Custom Full Length Diamondplate Skidplate!!

[RoadEnforcer]

it looks great jeff good job man! Cant wait to check it out on the 6th!

 

[JDraper]

Originally posted by RoadEnforcer
it looks great jeff good job man! Cant wait to check it out on the 6th!

Uhhh, it was on at Carlisle! Didn't ya see it then???

 

[Brandons]

Lookin good man!!

 

[Stic-o]

Um... I'm curious?

How do you change the oil now?

 

[Doug]

Wow this is an old thread.

 

[JDraper]

Originally posted by Stic-o
How do you change the oil now?

Drop the skidplate, or put one of the Fumoto or Fram oil drain valves in. Dropping the skid plate only takes about 10 minutes. If you put one of the valves in, you can attach a hose to it and route it down to a drain pan.

 

[MonsterTrac]

That looks awesome, im prolly going to end up doing that myself. How much did it cost to have the bend made. How thick is the diamond plate, would there be any reason to go thicker.

 

[JDraper]

Originally posted by MonsterTrac
That looks awesome, im prolly going to end up doing that myself. How much did it cost to have the bend made. How thick is the diamond plate, would there be any reason to go thicker.

Bend cost me $15. Thickness is 1/4" (mentioned at least twice in the posts above) . I don't think you need to go any thicker. It was plenty strong. The skid plate is now mounted on ExplorerEB96's truck since my X no longer is used for wheeling.

 

[MonsterTrac]

what kind fo a shop would I take the diamond plate to to get it bent? Also, did you figure out the angle of your bend yourself, or did you cut it to length, then tell them to bend it so that it would fit....Thanks in advance, and soory, totally missed the thickness in the above posts.

 

[Premier]

Originally posted by JDraper
I did the cutout and drilling work, and took it to a local machine shopto have the bend put in it. To fit my truck, it needed a 14° bend at the crossmember.

I think any machine shop would do it. Just call around.

 

[JDraper]

Originally posted by MonsterTrac
what kind fo a shop would I take the diamond plate to to get it bent? Also, did you figure out the angle of your bend yourself, or did you cut it to length, then tell them to bend it so that it would fit....Thanks in advance, and soory, totally missed the thickness in the above posts.

I mocked it up out of a large piece of cardboard first. I figured out the angle by measuring the distance from the floor to the mounting point in the front, the distance from the floor to the mounting point under the crossmember, and the length of the bent section. Simple geometry from that point. I also drew it up in Autocad just to have a copy of what I did on file.

Usually, you get pieces of diamondplate like this from a machine shop. Most machine shops can make a plate like this if you provide them with a template or a drawing. Just make sure it's exactly what you want before you get it cut. The metal isn't cheap.

 

[jasonb]

if you are worried about price... a 4x8 sheet of 1/8" steel only costs about $40 around here, 1/4" is $80 or so. it won't be blingin like the diamond plate, but will do as good of a job. but it rusts too if you don't paint it and weighs a LOT more.

 

[JDraper]

I chose the aluminum diamondplate for weight and corrosion resistance. Didn't care much about the blingbling factor, could just as easily paint it, but the paint would get scraped off eventually.

 

[jasonb]

oh you know you had plans to chrome it!

 

[JDraper]

Originally posted by jasonb
oh you know you had plans to chrome it!

Naaaahhhh, I was gonna stud it with rhinestones and put a big TYPE R sticker in the center to make it stronger and lighter

 

[mhn3773]

why dont u wheel with the ex anymore?

 

[JDraper]

Originally posted by mhn3773
why dont u wheel with the ex anymore?

I got a Sammy to wheel. I wasn't having much fun wheeling the X because I would cringe every time it scraped on something. Sammy only cost me $800 on ebay, a LOT less than a new '01 Explorer did, and if I dent it...oh well....it was dented before I bought it.

The sammy is also a heckuva lot cheaper to modify. I have a grand total of about $2700 in it, including purchase price. I wouldn't be even close to what the Sammy can do offroad if I sunk that $$ into my X. Check out the link in my Sig to see what the sammy looks like/can do.