Replacement Rockers
This article isn’t a normal “how to” but more of a step by step process on how I built the replacement rockers for my XJ. It’s mainly to help give you ideas and help on building your own rockers.
After a few years of hard wheeling with my rock rails, they had managed to push up on the pinch seam so much, that it was being pushed up into the unibody and also pushing the floor up around it. It was also time to gain some more clearnace under the rockers, so I wouldn;t get hung up on them quite as much. So I decided the best route would be to replace my rockers with some boxed steel. I was originally going to buy the steel, but since I was going to be in Colorado I talked to Formatt and picked up a set of his replacement rockers, since they are the exact size I was looking for: 3x4x3/16″
Obviously, the first thing you have to do is cut out the existing rockers.
When most people replace the rockers, they only weld the tubing to the sheet metal of the XJ unibody. I didn’t feel that this setup would be strong enough to withstand my wheeling habits, so I decided to tie them into my cage.
Luckily, I had some spare tubing left over from my cage, so i decided to use it here. I took my trusty hole saw and made two holes in the inner rocker.
This will allow me to add two legs that will attach the rockers to the cage.
Once the legs were cut to length, I welded them to the rockers.
Now all I had to do was weld the top, weld the pinch seam, and weld the legs to the cage.
Once the welding is complete, just add paint.
Done. Check out the new clearance.
