what's up i'm rota socenda and in this video i'll take you through the process of how i made
these rock sliders for my 4th gen 4 runner this video is part of an ongoing series of my journey
on exploring metal fabrication also make sure to stick around to the end to get a preview of what's
coming up next i start off by taking measurements of the body pinch weld from front to back
because i was going for a simple clean and low profile look this is what i decided on each end
has a 45 degree bend with a 20 degree kick up now let's build i started off by mitering each
end of the main square tube using my bandsaw and my homemade welding table for support
then made the end caps to close it off
so now that we have the two by two main piece capped off uh i could have left the weld like
this but kind of wanted to smooth it out make it look good i actually use a three-step process
this involves a 36 3m fiber disc to knock off the main the main uh welds
and then i use a 40 grit flap just to kind of blend that out and then i switch over
to a palm sander with 80 grit so when i paint it i don't see any rough sand marks
with the main two complete i can reference it to get the remaining measurements
one being the distance from the card frame to the main tube second how low i wanted the main tube
to sit from the pinch weld the body and last how far out i wanted the step portion be from the body
now that i was confident with the rest of my measurements i moved forward with building
everything else piece by piece i grabbed a piece of round tubing and headed over to my
two bender to make the beds this one was made by jd squared mounted on a custom stand i made for it
before i would make my first bend i use my homemade degree indicator this
will help me make sure that my second bin sits in the same plane as the first bend
after the first spin was created i measured the distance from where the first bend ended
then mark where the next pin will begin
next was to add the 20 degree kick up and trim the bent ends
i used my table dogs to get the tube aligned and slit a
tape measure underneath until it was close enough
to make it easier to trace where i will need to mark my trim ends i use a laser lever as a guide
after the ends were trimmed i checked to make sure the spacing was the same from front to back
then proceeded to tack it into place
then did a quick test fit to make sure i was happy with the fit up
okay next is to add the center pieces this is greatly going to increase the rigidity of the
actual slider itself from flexing i'm going to add one right in the center and then one on the left
and right side and how we're going to do that is pretty much get your tube mark your pieces
here and here um but to do it more accurately i cheated a little bit and 3d printed my own coping
guide which is this guy here i know there's a few products on the market that do the same thing
how this works is you get your tube slide it through then once i get that i'll mark it with
the sharpie and mark the bottom with the sharpie and then take most of the bulk material off by
using a cut off wheel and then what i'm going to do next is sand off the remaining either with the
my angle grinder or take it over to the bench grinder to massage it further and that's going
to help me accurately cut the tube so that when i do a fit up so let's pretend that this is my tube
that's already cut out i can just easily slide it underneath and get a perfect fit up every
single time this just makes it uh more consistent cuts but you don't necessarily have to do it like
this i cheated so um you can do it by hand and massage it further so this is just a way i did it
so
however a more traditional way was to notch the tube with the tube notcher
i had one laying around and figured i'd demonstrate this approach as well
this method is a lot faster for simple tube coping profiles
so
after two of her prep it was time to line them for tacking
i slid the piece of 1 8 inch thick plate
underneath to get the one in the three quarter round tube centered to the two by
two square two then use my digital pro tractor to check if they were at the 20 degree kick up
since i wanted it to look good i made a series of tacks to go for that dime look
because things tend to warp as well i decided to do another fit up to get
the final distance measurements from the frame to the slider before cutting my main two legs
where you place them is also important as you want to make sure that they are clear
and away from any brake cable or cable lines for visual reference i drew a quick template
on the frame to show where my backing plate would need to be and where i would need to
grind off the factory coating for clean weld up i probably should have mentioned
this earlier but make sure you check the sliders to clear doors before you do all that welding
time for some paint i decided to try something new
and went with the product called steal it it has some advantages over other coatings
it's anti-corrosion can be welded over and gives you that semi-gloss power coated look
i use two cans total that cover two full coats on each slider another benefit is when that sliders
do get scratched up from the elements you can easily touch it up now time to weld that all in
to add some final touches i grab some grip tape
play with a few different layouts to figure out what would look best
this would help make a slip resistance for those
rainy days we have up here in the pacific northwest
and should make it easier for my kids to get in
well almost one two three fine feet on there there you go help right there
because you stuck around to the end of the video as promised here's a glimpse of what's
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if you have any questions ask and i'll do my best to answer them don't forget to check out
the links in description for more details on everything you've seen in this video
that's it for me today see you in the next one later