Awesome Unlimited, Part 3

Body protection for our ultimate LJ.

By John Cappa

Photography by John Cappa

Jeep Unlimited Installing Driver Side Rocker Panels

Project Awesome Unlimited, Part 1
Project Awesome Unlimited, Part 2
Project Awesome Unlimited, Part 3
Project Awesome Unlimited, Part 4
Project Awesome Unlimited, Part 5

Body protection is one of the first mods we make to nearly every Jeep we own. Even if you don't care about dents and dings, a smooth corner or rocker will skid over rocks and obstacles better than meat-hook-like, jagged, bent-up body metal. So to keep the body of our LJ smooth and clean, we opted for some protection from Poison Spyder Customs in the form of the company's Rocker Knockers, Trail Corners and Tube Fenders. Each component is available for CJs, YJs, TJs and the Unlimited (LJ). All of the parts are easy enough to install at home. Here's how they go on.

The Poison Spyder Trail Corners are made from 1/8-inch high-strength steel plate and match the contours of the Jeep's body. They are available for use with the factory lights, or you can upgrade to the low-profile high-intensity LED lights like we did. Trail Corners come powdercoated black, but we sent ours out for a grey texture coating.	With the taillights, gas filler and license-plate holder removed, clamp the Trail Corner in place to mark where the holes need to be drilled for mounting and cut for the LED replacement taillights. Remove the corner before drilling and cutting. A 4 1/2-inch hole saw is perfect for making holes that fit the optional LED lights, but a jigsaw or body saw will work too.
Install the Trail Corner with the provided stainless button-head Allen bolts, wire up and cinch down the taillights and reinstall the gas filler and plate holder (Sorry, Jp Magazine plate not included). The Trail Corners are good for mild protection. Body bashers will want to look into the company's Crusher Corners made from 3/16-inch laser-plate steel.	The Poison Spyder Rocker Knockers are even easier to install. Loosen the five body-mount bolts one side at a time. Use a floor jack to hoist up the body and slide the rocker guard in place. The Rocker Knocker catches three body-mount bolts for strength and is made from 3/16-inch laser-plate steel. They come in raw steel, so we had ours powdercoated to match the Trail Corners. An optional slider bar is also available for even more body protection.
Lower the body and drill out the mounting holes for the included stainless countersunk Allen bolts. On the LJ, three of the bolts pierce through to the interior (watch for wires when drilling here), one goes under the front fender and one is just under the rear wheelwell behind the plastic fender skirt. All of the nuts can be accessed with common handtools.	The Poison Spyder LJ rockers are not just longer versions of the company's TJ rockers. These have drain holes, which make the rockers slightly lighter and keep water and mud from building up inside. The two 45-degree bends (instead of one 90-degree bend) at the bottom make the Rocker Knockers more rigid and clean looking.
Perhaps the most painful part of our protection came when we had to bust out the reciprocating saw to cut up the fenders on our new 250-mile Wrangler Unlimited to fit up the Tube Fenders. Since it wasn't our rig, we let Steve Flores go to town while the owner was out to lunch. Poison Spyder includes a template to mark what needs cutting.	Once you're done whacking away, the inner fender remains intact to keep mud and water out of the engine compartment. The tube fenders only come in raw steel, so we sent them over to Wicked Truck & Rods in Garden Grove, California, to have them color-matched to the LJ's Solar Yellow paint job before bolting them down. They are available with or without welded-on tube flares; we went with the flares. For a full install on the Poison Spyder Tube Fenders, check out "Tube Fenda Wrangla" in the Jan. '04 issue.
Since the front turn signals are tossed out along with part of the fenders, we used some oval three-wire lights we got from a motorcycle shop for about $20. To mount them, we had to drill 1-inch holes in the grille and connect them up to the original wiring. All nice and legal now.