Who has built their own under body protection?

If I can get back to my garage this week, I am planning on building plates for the Cats and other close bits.

I am NO metalurgist, so what thickness on the skid plates? 12 guage ok? 3/16ths? Thoughts? I plan on using the existing bolt holes in all cases.

On the frame ears, I was thinking of welding some plate to the frame with a deflector attached to that. Will this weaken the frame too much?

j

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On the frame ears, I was thinking of welding some plate to the frame with a deflector attached to that. Will this weaken the frame too much?

j [/B][/QUOTE]

Just stitch weld and you're good.

Johnathan

3/16ths should be more than enough. thats what i am building the skidplates for my series out of and i want to be SURE that i can totally hammer on the things and know that nothing will get damaged.

the sheet of 3/16's plate i bought for my Sammy belly armour weighed in somewhere around 120 lbs.:eek: i hope with some judicious whittling here and there, it will come down a bit, but.........i just KNOW i've killed a few of the last remaining hamsters under the hood.:(
:D

I think that 1/8" would do fine in almost any case. Yes, it will dent, but if there is space between the armor plating and the object that is being protected then you will be fine and when you clean your vehicle and drop the skid plates occasionally, you can always hammer out the dents. However, I have some side plates for the bumper and my gas tank skid plate that are made of 1/4". The gas tank skid plate is very heavy, but on the other hand, I could very easily cut out holes to make it lighter without worrying about strength too much. I think that the majority of the strength is not in the sheet but in the mounting brackets...!!!

Way