This was pretty straight forward. It is bolted through the body with six 4"x3/8" bolts per side. Drop the bolts in the holes before welding on the tube if you dont want to have to bolt from the inside and cut off the excess like I did, doh! Still need to paint the bolts.

It is made of 4"x4"x1/4" angle iron and 1.5" tube.

I also painted my fender flares black with some rattlecan Duplicolor Satin Black flexible bumper coating.

More pics here:

http://community.webshots.com/album/39647046czYOgo

flares

Looks good and tough, I'll be copying you shortly.:D :D

looking good

now its time to put some dents in that pretty thing you got and cut the top of your door hidges

totally awesome.. 2 questions

what kind of welder do you have? or access to?

what kind of bender do you have? or access to?

I have been considering a similar setup so if you could enlighten me on how you did it all?:D

I use a Miller 175 MIG Welder. For bending I have been using a local race shop since I dont have one. They charge $5/bend.

Hinges, there are allen head bolts in the hinges. Not as quick as having it cut, but I leave a crappy socket wrench with a allen socket in the glove box, and it only takes about 1min to pull them them.

Pics, I just cant seem to remember to pry my ass out of the driver's seat and take some pics when I'm wheeling. I came away with two pics of someone else's rig shot from the driver's seat this weekend. :D

I forgot to mention, you have to pound up the lip of the body seam. Takes about 5min with a BFH, and drill out some spot welds to remove a bracket thingie that is under the stock plastic piece there. The two bolts closest to the front go into the passenger footwell. The rest are underneath. I'll take some more pics tonight.

Very clean...looks great!

Shrock,

I'll be dropping by one night this week to do some fab work. I think they turned out perfect...... How long did it take you?

How long, do you think, will it take US to zip mine together??

HS

I have read many different opinions on whether "thru bolting to the body" will be strong enough, what is your opinion? I will be doing mine one day and don't want to take the extra effort to attaching to the frame if not needed.

Thoughts?

I looked into it quite a bit. I was a little reluctant too, but I found tons of people who had done it through the body and wheeled the snot out of their Sami with very good results.

very clean look!! im doing the angle this week, but i dont think ill put the tubing on it.

Shrock....looking nice. I may have to come down to Houston and get me some of these :)

Hey on the 15th we are going to a new ranch in Mason for some rock crawling if your interested. Leaving north of Austin about 7:30 in AM so early day but should be worth it. Let me know if you can go.

Hey Joe.

That sounds cool. I will need to get my front bumper built and tow bar re-attached, but that should be doable. I could bring you a set. :D

My cage is supposed to be here today. :D

I've had enough requests from ORC people that I am going to be building these for sale. Nothing is finalized, but the price will be very low compared to similar products out there now. After we do Hank's tomorrow night, I'll decide the cost. If anyone is interested, email me to the address in my profile.

Mitsuzu,

I will be needing a break by the 15th as well. Is anyone invited to the ranch in Mason?? Private?? Public??

I would like to pull the Zuk down there and break some stuff...

:) :D :emb:

Whats the price? email me we info please
c-cdungan@juno.com

thanx chuck

Where in Houston are you located? I'm going to school in San Antonio right now, but my permanent home is in Houston; Downtown area (you know where the Heights are?)

Tommy

Hank, I sent Mitsuzu your email for info on the wheeling trip.

Tonka_sam, I sent you some info.

weezman1, I'm in NW Houston, 1960 area. Yeah I know the Heights. That is a really booming area these days.

For DIY guys who like the design of the Shock bars, various kit options will be available.

Basic Kit: template to cut exact profile and drill holes in proper location. Includes all needed Grade 5 hardware (Bolts, washers, fender washers, lock washers) to mount and instructions for removing the stock hardware and installation.

Options:
- 1.5" Tube, bent and cut or unbent.
- 4"x4"x1/4" Angle iron cut to length. With or w/o fender flare profile cut.

Cool

Can you make a set for my Land Rover and my work car too?

I may stop by tonight to steal 9 four and a half inch bolts from you. I will be taking the four inchers back to Lowe's tonight.

:D can you see the mini ford with sliders on it?? :D

I'd definitely be interested if the price is right. I could never do something that nice by myself.

That's pretty sad to copy and idea almost verbatim. Just to sell them, and then undercut the price from the original vendor.

http://www.davesport.com/suzuki/davenerf2.jpg
From the Davesport site.Davesport (http://www.davesport.com/suzuki/nerf.htm)

I guess that is flattery! :)

If I mounted the round tube straight out from the angle steel instead of at an angle (I like the looks much better when the tube comes up at an angle), and mounted the nerf directly to the thin, often rusty, hollow sheet metal section I could sell them for much, much less money also.

