Evolution of Lower Quarter Panels (and adding real corner protection) 8/11/06 As my Jeep has gotten bigger, I've had to make some modifications to the lower quarter panels behind the rear wheels. Some guys decide to leave them as is, others add protection over them, and others do the popular "cut and fold" mod. Sometimes the rear bumper plays a big part in what people choose to do back there, myself included. Well, after trying several different options on mine, I wasn't satisfied. I've always wanted that area to look good, and be strong, but I could never achieve both at the same time. But finally I just buckled down and got to work. The following is the "evolution" of what the rear corners of my Jeep were to what they are now. This first photo is from back in 2002 when I first got my prized AEV rear bumper. The bumper's contours are the same as stock so this allowed me to keep the stock plastic end caps for the bumper. This was a good thing back then because I hadn't trimmed my fenders yet. After moving up to 33's in 2004, the fenders were trimmed and I no longer wanted to use the stock end caps any more. At the time, this presented a big problem for me since leaving the bumper ends open just didn't look good to me. I decided to cover the lower corners with aluminum diamond plate covers from Rock Lizard Fabrications and fabricated the inner corner pieces (that attach to the bumper ends and the back of the Jeep) myself. This looked very good and I even added a spot for my air hose quick coupling under the tail lights. While this looked great, it only lasted until I did my first trip through the Rubicon Trail. I knew that the aluminum guards wouldn't add a whole lot of protection, but I guess I really underestimated how weak the lower quarter panels really are. Compliments of the Rubicon: Not knowing what to do from there I just left it like this for almost 2 years. With the Jeep now on 35" tires, I don't mind seeing a few battle scars here and there, but these dents just bugged me everytime I looked at them. I think its also because it shows how weak they were, as the dents seem to get bigger after each trail ride I did! I had always wanted to do the "cut and fold" mod to the lower quarters which virtually gets rid of them (they are tucked up) but my problem was still what to do with the bumper ends and how to protect the corners after I folded the panels up. I had seen some unprotected panels get smashed and that would be very hard to fix since you can't easily push out a dent in a crease or corner. But it was time to do it. I pretty much followed this write-up on NAXJA which is one of the first write-ups to be done on this mod: http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=29750 I used Herculiner to cover the sheetmetal so it would match with the bedliner and paint that I had previously used during the fender trim project. The good thing about folding these panels up is all the clearance that you gain. Also you can see that my particular bumper doesn't even extend all the way to the end of the tail lights. This was also good for a little extra clearance, but offered even less protection to the corners. That wasn't good enough for me because I would frequently smack the bottom corner of the bumper when coming off of a big rock. The bumper has held up to the numerous hits but I felt it would be nice if I had even more clearance. Plus it would add to the look of what I was going to do next. So off came the bumper for surgery. I cut the corners off and welded in a piece of 1/4" thick steel. Not only will this look better but the angle will be a little more forgiving against the rocks. Next was what to do to protect the corners of the Jeep and the body panels that I had folded up earlier. My idea was to make some guards that extended from the bumper ends out and forward. Of course they would have to attach to the frame rail to be strong enough so this is what I did for that. The next picture shows a 1/4" thick bracket from 4" angle iron. Learning my lesson from my rock rails, I knew that the bracket would need to wrap around the underside of the frame rail to withstand upward forces, and using the same hole and bolt for bumper's mounting brackets was a no-brainer. In the next picture you can see what I have in mind as corner guards. You could call them mini rock rails! I chose 1.5" square tubing for these that are 3/16" thick. Also note the broken tail light from not having any protection here before. You might also notice that this was done before I chopped the corners of the bumper off. So the pics are out of order somewhat but its better for the write-up this way... Here are the finished pieces before paint and the final welding to the bumper. What was hard about making these was that none of the angles for proper fit were 90* or 45* angles. You can see that in the picture below this one as well. Here's some of the better welds I made. My welder is a Lincoln Electric 135-Plus and I'm using FCAW (flux-core) with .035 wire. Here's the finished product on the passenger side. Note the angled corner of the bumper also! Shot of the driver side, from the back. Shot from the top that shows how much they stick out. I didn't want them sticking out too far, so I placed them so about half of the 1.5" square tube is out from the fender, or 3/4". My incentive for finishing this project was the very next day we had planned another run through Strawberry Creek. The "painted rock" obstacle had cracked my passenger tail light before (which was lucky compared to what damage others have gotten - hense the name "painted rock".) The other big scratches on the side were from a previous trip through the Rubicon, not this obstacle. But that being said, I'll let this picture speak for itself. Overall, I really like how the project turned out. I'm pleased with the looks, and even more so I'm pleased that I have strong corners now with much more clearance than before!

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