Installation notes

Remove Sahara plastic

If you are putting these on a Sahara model, you will need to remove the plastic side molding. To do this, remove the bolts along the underside edge of the Jeep using a 8mm socket. This will leave a metal strip that is riveted to the body.

You can either drill out the rivets, or grind off the heads of the rivets as I did. The grinding is messy, and sprays bits of aluminum and metal over the vehicle, so I would reccommend drilling. If you do not have the Sahara model, simply unbolt the fender extension behind the front flare.

Then you will want to cut the tabs off that the bottom bolts threaded into. I used a dremel tool with some good cut off discs from Sears. They are small, and you will want to take your time to cut them cleanly. After removing them I reccommend sanding, priming and painting the surfaces so they don't rust.

Prep

I asked Dave at AEV about the possiblity of dirt, salt and rocks getting between the guards and the rocker panel and causing rust. He stated that they didn't have any problems and recommended applying a bead of silicone around the top edge of the guard to keep out salt and dirt. Living in the rust belt and owning multiple Jeeps I know how bad the rust can be, and how easily the salt finds its way into cracks.

I opted to have Rhino Linings sprayed on the surfaces of the Jeep that the Rocker Guards will come in contact with. The Rhino spray bonds directly to the metal of the Jeep. This did make fitting the guards a bit tought since the Rhino is about 1/8" thick on the bottom and sides of the Jeep, but I think the combination works well. Depending on where you live, this may or may not be a problem. If you think or know that you will be in areas with a lot of salt on the roads, or constantly submerging this part of the jeep in water or mud, I would consider taking extra measures to assure nothing gets between the two.

Dave suggested to put nothing between the guard and the body of the Jeep stating that it added a moment to the setup because of the compression of the material(Rhino) under load. He also stated that this could possibly weaken the fasteners over time. I don't expect to have any problems, but will keep an eye on the seutp. Also since my Jeep was white and I was trying to keep it mostly that color I took the AEV rocker guards to the local powder coating shop. Powder Coatings Plus in Baltimore, MD took the black guards and applied a white powder coat that very closely matches the Jeep stone white color. The powder coating is much more durable than paint.

The black powder coat on the AEV guards was done very well. Dave stated that they use a five stage powder coating process now on the guards. I just wanted white instead of black, and that was not an option from AEV.

Fitting

Now is when the helper comes in handy. Lift the guard into place on the Jeep. Make sure to be careful to clear the flares as you raise it. We found it easist to use two people to lift the guard into place, then have one person hold it there while the other used a jack with a 4x4 block to secure it in place. IMPORTANT! Once raised and secured, make sure the guard is FIRMLY in place from front to back. If the guard is not 100% flush with the bottom of the body, this will leave a gap between the guard and body.

I used a paint marker to mark the exterior hole locations on the black Rhino. Once marked you can remove the guards and drill the holes. I had a bit of a problem installing the supplied jacknut. It seems that while installing my first jacknut the tool became warped and stopped working. While installing my second jacknut, the threads of the nut ripped from the body of the jacknut! I was tightening them too much and they are VERY easy to over tighten. Especially if you have installed the solid style nutserts that are commonly used with aftermarket Jeep parts.

Guys, these jacknuts do not take much pressure or revolutions of the bolt to compress. My suggestion is to assemble the bolt through the tool, then into the jacknut finger tight. Slide it into the hole in the Jeep body and make one revolution with the supplied allen key. Now remove the bolt and tool and look how compressed the jacknut is. Repeat this operation until the jacknut is CLOSE to being fully compressed. Stop there. It will fully compress upon finaly installation of the guard when you tighten the bolt. Since I had ruined my tool I had to come up with another solution which was to use some vice grips loosely clamped to the outside ring of the jack nut.

Once all the holes are drilled and the jack nuts installed in the body, it is time to install the guard. Lift the rocker guard back into place and secure with the jack. Now install the two bolts that thread into the jack nuts. Tighten until the rubber washers squash out a bit and stop. Remember not too tight.

Now place the inside bracket into the tub and insert the bolts through the guard, tub then bracket. Place the supplied nylock nuts on the bolts and tighten. Finally insert the last bolt through the front most hole (#1 according to the installation instructions) and fender. Place the supplied large washer and finally the nylock nut. The next step is to rivet the under side of the rocker guards. I used the jack to hold the bottom of the guard tight to the body in each section while riveting. Jack up guard tight to body, drill hole then install the water proof style rivet. Take your time, and make sure you push the rivet up flush against the guard before compressing. Rivet the inside bracket to the tub of the Jeep using the standard rivets.

Re-install the bolts you removed for you fender flares. For extra protection from salt, AEV reccommends using 3M Rubberized Undercoating on the bottom area of the rocker and the surrounding underside of the tub. This should help in areas where you may see a lot of salt on the roads. You should be able to find this at your nearby Walmart store.

Testing