Measure Once, Cut Twice: A Story of Excitement and Impatience

mrblaine said:
The GR stuff is easy. Use a cut off disc and do a clean cut on each side weld at almost parallel to the frame aiming for the junction of the mount leg where it intersects the frame. Tap the outer edge of the mount up to check that those two are cut, then run a sawzall blade through the horizontal weld at the end of the mount.

We do them one at a time and trust the GR mounts are correct and they have been. Once the old mount is off and the frame smoothed and cleaned for welding, bolt up the GR mount and watch it for square and contacting frame sides. I use a floor jack with a piece of tube to push it up and squish the top mount to get the body mount brackets square to the frame. When it is good, tack it.

Once tacked, you can move to the next one or remove the bolts from the others on that side, raise the tub and weld it up or do them all and only remove the bolts once to raise the tub.

Things that will make your life less than enjoyable are the Savvy mid arm because you have interference at the front and rear mounts you have to deal with and the biggy is the Savvy Under Armor. The C's have to come off and the crossmember has to be mounted to a weld tab.

If you don't have the 6 OEM body mount bolts, I do and can send them to you.

What is BCE?
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Seems easy enough. Thank you. I tackle that when I return from Moab. The raised rear crossmember will be a fight for another day.
 
Installing my Savvy slider now. Who would've thought that the toughest part would be a couple little bitch fender flare bolts.
 
taylormade73 said:
Installing my Savvy slider now. Who would've thought that the toughest part would be a couple little bitch fender flare bolts.
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If it is a Rubicon, make sure you drill out the nutserts under the door because it sucks to have to drop the slider back down when you go to install the internal backer. The only way to get the fender flare bolts out that are spinning is to grind the head off. I've tried everything else, nothing but that works every time once the nutsert spins in the sheet metal.
 
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mrblaine said:
If it is a Rubicon, make sure you drill out the nutserts under the door because it sucks to have to drop the slider back down when you go to install the internal backer. The only way to get the fender flare bolts out that are spinning is to grind the head off. I've tried everything else, nothing but that works every time once the nutsert spins in the sheet metal.
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It's a Rubicon so thank you for the heads up.
 
mrblaine said:
The only way to get the fender flare bolts out that are spinning is to grind the head off. I've tried everything else, nothing but that works every time once the nutsert spins in the sheet metal.
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That's what I did. Showed them little resistant fuckers.
 
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Need more clamps. I'm giving her all she's got captain. Paging @starkey480 I need to borrow some clamps.
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taylormade73 said:
Need more clamps. I'm giving her all she's got captain. Paging @starkey480 I need to borrow some clamps.
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Yes you do! Off to harbor freight with you! The deep throat c clamps came In handy. I would get some 5” deep ones for the easy to reach spots along the middle and a few of the 12” deep ones really helped with the rear end of the slider. I also got one of their f style welding clamps I can’t remember what it’s called but it was able to reach on the backside of the torque box and clamp on the middle of the backing plate. Make sure you aren’t just clamping the top, I wanted to clamp the middle to really pull the backing plate in tight and make sure all the holes were flush with the tub. All my holes ended up lining up perfect.
Another tip is to use a 3/8” rotabroach instead of a drill bit. Cuts perfect holes like butter.
 
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taylormade73 said:
Need more clamps. I'm giving her all she's got captain. Paging @starkey480 I need to borrow some clamps.
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Pretty much you can ignore the middle. You need each end down low to make sure that it is not raised and forcing the lower edge out against the inside radius of the first bend. The block of wood should be out on the angled part of the underside to preload the backer upward. A Bessey style F clamp works well near where the block is to pull the lower edge in tight using the back side of the torque box.

We use the large Vise-Grip style welding clamps without pads at each end down low, one Bessey in the middle of the bottom, and anything to hold the top edge in basically snug. Top edge isn't critical except for parallel to the door opening. Drill through every hole while it is in place with a 3/8" something.
 
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mrblaine said:
Pretty much you can ignore the middle. You need each end down low to make sure that it is not raised and forcing the lower edge out against the inside radius of the first bend. The block of wood should be out on the angled part of the underside to preload the backer upward. A Bessey style F clamp works well near where the block is to pull the lower edge in tight using the back side of the torque box.

We use the large Vise-Grip style welding clamps without pads at each end down low, one Bessey in the middle of the bottom, and anything to hold the top edge in basically snug. Top edge isn't critical except for parallel to the door opening. Drill through every hole while it is in place with a 3/8" something.
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The F style on the torque box was major key for me. Have you done the install with a 3/8 rotabroach spot weld cutter before? I really liked doing it with mine.
 
starkey480 said:
The F style on the torque box was major key for me. Have you done the install with a 3/8 rotabroach spot weld cutter before? I really liked doing it with mine.
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I've been doing installs with the Blair stuff for many years. I've likely worn out or broken 10 of the 3/8" size and I have several of their spot weld cutters as well. I even have their 17/32 size for use in a flat jig to move a nutsert hole over by half a hole or less, or more. That and I have at least 8 of the big Bessey clamps. The only place I use them on armor installs is at the torque box.
 
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mrblaine said:
I've been doing installs with the Blair stuff for many years. I've likely worn out or broken 10 of the 3/8" size and I have several of their spot weld cutters as well. I even have their 17/32 size for use in a flat jig to move a nutsert hole over by half a hole or less, or more. That and I have at least 8 of the big Bessey clamps. The only place I use them on armor installs is at the torque box.
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That 17/32 one sounds like it would come in handy. I will keep that in mind if I ever need to move one over. I have the Blair 3/8 as well. I was able to move a 3/8 hole halfway over another hole like nothing, it was awesome.
 
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