EVO Rock Skins

monstrousmac

monstrousmac

Caught the Bug
Hi All,

So, I was considering getting the Rock Skins JK Rocker Panel Protection by EVO MFG, my concern is I am stationed in Germany. It is a very wet climate and of course plenty of snow, which means salt on the roads. I am nervous to put these on due to the high possibility of rust between the panels and the body. I was wondering about any of your thoughts of a way to prevent the potential for rust or do you all not recommend adding them due to the climate I am in. I am still going to purchase the EVO Rock Sliders, just undecided about the panels. Thanks for any insights any of you might have.

This is the same reason why I initially decided against the EVO corner panels and tire carrier and bought the Poison Spider Rear Rock Brawler Bumper with Tire Carrier because of the fear of Rust.

Again any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Very Respectfully,
Mark
 
dchew

dchew

Caught the Bug
I live in a crappy salt environment too. Roads are covered in brine almost constantly for about 4 months here. You should definitely get them, but there are a few things I recommend you do:
  1. When you get the skins, have them sand blasted, primed and powder coated. Regardless of whether you buy steel or aluminum, painted or bare.
  2. Get some of your body color touch up paint. after you make the nutsert holes, touch up the edges of the holes.
  3. With either your touch up paint or with a rattle can, paint the front face of each nutsert (not the screw)
  4. Get some clear silicone and put it on the outside of each nutsert just before you put it in there and clamp it down.

Aftermarket painting is usually just powder coating over bare metal. I originally did 2 - 4 above but not #1. After the first winter the paint chipped and peeled off at every nutsert location. I had to remove them and get them blasted and repainted. They have held up great since then (2 years). Note that the screw in the nutsert is stainless but the nutsert body is not. That's why painting them will help, and you need to do that before you mess around with the silicone. Silicone and paint don't get along.

At first I tried caulking the top where the skin meets the Jeep body. But I don't think that did anything except make it never dry out and make it a royal pain to remove and clean up when I went to repaint them after the first year. It's impossible to keep water (brine) out from between there, especially where the EVO logo is.

Dave
 
Ddays

Ddays

Hooked
Great timing on this as I am installing mine this weekend.
I had same reservations. I bought stainless steel nutserts off of Amazon thinking that will be one less thing to rust. I'm going to try to apply silicone around each screw hole and leave the rest open so that air will circulate between the rockskins and body panels. I can also rinse between the two to flush out all the brine.
 
dchew

dchew

Caught the Bug
Buying the stainless nutserts is a great idea but those things are damn expensive. I almost did but in the end just wasn't positive enough I was buying the right ones; there are a lot of options. Do you have a link to the ones you purchased? It might help others.

Dave
 
dchew

dchew

Caught the Bug
And Mark, you mentioned the rock sliders. I think they no longer come painted, but if they do I would highly recommend the same thing: sandblast, prime and paint them before you weld them on. Have them mask off the weld area of course, then use rattle cans on the weld area. Also, I would get some stock black vinyl (the stuff used for letters and vehicle wraps). Every year before the snow flies cut a piece that covers the EVO logos. Those sliders are hollow and brine loves to sit in there. You can remove the vinyl in the spring.

Dave
 
Last edited:
Ddays

Ddays

Hooked
dchew said:
Buying the stainless nutserts is a great idea but those things are damn expensive. I almost did but in the end just wasn't positive enough I was buying the right ones; there are a lot of options. Do you have a link to the ones you purchased? It might help others.

Dave
Click to expand...

Here you go, copy and paste this on Amazon:

SSKS250-20-165 300 STAINLESS THIN-NUT, SMALL FLANGE, PLAIN FINISH, 1/4-20 x .030-.165 GRIP RANGE

A bag of 25 is $40.48 + $5.79 for shipping. There are other quantities available that come up when you paste that link.
I know that's pricey but I guarantee the standard nutserts will corrode in the Northeast winter environment. :icon_crazy:
 
BillTheCat

BillTheCat

New member
Ddays said:
Here you go, copy and paste this on Amazon:

SSKS250-20-165 300 STAINLESS THIN-NUT, SMALL FLANGE, PLAIN FINISH, 1/4-20 x .030-.165 GRIP RANGE

A bag of 25 is $40.48 + $5.79 for shipping. There are other quantities available that come up when you paste that link.
I know that's pricey but I guarantee the standard nutserts will corrode in the Northeast winter environment. :icon_crazy:
Click to expand...

:eek: $1.85 each!
 
S

Silverton34

Member
Powdercoat is nice but remember most of it is porous and especially thin where there are tight bends in metals. Get some paint on there to seal it against salt. Powdercoat is an excellent primer.
 
Ddays

Ddays

Hooked
BillTheCat said:
:eek: $1.85 each!
Click to expand...

I hear ya. I had the bag of 50 in my cart for a couple days before I closed my eyes and clicked the buy with 1 click button. Still, that's better than rusted out
inserts.

Just in case anyone is wondering; I wasted one of them trying it out to see how difficult it was to compress with the Astro tool and I couldn't tell the difference between the standard steel and the stainless.
 
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