the slider which is part of the frame. The only way this will work for me is that I have an internal cage and a external cage which makes my bodyand frame one piece as well and keeps the frame from flexing as much. Long term we will see...

 

[RockRanger]

Any more pictures? Like what did you do to enclose the bottom of the doors you cut.

 

[whitetrashfab]

ready to "test" them yet?

 

[fastboxR]

ready to "test" them yet?

Well are you ready to go wheeling, that is the question? We are going to do a first test run on the SASed 3rd gen 4runner at evens on the 9th. Then we are doing a busywild run on the 30th.

The cage and the sliders are not going to have a problem what I am concerned with is the ablility to keep the body, mainly the A, B, and C pillar attached to the new sliders. I have a plan to reinforce them. It may not be a good plan but its all I got...

One way or another I will have it wheelable by the end of this weekend and ready to paint the new sliders, cage, tire carrier and the places that the paint has been rubbed off on the washington trees. I know I will still have some finishing touches that will not get handled by the time I go wheeling but structuraly it will be sound as it can be. The finishing touches will get done however, just not intime to get the wheeling bug out of my system. I have a plan to get the bottom of the doors welded up by using the piece of the bottom of the door as a pattern and cutting the sheet metal to match. Then I will weld and paint.

 

[whitetrashfab]

I wont be ready by the 9th but I should be up and going before the 30th...

gaps under the doors? isn't that what spray foam insulation is for???

 

[fastboxR]

Well, here are some more pictures for you guys. I still am not done. I have to put the finishing touches on the doors, attach the plastic to the sliders, and finish the floor pan in the back passanger side, bed liner that part of the interior, then paint and I will be done

I did get the sliders capped, most of the floor pans in, put the exterior b-pillar tube (between the doors) back in, reinforced the body to the sliders, and other misc crap done today. My buddy came over and had the ramp out and i took a couple picts. Here are a bunch of random pictures to show the progress I am having at this point. I have not had any signs of problems yet with the body to frame mod. The true test is a wheeling trip