rrc/d1 sills, sliders and smoking heavy drugs

SeaRubi

SeaRubi

Explorer
so ... after stirring up all the poo in wolf's thread, I took a look at the sills as they sit on my '97 D1.

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failure-wedgie1.jpg


I could swear that the plastic sills on my '91 RRC were solid. Hollow, yes. but solid. I have lots of memories of seeing them crush and kind of spring back into shape. The D1's sills have nothing behind them. They would just fold over and likely stay that way.

Had a friend check a '93 LWB classic: c-channel, facade / no box, just like the disco. So - either my memory of my 91's sills really sucks, or they are different. Either way I stand retarded. There is nothing there on the disco's sills. zip. nada. just a c-channel piece of plastic. I still don't think they make that much in the way of contact, but I have to say that these are pretty bad. Are they the same on the DII?

I'm not going to reopen the debate about using the hilift on the sill. Yes it's a dangerous tool. As others have warned, you shouldn't listen to a crazy like me on how to operate it. Guys who've wheeled with me know my Rule #1, so I should probably share it here: don't do what Ike does. (this is a real and true rule).

so, flame on fellas. let's see some pics of those dented doors! I can't find any of mine because I lost the CD that had the majority of my pics on 'em, from a server that's since been long gone.

:elkgrin:


cheers,
-ike
 
JSBriggs

JSBriggs

Adventurer
FWIW my '80, '87, and '90 RRCs have a plastic box section sills. My '95 D1 has plastic fiber reinforced C channel sills.

-Jeff
 
SeaRubi

SeaRubi

Explorer
body damage and armor

yeah - I'm good at stepping in it :)

So, based on my experiences with the rangie, I had this hair brained idea to take what I presumed was the boxed plastic sill, and CB my way to glory for an "occasional" use slider. I've had this idea in my head for quite awhile. The plan was thus:

Carefully remove bottom of sill with box knife being careful to leave the ends. source ~1" wide aluminum strip, pre-bent to conform to the sill shape. mix 4lb marine expanding foam and pour into the cavity. bed in aluminum strip with adhesive. replace plastic bolts with some small grade 5 stuff.

then I looked at it and found it to be the c-channel thing. :( Some further reading has indicated that the D1 sills are actually shorter than the rangie sills. Soo. .. I might dig around for some freebie rangie boxed sills. worst case, I'm out < $100 for some foam and hardware.

why all the fuss? cost, and weight. I want to keep as much weight off this pig as possible. I'm also very likely going to stick with stock sized tires. If I bump it will be to a 215/85 or a 245/75. Weight kills. I want to get across the borders and out to the divide with this thing, and I need to do it on a self-employed budget. I haven't had a paycheck since last August, and there's a coast2coast move in there. Anyhoo...

This morning, I did a test loop around the bay area, 96 miles worth, to gauge pre-oil change fuel economy. Rolled back into town, topped off the tank at 4.4 gallons. :Wow1: I knew I wanted to keep the mods low to try and maintain as long of a leg on the thing as possible, but 21 mpg bests any wild dreams I could have maintained. I was expecting 15~16. Given, this was mostly flat, and at sea level. Obviously I wouldn't expect that kind of economy loaded up and heading off into mountains, but the test from this morning is encouraging.

Being obsessed with putting rovers on diets is nothing new for me. I was always jealous of the lower weights that the jeep guys got away with, and what it seemed to equate to in climbing ability. The rover gearing, while acceptable, isn't fabulous once loaded down. Part of all that thinking is what pushed me into an LJ Rubi. Before getting the Jeep, I had started amassing parts to attempt to create molds and make a test run of composite body panels for the RRC using a vacuum bagging setup similar to marine applications that were near to me in ballard. front fenders, door skins, composite sliders with a steel or aluminum bottom, and rear quarter panels.
At the time, numerous folks were popping up with rover based businesses and I had the fever, like lots of people, to do the same.

The idea was that they'd be tougher than the aluminum, and have integrated flares, and better clearance on the rear sheets. abrasion and dent resistance, moulded-in color, and tire clearance was all very appealing. then I started seeing that people were already doing this for pre-runner trucks in Toyota land. Why didn't we have a similar option for Rovers? Before I could get too carried away with this project, my marriage and career got in the way and I had to shelve it.

After that exercise and the way I ran my old rig I've always been skeptical on lots of armor. I realize it goes against conventional thinking, I just like a lighter rig with less stuff on it. I agree that a front diff guard, gas tank skid, steering links + stabilizer relocation are all cheap insurance. I'd put priority on the steering links. with a busted front diff, one can still catch the oil, tape up the hole, pull the drive flanges and the prop and get home.

so, anyhow -that's a bit of the backstory of why I'm so doggedly against bolting on huge chunks of metal.


timmy!!!!!!! said:
Someone in solaros had a hunter rrc with bent doors. I don't have a pic but I know it happened at tellico.
Click to expand...

I saw a D1 once that had trouble closing the doors. I think it was dark green, and just about every panel had carnage on it. it was a border2border truck and had been wheeled pretty hard afterwards in the trees. the owner had taken a spare instrument binnacle and installed it on the passenger side for nav gear ... does this rig ring a bell w/ anyone? he didn't have sliders or bumpers or anything on it. Just a set of 32's, OME, and a spacer to get more lift out of it. this was in 2002 or 2003 or so ... can't quite remember.

sliders and doors aside, quite a bit of the other major body damages I've seen have all been up high. one friend we nicknamed "sardine can" after he caught the rear quarter on a tree and pretty much took the whole thing off. my body damage was also up high on the rear quarter, and would not have been avoided with a rear bumper. The jeep guys use a tub-slider on rear corner armor that works great to avoid this problem. I had the idea of running a tube just under the cargo window once I could pony up for a roll-cage, but it was just another project that didn't happen on the rangie.

rambling thoughts as i unarchive them.

cheers
-ike
 
L

leebingate

New member
FWIW my '80, '87, and '90 RRCs have a plastic box section sills. My '95 D1 has plastic fiber reinforced C channel sills.
 
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