Offroad Evolution Rear Corner Rockskins Write-Up

iRonin

Member
Offroad Evolution Rear Corner Rockskins & Poison Spyder Tramp Stamp II
January, 2015

Hanging a 37" Mud Grappler, and before it a 35" Kelley, off the stock tire carrier for two years of wheeling had finally started taking its toll on the rear end, so it was time to move up some mods on the priority list.

While the stock tire carrier itself actually held up well (no cracks), it was actually my tailgate that began buckling outward and causing the entire assembly to wag a bit over bumps, so it was time to pull it.

My ultimate plan is to have a more secure carrier, and whether I go off the shelf with the ORE enclosed/stinger style or follow through on plans to make a lower profile basket style a-la EVO1, either way it would require reinforcing the corners for mount points, so I went ahead and ordered the corner skins, and the tramp stamp (for now) so I'd have something to slap my plate on.

The Trampstamp is preeeetty straight forward so I didn't bother with install pics, but here you can see it in the "before" pic of the rear stripped down for the corners:
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I started with the driver side. Full disclosure I had forgotten to bring painters tape, so lazy me was willing to give it a go raw-dog. It wasn't quite as tough as I imagined to get it squared up evenly, as you can see in this pic I was able to follow the body lines and suck it up close with a couple ratchet straps and 3 clamps:
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Steps:
1) I started with the upper strap to "hang" the skin onto the corner, but didn't crank down on it yet.
2) Then I slung on the lower strap to pull the bottom half closer to the body.
3) Then I started cranking down on the straps a bit at a time until the skins were snug, while making fine adjustments to their body-line alignment.
4) As each area got close to perfect, I pinned it down with a clamp and used them to make fine adjustments.

One area to focus on is the gap leading towards the tailgate opening:
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A buddy of mine reported trouble getting it to sit vertical and not tapering away as you follow the line down. This is where I used the lower corner clamp to adjust. By applying diagonal inward pressure on the skin that far down, it forces the lower taper in more without changing the upper taper.

The next thing I did was outline the section of the rear body that needs to be cut away to make room for the round lights. I then also used the to-be-cut area as test material for my drilling and nutsert approach. Here you can see me running a couple test holes with my marked step-bit:
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And here you can see the cut area with a test nutsert fully seated:
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Note: The area you need to cut is a good 1" larger all the way around than the circle traced using the skin as a template, if you plan on using the Tucklites that are sold for this kit. The reason for this is that the lights install using a large double-bead grommet that has to insert and grab flush all the way around, and the channel for the grommet is only wide enough for the Rockskin plate material itself, not the skins + body sheet metal. I could not get my light to seat within the grommet (too tight) until I cut the body back wider.

Here I am testing the connections for the light itself:
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The instructions were slightly off on the coloring so the steps are:
1) Snip the connector off the old stock light housing. Try to cut the wires as close to the bulbs as possible to maximize the wire slack you are left with. Also, there is a short black jumper wire that is part of the original light that was only connected between the two bulbs- this can be discarded leaving you with just 4 wires.
2) Of the remaining wires, the White/Green will remain unused.
3) Connect the Black wire from the Trucklite harness to the White/Purple wire of the OE harness.
4) Connect the White wire from the Trucklite harness to the Black wire from the OE harness.
5) Finally, connect the Red wire from the Trucklite harness to the White/Yellow wire from the OE harness. (This is the one that is mislabeled in the instructions)

After confirming that all functions worked properly (idle, brake, turn) I secured the wires using 3 individual hear shrinks for each wire and a fatter shrink sleeve over all of them to tie it all together.

Then I drilled and ran my nutserts:
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And did a fitment test:
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The pic above shows the light not fully seated in the grommet. This was where I discovered that I needed to cut the hole wider, so I had to pull it all off again, cut, and repaint.

After finishing the drivers side I ended up taking a dinner break and while I was out, picked up some tape. Making the fine adjustments on the drivers side under tension left me with a few clear coat scratches so aimed to correct that lazy mistake :)
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The passenger side was the same basic process. I knew now to cut the body hole bigger, and while I didn't have to mess with a gas opening, I ran into this little issue with the tailgate reinforcement bracket behind the body panel:
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This plate was also blocking the tail light from seating all the way in, so I had to notch it between the two marks shown to clear the rear of the light housing.

And here is the passenger side mounted with the light properly seated. Much quicker on the second side now that I had some experience!
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And here's the final shot before leaving the shop- diggin' the setup a lot!
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Update: The corners are back from HR shop and as always, Crosslink did a great job. Here's the final setup:
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Sithwindu

Member
Thanks! So you gonna run fenderless in the rear or add your own flare?

