“Boat Sides” for the Merkur XR4ti
“Boat Sides” are all the rage in Off Road vehicles. They fix many problems at one time. They do away with badly rusted factory rocker panels, and replace the thin sheet metal rockers with something more substantial that will take much more abuse than the original sheet metal.
The Merkur XR4ti, or XRatty as they’re lovingly referred to, was brought to us with frame rails and floor pans that were just about gone.
XR4ti rocker panel repair
The owner also wanted to incorporate a version of our Jack Rails into the cage build. On uni-body vehicles, jack rails provide a solid “frame” to jack anywhere along the length of the factory pinch weld. To replace the inner and outer rocker panels with OEM style sheetmetal was going to be costly. Cutting them back up for installation of the jack rails didn’t make much sense either. This project was SCREAMING for “Boat Sides.”
First up was removal of the existing cancer.
Once the rust was all removed, the plan for the jack rails was put in place. 1.25″x2.5″ tubing was used as a basis for the rails and rockers. The tube was tied in along the factory inner rocker as well as the solid sections at either end of the factory rocker panels.
With the rails installed it was time to seal them back up as well as give the rockers a little more protection from rocks, ditches, yump and the occasional boulder that can be encountered in a Rally. 14 guage steel was used to finish up the rockers and stitch welded on both sides of the car.
For more pictures of the project, check us out on Facebook or at www.izzyscustomcages.com
