Mopar Rockrail maintenance

[SurfGuitar141]

Over the last few trips under my '05 Renegade, I've been noticing the effects of close to 5 years of driving on the beach, over winter time road salt, and the occasional creep through salt water during Nor'Easter storms.

Mopar rockrails are not immune to the corrosive effects of salt, and mine were really showing it, so this morning they came off.....

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First thing I did since I knew a trip to the hardware store was going to be a part of this project, was to shoot a blast of Tri-Flow into the threaded inserts, and put the bolts back in with just enough torque to keep them in place. The Tri-Flow helped to wash out the rust and grit that were in the threads.
next I popped the plastic end caps off, sprayed the rails down with Greez-Off high strength soap, scrubbed with a stiff bristle brush, rinsed, and let dry.....

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This is only a third of the rust that came out of the end of the rails, I had two more piles like this before I was done.....

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While waiting for the rails to dry I took a photo of the Renny without her rails on......

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Then the wire brush, slag hammer, and 80 grit emery cloth went to work on them......

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Two coats of Rustoleum Hammer finish black....(Rustoleum has two grades of hammer finish, one is formulated for multi surfaces like plastics, the other is for metal....I always use the one for metal)......

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And this is how she looks with her newly finished rockrails.......

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I'm seriously thinking about doing the rims with this paint next......

 

[HoosierJeeper]

Looks good, but leave the rims. Rene 05-06 rims are my favorite on KJ's.

 

[Dave]

The rock rails look good. Nice job. But I think you should leave the rims as is. I agree with HJ on those Renne rims.

Dave

 

[SurfGuitar141]

I've kicked the idea of painting the rims around for a while, and always stop myself from doing it. I guess I feel the same way, and they are in showroom condition so it's not like I'd be painting them for protective reasons, it would be for appearances alone......

I'll probably leave them as is....

But the rockrails do look better in hammer black then the silver they were painted with......

 

[04 Silver Renegade]

That looks really good. I have to do that to mine also....The rust is starting to aggravate me!!!!

 

[brucebotti]

That looks great. I'm going to have to do the same thing on my '05 Rene. I like the black better than the silver that's on there now.
Bruce

 

[Luke]

Looks good ... just did mine with bedliner. Mine were rusted almost exactly as yours were, in the same spots.

P.S. HJ's right ... love my rims!

http://www.jeepkj.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44594

 

[boebr1]

Any thoughts on welding a piece of angle iron to the bottom, and outside edge of this hollow tube for more slide capacity, and weld points for making hi-lift jack points, or even a removable step for kids and girlfriend after i lift and re-tire it? just an idea brewing in my head for this summer

 

[staindvans]

i would totally leave the rims as they are, i love the renny rims. i actually just took my rock rails off to pain them the other day. going to take the skids plates off tomorrow so i can paint them as well. as soon as it stops raining that is.

Any thoughts on welding a piece of angle iron to the bottom, and outside edge of this hollow tube for more slide capacity, and weld points for making hi-lift jack points, or even a removable step for kids and girlfriend after i lift and re-tire it? just an idea brewing in my head for this summer

do you think it would be hard to do something like this. or does somebody make rock rails that act as a step as well. would be helpful for shorter people to get in a lifted jeep.

 

[boebr1]

do you think it would be hard to do something like this. or does somebody make rock rails that act as a step as well. would be helpful for shorter people to get in a lifted jeep.

I thought I read on here somewhere that the Rock Lizard rails weren't being made anymore... I figure my idea will be pretty fairly priced since I will do the welding myself. I am sure it won't be as stout as the rails that you could buy, but I also don't do a lot of ********* wheeling anymore either... Gonna keep the Liberty mild, and buy something else for the ******** stuff, Like an older cherokee... either the big or little one