Gonna run fender less and see how this fantastic state of Texas roads and weather treats me lol if it's too much I'll go to regular skins, fab some steel fenders, or fab these to run plastic lol
 

DWiggles

Caught the Bug
Looks AWESOME George! Cant wait to see what you decide to do about actually carrying a spare! Thanos just keeps getting more and more awesome!! :thumb:
 

Ddays

Hooked
Nice write up. Glad I wasn't the only one that cut the light opening too small the first time! Are you using backup lights? I cribbed how I did mine off of someone's build thread (can't remember whose it was) and its super easy. Just wired in some eagle eyes & mounted on the lower pinch seam under the skins. Those truck lites are a pain to install - I coated mine in dish soap & they go in real easy that way...
 

iRonin

Member
Nice write up. Glad I wasn't the only one that cut the light opening too small the first time! Are you using backup lights? I cribbed how I did mine off of someone's build thread (can't remember whose it was) and its super easy. Just wired in some eagle eyes & mounted on the lower pinch seam under the skins.

None yet, that's what I'm doing next. I was going to follow the standard path of mounting a pair of rigids to the fascia, but having discovered the magnetic lighting by Lux, I may actually go with a pair of their whites mounted through the frame horns near the D-rings as a clean low profile solution. I'll check out that eagle eyes approach too, thanks for the heads up :)

The skins came back from PC today- I'll be updating the original post with a proper after pic but here are a couple poser shots from my favorite local flex spot:

View attachment 182149
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allwhitejeeps

New member
Thank you for this write up! I'm going to tackle this on the weekend so it was perfect timing to see how you went about it.
 

Flat Top

Member
Looks great, nice write up. I just completed the skins and EVO tire carrier last month.

If you go with the EVO carrier, head's up - the biggest pain I had were the lower bracket bolts. They ended up hitting right on the pinch seam, PITA!
 

hbkid22

Member
Nice write up and they look good...I have had mine sitting in my garage for months and been itching to get this done but dont have the time. How long did it take in total for you to get them on? :beer:
 

Ddays

Hooked
None yet, that's what I'm doing next. I was going to follow the standard path of mounting a pair of rigids to the fascia, but having discovered the magnetic lighting by Lux, I may actually go with a pair of their whites mounted through the frame horns near the D-rings as a clean low profile solution. I'll check out that eagle eyes approach too, thanks for the heads up :)

Damn, those magnetic lights are a really good idea too....Honestly that's probably the route I'd go if I had to do it over again.
 

iRonin

Member
Nice work.

Looks AWESOME George! Cant wait to see what you decide to do about actually carrying a spare! Thanos just keeps getting more and more awesome!! :thumb:

Jeep is lookin good. :thumb:

Nice write up. Looks good man!

Thanks y'all :)

Thank you for this write up! I'm going to tackle this on the weekend so it was perfect timing to see how you went about it.

I'm prolly not the model example so definitely take your time. I should have used tape one the first side, and drilling all the holes in one go is a gamble that requires the skin to be tits-on sucked up and aligned vs the better method of running a few at a time and reinstalling/tightening between. If I were doing it again carefully, I would have run this order:

1) First clamping:
Ensure rear vertical tailgate gap is even, ensure side fender gap is even (top edge of the skin should follow the quarter panel bevel perfectly. Ensure skin lays as flat as possible elsewhere.

Mark/punch, the rear top hole (closest to tailgate), and the rearmost side hole. This would give me a mostly fixed position on both faces and establishes the corner.

Remove skin, drill holes, install nutserts.

2) Second clamping:
Remount corner / ratchet straps, clamps ensuring the skins align with the two completed nutsert locations. Loosely run bolts into the two spots, they should run cleanly and not snag. Fine tune the skin alignment again using the side fender lines and rear tailgate gap as indicators. One even, tighten the two installed bolts so they are seated flush within the countersunk holes.

Mark/punch the rear middle hole (next one down) and the next rearmost side hole. These holes will mostly "lock in" the vertical and horizontal placement runs for the rest, so make sure the punch is well centered and that the skins are following good body lines. I actually used a digital caliper to measure gap for mine.

Remove skin, drill holes, install nutserts

3) Third clamping:
Same setup; run straps, clamps, align holes, loosely install bolts, fine-tune alignment, tighten bolts.

Mark/Tap the final rear lower hole. This locks in the rear vert alignment permanently. Mark/Tap the next rearmost hole on the side, ensuring the side is continuing clearly towards the front.