It is true that spreading the impact out over the entire rocker panel will lessen the chances of damage, and even my nerfs rely on that for impacts that are straight up against the bottom of the nerf. But I feel much safer having the protection of nerfs frame mounted in the event of side impacts, both on the trail and on the street (I was T-boned in my last Samurai by a Ford Explorer right in the driver's door sill area. Luckily my Zuk was lifted, putting me above the point of impact).

Dave, thanks for being a good sport about this this. I dont know you, but from everthing I've heard you are a great guy and offer a solid product. Also, I agree the angle looks sharp. I did mine flat for simplicty and to give the wife something lower to step on. There are definitely pro's and con's on each side of frame mount vs. body mount.

Bill, I think you should check your facts before going ballistic and crying ripoff on this and other boards. I am just going to copy and paste my response to your identical post on ORC.

------------------------------

Wow, home from dinner & a movie and look what erupted!

This is really all quite simple. I had a project for my Sammi and I had my personal design criteria:

1.) I wanted the best protection I could find from the impacts from underneath and sliding into something from the the side. My Trooper bars which stick out have saved me many from side impacts.

2.) I wanted it to look nice if it did not detract from functionality

3.) It would be nice if it helped my wife climb in the Zuk, w/o sacrificing functionality

4.) I wanted to sacrifice as little ground clearance as possible.

5.) I wanted it to be as simple an in expensive as possible, again w/o sacrificing the functionality I was looking for.

The product you see is what I came up with and the only reason I decided to offer them for sale is bec. many people (on ORC) asked me to (just look at the original post) and I love doing this kind of work. Supply meeting demand.

Let's break down the design and decide if it is a mere copy of the Davesport bars. There are three main components. 1. Main body of angle iron. 2. Side protection/steps. 3. Mounting system. Let's take each in turn.

1. Angle iron. Everyone has been doing this for ages. Mine is still different though 4x4 vs. 4x3. It has 6 bolt heads along it, and it is cut to match the profile of the factory mud flaps. (see attachment)

2. Side protection/step. There are really only two ways to go here. Round or square. I think round looks better. How many tubular side steps have you seen? This part of the design is all over the place on other vehicles, but still mine is somewhat different. The Davesport bars have the tube angled up. Mine is flat which is more common.

3. Mounting system. Mine is through the body, theirs is through the frame, so this part is entirely different. There are arguments to be made for each way of doing it. I chose the body after careful research yielded tons of people saying it had worked flawlessly for them while taking a pounding.

I'll admit they look very similar at first glance but, as you can see now, there are pleanty of differences, so I do not think it is fair to call tem a rip-off of anything else. Dave makes an excellent product too. The two are just different. People can choose what best fits their needs or just make their own. PEACE!

Bill, I think you should check your facts before going ballistic and crying ripoff on this and other boards. I am just going to copy and paste my response to your identical post on ORC.

------------------------------

Wow, home from dinner & a movie and look what erupted!

This is really all quite simple. I had a project for my Sammi and I had my personal design criteria:

1.) I wanted the best protection I could find from the impacts from underneath and sliding into something from the the side. My Trooper bars which stick out have saved me many from side impacts.

2.) I wanted it to look nice if it did not detract from functionality

3.) It would be nice if it helped my wife climb in the Zuk, w/o sacrificing functionality

4.) I wanted to sacrifice as little ground clearance as possible.

5.) I wanted it to be as simple an in expensive as possible, again w/o sacrificing the functionality I was looking for.
[/B]


Don't want to get into that deep of a pissing match here. Like I said on the other board, if you made them for yourself and your wife, that's cool. Maybe for a friend, thats cool too. but to sell them to anybody? I just think that is....well uncool. But after you read this
thread (http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53197&perpage=40&pagenumber=2) I get the inpression that you did copy it. I did not say anything before cuz I did'nt know you going to sell them:confused: But I guess that is the american way, as with free speach. So I said my two cents, maybe I should not have but that's the way I feel.
How would you feel? And don't take that the worng way, I'm asking you to just think about it......if you came up with something that you thought was really cool and spent a lot of time on it. Just to have someone copy it (even if it's only a98% copy) and sell it cheaper. Literally taking money out of your pocket and possibly your kids mouth?

Originally posted by Davesport
(I was T-boned in my last Samurai by a Ford Explorer right in the driver's door sill area. Luckily my Zuk was lifted, putting me above the point of impact).

guess I'm not the only one. That's the reason i've been looking around for nerfs, as the drivers side of my zuk was restyled by a honda. I personally think the mounting to the body is fine for most uses, as I was t-boned, and the drivers side is just barely dented and tweaked.