Sal-XK's Garage

[IamJEEP]

I'm going to be honest with you Sal.............. At first look/read I was thinking to myself, "wow he's going to ruin his bumper". Then after seeing the finished (or semi-finished) product, I was like "Damn that looks awsome". I can't wait to see it with the skids on it! Great job, bro keep the mods coming.

On a side note..........I had joined a local Jeep forum with a bunch of guys in my area. None exept for maybe two of them have paid me any attention because I drive an XK. They all have CJ, QJ, BJ, whatever they are called and don't believe my XK is a real Jeep. It's a shame that I can't even hang out with these guys in my own town because of the critizism and idioticy of "A Real Jeep". Honestly, I don't really give a crap, I rather hang out with you guys any day. Sorry for the rant in your thread Sal, I'll remove it on your request.

Caleb

[Sal-XK]

Caleb, It's all good I feel the same way you just have to get out on the trail with them and show them whats up but it sounds like guys I wouldn't want to wheel with anyway. I had a vision of what it would look like and barring any mistakes I knew it would look better then stock but it turned out better then I thought. I'm expecting the front guard to finish that look off.

My armor from 4xGuard will be here tomorrow!!!!!!! I ordered it sunday afternoon they said 3-5 days processing then shipping. Well, great job to them because looks like I'm going to get my stuff at my door in 3 business days from order to arrival thats pretty darn good.

[Sal-XK]

Went out to install my new 4xguard front and belly skids today. First once again I got my shipment fast it arrived in three business days. I started on the belly guard first I had one friend over who had helped me cut up the front bumper and stuff. Once I figured out which bolts went where it wasn't to bad at all. Except for the bolt on the passenger side that comes with the stick thing (nut on a stick) that you hold and it has a threaded hole to bolt the skid up. Great idea but I couldn't hold or put enough pressure downward to get the thread bolted in, it would just push the nut on a stick away. I used a string that I looped threw the so I could pull down on the stick to keep the nut part in place.



Now on to the front skid. Some issues installing this which I thought it would be the easiest one to do. The hose relocation bracket didn't work out the sway bar was in the way. The funny part is I ended up putting the hose bracket right back where it belonged the stock location worked fine. Slightly disappointed that some of the hardware wasn't grade 5 not sure what class it was. Reusing the bottom bumper bolts made me uncomfortable when paired with the self tapping bolts that came with it. I over do everything so this is just me I decided not to use the self tapping screws and just drilled my own holes and used grade 5 nuts and bolts with a healthy heaping of Lock tight the red bottle. While I was at it I turned my hooks upside down (Grade 8 hardware) not happy I had to but they didn't fit any other way. So I trimmed and mounted the bumper what seemed like several times, the hooks just kept hitting the bumper.



Any way took a couple of hours wasn't hard and I had fun doing it. The skids look awesome and gave the XK a new look a meaner look especially with my trimmed bumper. The belly guard lined up perfectly with all the holes the front skid did as well. So now I can't wait to get out and put these threw some abuse

[WanderingTs]

I am glad to see you added 4XGuard to your rig so I could see what mine would look like. Now my problem is I think you have added another project to my "to do" list. That looks awesome and I want it!

[NeilSmith]

Is your concern about the hooks being pointed down that the strap may slide off ? Try to fab a little spring clip like this. Seems pretty simple and would do the trick.

[Sal-XK]

Thats exactly my concern and that is a good idea. Great now my bumper has to come off again LOL

[NeilSmith]

lol