With the rear locked in, the remaining bolts are all along the side. Continue working from the rear forward, the last two holes you drill should be the ones closed to the side doors.

The idea with this is that you're laying out the skin like you would apply a decal to a car to avoid air bubbles, working from a starting point and pressing outward. On mine, because tired to "fit once", i ended up with a few tight bolts once everything was tightened down despite my best efforts with the straps & clamps.

Looks great, nice write up. I just completed the skins and EVO tire carrier last month.

If you go with the EVO carrier, head's up - the biggest pain I had were the lower bracket bolts. They ended up hitting right on the pinch seam, PITA!

Good to know, thanks for the heads up!

Nice write up and they look good...I have had mine sitting in my garage for months and been itching to get this done but dont have the time. How long did it take in total for you to get them on? :beer:

Roughly 3 hours with wasted time had I known better. Knowing to cut the light areas bigger (it doesn't even have to be round) and the passenger side notch in one go would have saved me lots of time.I probably spent 30 min dickin with the light fitment before it dawned on me, and then I had to pull everything off to remake the cuts, repaint metal, etc.
 
Last edited:

Thunder

Member
Looks great, nice write up. I just completed the skins and EVO tire carrier last month.

If you go with the EVO carrier, head's up - the biggest pain I had were the lower bracket bolts. They ended up hitting right on the pinch seam, PITA!

What did you do?
 

n3tfury

Member
Thanks y'all :)



I'm prolly not the model example so definitely take your time. I should have used tape one the first side, and drilling all the holes in one go is a gamble that requires the skin to be tits-on sucked up and aligned vs the better method of running a few at a time and reinstalling/tightening between. If I were doing it again carefully, I would have run this order:

1) First clamping:
Ensure rear vertical tailgate gap is even, ensure side fender gap is even (top edge of the skin should follow the quarter panel bevel perfectly. Ensure skin lays as flat as possible elsewhere.

Mark/punch, the rear top hole (closest to tailgate), and the rearmost side hole. This would give me a mostly fixed position on both faces and establishes the corner.

Remove skin, drill holes, install nutserts.

2) Second clamping:
Remount corner / ratchet straps, clamps ensuring the skins align with the two completed nutsert locations. Loosely run bolts into the two spots, they should run cleanly and not snag. Fine tune the skin alignment again using the side fender lines and rear tailgate gap as indicators. One even, tighten the two installed bolts so they are seated flush within the countersunk holes.

Mark/punch the rear middle hole (next one down) and the next rearmost side hole. These holes will mostly "lock in" the vertical and horizontal placement runs for the rest, so make sure the punch is well centered and that the skins are following good body lines. I actually used a digital caliper to measure gap for mine.

Remove skin, drill holes, install nutserts

3) Third clamping:
Same setup; run straps, clamps, align holes, loosely install bolts, fine-tune alignment, tighten bolts.

Mark/Tap the final rear lower hole. This locks in the rear vert alignment permanently. Mark/Tap the next rearmost hole on the side, ensuring the side is continuing clearly towards the front.

With the rear locked in, the remaining bolts are all along the side. Continue working from the rear forward, the last two holes you drill should be the ones closed to the side doors.

The idea with this is that you're laying out the skin like you would apply a decal to a car to avoid air bubbles, working from a starting point and pressing outward. On mine, because tired to "fit once", i ended up with a few tight bolts once everything was tightened down despite my best efforts with the straps & clamps.



Good to know, thanks for the heads up!



Roughly 3 hours with wasted time had I known better. Knowing to cut the light areas bigger (it doesn't even have to be round) and the passenger side notch in one go would have saved me lots of time.I probably spent 30 min dickin with the light fitment before it dawned on me, and then I had to pull everything off to remake the cuts, repaint metal, etc.

Thank you for this follow up.
 

Mybadjk

Caught the Bug
Image1500567847.638680.jpg

IMG_3476.jpg

IMG_3477.jpg

So I already did mine... and it seems i have more of a gap between the tailgate and the armor. And more up top. Hard to tell with the black on black. Does anyone have pictures with theirs?

IMG_3478.JPG

Going off of Scott's I'm not too far off..

And did you guys use silicone after your put the skins on to fill the gap?


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 

tgoss

New member
So I already did mine... and it seems i have more of a gap between the tailgate and the armor. And more up top. Hard to tell with the black on black. Does anyone have pictures with theirs?


And did you guys use silicone after your put the skins on to fill the gap?


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

Mine was about identical.
 
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