what did you seal the nut certs into the body with? some kind of glue right?
To anyone attempting to do the exoskin install I highly recommend getting every single bolt in and threaded before fully tightening any single bolt. If you don't there is a good chance one of them won't get started and you'll have to back them all out anyway! Start tightening in the middle and work your way out and down.
what did you seal the nut certs into the body with? some kind of glue right?
The nutserts crimp themselves onto the body as you mount them. I painted the inside of the drilled holes and each hole was an EXACT fit, 17/32nds. The tighter the hole, the better the rivet nut would grab onto the body. It takes a LOT of force to install a 3/8 16 rivet nut!
Its been a crazy busy few nights trying to knock out these fenders and fender liners. The first fender took me almost 3 hours to knock out. Partially because I got mostly done with one then had to remove it to enlarge some previously drilled holes. Ugh. The second one only took about an hour. Adding to the delay was me being extremely careful not to bang up the jeep or fenders. I'd rather do that on the trail!
The driver's side metalcloak aluminum wheel wells and splash guards went in pretty well. You have to drill through the front body mount to add in a stand-off for structural fender support. That was a nightmare as I assume my bit was not super premium. Took quite a while to drill a small hole, and then enlarge it to the require 3/8". Once done, it looks nice and protects most everything!
Got the passenger side done in less than half the the time. Turns out the 2012 has a new wiring harness right on the firewall that doesn't allow installation of the rear fender well piece directly. I went on metalcloakinstructions.com (a new forum for issues) and it appears I have to remove the harness and re-mount it a bit higher in the body to clear the aluminum wheel well. I'll get to that another day, but before I go driving through puddles.
Just can't squeeze it in there. The hole in the picture below is supposed to be about 2 inches to the left!
Passenger side fender and front splash guard installed!
Did you change drive shafts?
I truly do not like the dark cherry color, but this jeep is very well done. I can't wait to see the finished product.
Pete. I didn't Chang the shafts just yet. They aren't making any noise and I figured I let the front get close to failure before replacing. I did have to add spacers to the exhaust to clear the front driveshaft boot. The angles are a bit harsh with this much lift so I will 100% have to replace them.
Had my rear wheel wells plasti-dip coated by a local shop that does this type of work. He'll do a whole car in custom colors and finishes (pearl, metalflake, etc) so matte black in the wheel wells was a simple operation.
He did the fronts too..just the visibly red portions not covered by my aluminum fender liners.
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