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Bedside Protection

Hossbaby50

Hossbaby50

3/4 ton status
Joined
Sep 1, 2001
Posts
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Location
Peoria, AZ
I just want to let everyone know and see a prototype of a new rear bedside protection for K5's. A local offroad shop made the set for me. The hope is that they will help protect the sheetmetal from light hits on rocks and moderate dragging on rocks. I am going to test it out this weekend for the first time. I just got done installing with the help of Matt (az-k5). The install if very easy and looks pretty good in my opinion.

The material is 1/4" thick HDPE (high density polyethelene). It pop rivets onto your stock sheetmetal. It is form fitted for K5's. HDPE is a plastic material that is supposed to be self lubricating and pretty durable. The panels are very light to help keep they weight of the truck down. Both panels weigh in together at around 10lbs.

Here are some pics

Before:

3189MVC-890F.JPG



3189MVC-891F.JPG


Panel:

3189MVC-892F.JPG


After:

3189MVC-896F.JPG


3189MVC-898F.JPG


I think they will definilty help with light hits on the sheetmetal and help dragging the sheetmetal. I haven't had time to finish all the pop riveting yet. There are still more rivets to be installed. You can get the idea from the pics though. I ran out of rivets otherwise I would have finished tonight. The worst it did for me is made my truck look a little nicer not having the scrapes and side dents showing.

I would like feedback on if you like it, don't like it, are interested, whatever. What do you guys think?:ears:

Harley
 
I like the protection but the pop rivoting throws me off. without the polyethalene or whatever the hell it's called, you can fix your body with a drill, a slide hammer, a suction cup, bondo, and a welder.

I guess you could take it off and weld up the rivot wholes sand them down then get some bondo but it just makes more work for the body repairs.

I would definetly consider it with damaged quarter panels or fenders but on a clean body i wouldn't drill 40 holes to put some added protection on that won't stop the metal from bending. The plastic gives as much or more than metal. It does protect against scrathes though.
 
I think it'll work great. We have that stuff at my work on our machines to keep boxes sliding while they go down a conveyor.
 
I saw the title of the post and thought it was going to be about a .45 you keep under your pillow!:grin:

They look good to me and would stop 'dragging' but can't help but think that those pop rivets will pick up preety bad on rocks and just tear the lot off:(
 
How about double sided tape? If it adheres to this stuff ok it would prevent the pop rivet look and allow you to take it off for repairs if necessary.
 
I would have the same concern as above about the poprivets. Wont those be pulled out/loose if they contact anything solid (rock)?
 
The pop rivets are countersunk into the panels so they are flush with the panel. Doublesided tape would not hold the weight if you drug the panel on objects. The pop rivets should help disperse the weight of hits on the panels over a larger area to help prevent more damage to the panel.

If you bust a few pop rivets you can always put them back in. They are pretty cheap and easy to use. The other reason double sided tape won't work is because Polyethelene is VERY slick. Not much will actualy stick to it. I used 3M weatherstrip advesive to help seal out water from getting behind the panels and it didn't want to stick very well. It is supposed to be one of the stickiest adhesives available too.

The reason I went for the body protection panels instead of bodywork to fix my damage is because this truck would just see more offroading that would damage the redone body work. This mod will hopefully protect the sheetmetalf from further damage and is replacable if the panels get to beat up. This truck sees some pretty heavy offroad action so I want to try and prevent body damage instead of fix it.

To get rid of the pop rivet look (which I kinda like) you could color the pop rivet heads black or use some other means to blend them in with the panel.

This mod is also alot cheaper and easier then body work anyway.

Harley
 
Hossbaby50 said:
The other reason double sided tape won't work is because Polyethelene is VERY slick. Not much will actualy stick to it. I used 3M weatherstrip advesive to help seal out water from getting behind the panels and it didn't want to stick very well. It is supposed to be one of the stickiest adhesives available too.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've come across some of these newer meterials at work and they are pretty slick. Didn't realize they were countersunk. Sounds good.:grin:
 
I like , I know they can do colors if they chose , if they eventually have white/tan I would want in asap :D
 
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It isn't designed for that "super clean perfect truck" look. It is made to take moderate hits (more than the steel) and keep a dent free apearance. It also slides on rocks better. It is more for those that actually wheel but still want a cleaner truck. In AZ you don't have time to do bondo and body work after every trail. We wheel every other weekend in the fall, winter, spring, and bondo/paint is hard to do on a metal surface when it is 100°+ outside in the shade. It is not a stop all for dents but works great for the normal "trail oops" This is the same stuff most of the comp buggies run for skins. I was really impressed with it my self.
 
Since each panel is only 5 lbs, I'd consider bonding flexible magnetic backing plates instead to these panels, so it is easily removable from the body. I've made my own before, it worked pretty well. (the magnet, not the plastic)
 
bonding flexible magnetic backing plates instead to these panels
Click to expand...

i think that would probably be the issue... most products like that are near impossible to glue anything to.. we uses lots of similiar products on the boats... starboard, etc... and although awesome in some charachteristics, adhesion is usually not one.. mechanical fastening is the norm usually...
 
This is not for protecting the paint. It is to keep small dents, heavy scrapes and gouges from forming. You can lay a good 20% of your rigs weight on it and they will hold up just fine. It is for protecting where armor cant. It is not to avoid pinstriping and stupid minor things like that. It allows you to go into a trail with a nicer rig and not come out like this as easily.
 
I think you would lose a lot of it's ability to protect the bedsides if it was simply held on by magnets or double-sided tape. Besides, even a light hit would most likely just peel the panel off.

The fact that it is solidly riveted to the stock sheetmetal means that the overall strength will be much greater........the strength of the stock sides and the new panels are basically combined into one piece.

Overall the I like the idea. Keep us informed on how it works out.
 
Interesting alternative to going the beefy route (diamond plate). Ive never thought of this before but it makes sense, hmmm, this could catch on :waytogo:
 
The mor eI look at it and the more I look at my white panel , it would look tough with a black one on it . Do they need any more testers :whistle:
 
I was told pricing will be in the ballpark of the $160-180 range for the panels like mine. I believe that they are going to have the option to go lower down the B pillar and also wrap around the taillight some to protect it. This may cost a little bit more but I don't know for sure.

The makers of this setup is www.simplyoffroad.com

I am going to test them out this weekend.

Harley
 
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