3rd Gen 4Runner Fabrication Question

[Virginiawilderness]

Afternoon Overland Bound!

Rachel and I drive a 3rd Gen 4Runner, 1997 SR-5. Like nearly every older car here in the mid Atlantic, we’re starting to have rust problems.

For now, the main problem is the rocker panels below the door sill and under the rig. We are not welders and we live in a condo, so we’ll have to get someone to do the repair for us. My question is about replacing the rocker panel with rectangular steel tube as in the photo below.

Does anyone out there know of a reason not to do this? We’re thinking that putting in this steel would make it way easier to clean up future rust myself... similar to the way we resand, clean, and paint our rock sliders when they start to look bad. Thoughts?

 

[ChasingOurTrunks]

Hi Virginia Wilderness,

I saw your post in the other thread regarding rust.

I don’t have a ton of experience with the 4-runner but hopefully someone who does will chime in. My immediate thoughts are:

1) When you have rust, sometimes the only option is to cut and replace, so no harm in doing that in your case. In principle thats the right attitude.

2) As for using the square tubing, the biggest issue for me there is weight. Weight worries me, in this case, in two dimensions: First, what is the weight being added to the structure of the rig using square tubing? Depending on the material, you might be adding 100lbs which might be compromising your GVWR. The other weight issue is if you intend to use these patches as quasi-sliders, you want to make sure they will be strong enough to support the weight of the vehicle. So, don’t overbuild them if they are just rocker replacements As they’ll be way too heavy; don’t underbuild them if you intend to use them as sliders.

3) Trust of Workmanship. The kind of repair you are asking for is probably a bit more custom than most body shops are used to, so shop around to find someone who is familiar with fabricating off-road parts and does so with some semblance of engineering — not just “thicker and heavier = better”, but a fabricator who uses a bit more intentionality to the work will be useful.

4) Accessory use — If these aren’t meant to be substitutes for rock sliders, you’ll want to make sure that the repair won’t interfere with your ability to fit them In the future should you choose. You’ll also want to make sure that things like Doors will still work properly. And it’s not just clearance for the doors in the shop — it’s also in the bush. Will these expanded rockers cause water or mud to collect and pool, thus interfering with the operation of the door? Maybe, maybe not — but it can be designed around if you need to.

Other than the above, I can’t think of a reason not to do it the way you are proposing though my preference is always to keep things as stock as possible. Again, my experience with that particular platform is very limited but hopefully my reply will help — if nothing else it will bump your thread so others might see it!

 

[oldmopars]

Using the square tubing has been done many times. It is a very popular thing to do on Jeep XJ's. Look at NAXJA forums and you will see it a lot. As ChasingOurTrunks said, they will add weight, know what your plans are.
One big advantage is that many people do add rock sliders. Doing this can actually save weight because they take the place of your rockers and rock slider and do it as one unit. They also do this because it gets the protection closer to the body and gives more clearance. However, do you need all that clearance for what you plan to do? Unless you plan to do some extreme stuff, probably not.
Also something to factor is, resale value. Many people will see this as a hack, a "Red Neck" style fix and it will take away from the resale value of the rig. This may not be an issue for you, but keep it in mind.
Again, ChasingOurTrunks has some good points about the engineering aspects of this. If done right, it is a great mod, done by a hack it will cause all kinds of issues that will to some degree ruin your truck.
The safest way to approach this would be to replace the stock sheet metal and preserve the Toyota design. Unless done right by a quality shop that has done this many times, you may be asking for a lot more trouble than it is worth.

 

[Boostpowered]

Could probably get a complete body at a junkyard for what you will be looking at paying a fabricator unless youve got a buddy who welds for beer and likes you it wont be cheap.

 

[Virginiawilderness]

Oldmopars, Chasingourtrunks, and Boostpowered,

That is awesome insight, we never thought about combining the rocker and the slider. We’ve got some more research to do, clearly. We do have a great fabricator that we’ve worked with previously... so it’ll be interesting to see what he thinks. It could be useful to get a couple of extra inches of clearance if we were to replace the rocker panel with something like our existing rock slider (mid repaint photo below).

Really great points on weight and on resale. The latter isn’t really an issue we worry about because we plan to “ride this mother-effer until the wheels fall off.” Weight is a good thing to keep in mind though. And we’ll keep an eye out for a rust free body. Who knows, we might get real lucky.

Thanks for the advice!