Daystar Jeep Renegade Rock Sliders Installed!

How u going to buy all that extra shit but not new tires?

 

My Renegade must be made from Valerian Steel or Vibranium or something because it took me hours and many different drill bits to get those holes through the pinch seam. 7 hours and only one side done. I'm dreading doing the other side Wednesday.

Any tips? I tried titanium and cobalt bits. Starting with a smaller size helped a bit but it kept breaking the smaller bits. I used a battery and an air drill. Even with my weight pushing against the drill and applying cutting oil I got nowhere. I also tried a stepper bit to no luck.

On the bright side, I ordered black rivets and they look so much better than the silver ones in my opinion.

 

Also, I think my dealer has been jacking this up using the pinch weld brackets because a couple of them were bent and I had to bend them back down just to cut them off. Only 2000 miles and I haven't hit anything so I didn't do it. Ugh.

 

I was using a stepper bit (unibit) but the one I was using didn't start small. It's smallest point was 1/4". Maybe I'll grab one with a smaller starting diameter for my next try. I was trying it fast and slow and plenty of cutting oil. The first (rear most) hole was easy. The rest were super tough. The front one was pretty much impossible. I did the passenger side first.

Also, on the passenger side there's a plastic guard that also connects to the pinch seam brackets that need to be cut out of the way. Your instructions (which Daystar ironically included a copy of in the package) did not mention that piece.

Thanks for the advice!

 

I'll try that, thanks.

On the bright side the rivets were fairly easy. I had a big, long hand operated rivet gun, not an air powered one. I got all of them done except the very front one. I'll have to find a hand rivet gun for the last one. The rivets were a welcome respite after fighting with the pinch seam all day long.

Also, I recommend anyone who does this job order some black head rivets. I'll post pics soon, but believe me they look real good! Worth the extra $12 for them. And that was a pack of 250... gotta go find other things to rivet now.

 

Would you say you found your purchase..... 'riveting'?

 

Hah! After the day I had yesterday I couldn't even make any rivet puns.

 

Well, job complete finally. I ended up measuring much better this time. That was the first positive. As far as the holes go, I center punched the crap out of the mark so the drill bit wouldn't walk. That helped. Then I used a cobalt 1/16" drill bit with lots of cutting oil to SLOWLY drill pilot holes. Once the pilot was through I used a Mulwaukee #1 small step bit to SLOWLY widen the hole to 1/4".

Worked great! Until on the 5th hole my 1/16" decided to leave a tiny part of its tip embedded in the hole. Any idea how hard it is to drill through a cobalt drill bit? Very.


Sorry, poor quality lighting here. I'll do better later.

Black rivets are your friends!

Also, the Daystar (@wayoflife ) instructions miss a few things, probably new for 2017 from when they were created in 2015.
On both sides there are a couple extra plastic shields going under the car connected to the pinch seam brackets. Those must be cut back past the seam.
Also on the driver side behind the front wheel is a heavy steel plate between the fender liner and the pinch seam. It does not need to be cut, and leaves just enough space for the rock slider to squeeze in behind it. The plastic fender liner then just needs to be carefully cut to look nice because it can't be tucked into anything. I'll try to get a picture later.

 

Did you ever get some pics of the fender liner plate? I could not get the slider to go on with the plate there and I would love to see how you got it all to line up!

 

Does anyone have or know how to get the technical drawings of this rock sliders??
In Brazil there's none on the market and I'd like to make one.

thanks in advance!