Rear Quarter Panel Protection

So I dont know how I have gone this long without hitting the rear overhang on my Tacoma! I have come close a few times, but never hit it. With the upcoming Rubicon run, I decided it was time to take precautions before I did some damage.

Here is the before picture.

The first step was to remove the fender flares, and remove part of the fender liners.

Next, we figured out where we wanted to cut the panel off, then masked it to protect the paint.

Once the mask was on, we made the lines where we were going to cut.

The rear area we made a rough guess, and figured we would see what it looked like when we started cutting.

It was then time to start cutting!

We figured we would take off some in the corner, then see where we needed to go from there.

Here is the rear with both sides cut.

Next the edges were cleaned up.

Off came the tape. The corners would need some more taken off, but we will wait until later.

Here are the "spare" parts we created.

We put the bumper back on, and started to figure out the protection design.

I cut the flares off so we could hold them up and see how they would fit the new lines.

Eric had already cut the square tube, and he drilled holes and slotted the ends so we could angle them.

Making the slots in the square tubes.

Tubes done.

Eric welded bolts into the tubes.

A hole was made in the rear bumper, and then we could set up the tube and move onto the hoop.

We made some initial measurements and started bending tube.

The fist was great as far as the angles were concerned, but it needed to be slightly longer, so back to the bender!

Note the "dirt shadow" from the flare.

The second try was perfect!

We then started to give the square tube some support. We used one bolt from the spare tire crossmember, and made another new one in the frame also.

Here you can see the spare tire mount with the arrow pointing to the bolt we removed.

With a L shaped bracket, it bolts to the bottom and side of the frame.

Bending the second hoop.

Tacking the hoops on.

Here is what the finished product looks like! The ends are capped, welds smoothed, etc.

From the Bottom...

The front piece ties two the frame from the side and bottom, and there is also a tag that catches the bed mount. With this setup, you can use a highlift and jack the truck up without the guard moving any.

From behind...

From the front. You can also see the tag that mounts to the body mount.

We also added to the Bent-Up rear bumper. Because of the clearance of the bumper to my walk in door (see next picture) I had been concerned that if the bumper got pushed on too much it could move up and hit the door. We added pieces under the bumper mount that both add side to side strength, and prevent it from coming up any as they go tight under the frame.

The two bars going at an angle will help prevent the bumper from twisting if it is hung up on somehting. (bottom edge from rotating outward / back from the truck.)