Sidework.

The sides of the Jeepster were pretty bad. The rockers were shot, and the rear quarter panel section was bad as well. I decided pretty much right out of the gate that I wasn't going to mess with cutting and welding new quarter panel sides on. Instead, I would cover the back with diamondplate. Once again, I mocked up a pattern with matte board and sent that in with my other pieces. Overall, I think everything cost me just under 200.00 to get fabbed up. Not bad. I decided to eliminate the rocker panel completely and cut it off, along with the rear fender, right at the body line that runs along the rocker and rear fender. I did this with a cut off wheel, took my time, and went really slow. I had my sheet metal place fab up some "U" channels out of 14 gauge steel to be welded on and used as rocker panels


Here you can see a picture of the installed rocker panels. The rough edge is a stitch-weld going all the way down. I don't mind the exposed weld, it's kinda a cool look, but if I had it over again, I might have used rivets like I did on the back diamondplate.



Here is the rear diamondplate panels. To make the top edge that curves around the back, I simply C-clamped the panels in place, heated the top edge with a torch, and bended it around the edge with a hammer....slowly. I then took the panels off, and covered the area behind them in a thick layer of truck bed coating. I then put the panels back on with C-clamps, drilled and used big-head rivets to secure the panel all the way around. After this, the fender flares (from a YJ wrangler) were installed using Rivets. I had to trim the fender area as the inside of the flare is circular, unlike the outside. I just trimmed a little at a time, and test fit until it was perfect. I found the centerline of the gas neck from the inside drilling out, then used a hole saw to cut the hole. It takes time and use a lot of cutting oil, but you'll get through! Seen here are the tires and wheels I'm going with.