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Step reinforcements were worse than I thought. That's the good one.
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I used 1/8" plate to make the reinforcement. I sprayed a thin coat of black paint on the bottom side and used a scribe to mark all the slots from the bottom (box is upside down). After rebuilding the braces, I bolted them in place and marked with a 90 degree scribe for the 8mm-1.25 bolts. The above pic does not have the brace holes drilled yet. The small center hole is only on the rear two steps and I marked it from the bottom and used it as a locator. I cut the slots with the plasma cutter and trued them up with a die grinder because I am not too steady with the plasma. The slots are simply clearance for the step pad retention tabs that grip the SMC box side. I cut the shape of the plates using the plasma and square tubing as a guide for a straighter cut.
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I bead blasted the parts and used two coats of epoxy primer. Nothing else is needed but I will hit them with some bedliner when I spray the underside of the SMC box sides.
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The braces were FUN. Above pic shows two nuts on inner side saved, two holes where nuts under step pad were removed. The Torx bolts took alot of effort. I have a bolt Buster mini inductor that heats the weld nut. I saved 5 of the 8 Torx bolts that are accessed inside the box. The four at each corner under the step pads were too far gone, not a chance. The process I used was to heat the weld nut until the nut and pointed end of the bolt glowed red. I would let each air cool then heat again heating just the nut, then let it air cool. The third time I heated it I would try to remove the bolt with the ratchet. The heating/cooling cycles breaks the rust bond in the threads. I did not want to try toilet bowl wax because of the mess getting down in my box seams.
For the broken bolts, I used a cutoff wheel on a 4 1/2" grinder and cut off the weld nuts. A file belt tool sanded the rest of the nut, I did not want to cut the brace. I run a unibit thru the holes to open them up, the weld nuts actually went into the hole in the brace a little, hard to describe but I made the hole big enough for the 8mm bolt to have a little adjustment. I did not weld nuts back in place, I figure to have a helper with a couple of the bolts and use a regular metric nut on them. The odds are slim I will ever take it apart again and not be able to reach both sides myself.
The last couple pieces have epoxy curing, I'll take pics of them installed next week.
I am having a difficult time finding 8mm-1.25 Torx head bolts to replace the ones I cut, my normal suppliers don't have them.
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