As some of you may know, Cindy and I did a little body damage to the rear end of our Jeep Gladiator. This happened out on the Rubicon and ironically, it was caused by factory corner guards that I had just installed. But, to be fair, I was not able to install the guards as they would have been from the factory and that most likely caused them push up into the pinch seams and buckle them. Here are a few shots of what the damage looked like.
What really sucks is that this isn't the first time we've done damage like this and it is why I was trying to prevent it by reinstalling the factory corner guards. The problem is, our EVO high and tight bumper sits above the pinch seam and so when you come off of a big rock or obstacle, the pinch seams were the first thing to get hit. Of course, what we really need, is for the bumper to be taking on the hits but that would mean, we'd need to install a bigger one and that really wasn't something we wanted to do. So, we decided to address the problem in a different way.
After getting the body damage repaired, we decided to go one step further and trimmed off the trouble spots. Specifically, we completely removed the pinch seams from the rear fender back. Essentially, everything that was being covered by the factory plastic trim. Of course, to make everything look right, we also removed the fender liners and black edge trim and here's what our Gladiator looks like now.
By trimming off the pinch seam, our rear bumper and frame rails have effectively become the lowest point on our Gladiator's rear end. And, for the most part, they should now be taking on all the hits. Well, that and maybe the 3rd muffler - something I may need to look into. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and really, this is something we should have done over 2 years ago.
Anyway, just thought I'd share what we did and with the hopes it can help others out.
What really sucks is that this isn't the first time we've done damage like this and it is why I was trying to prevent it by reinstalling the factory corner guards. The problem is, our EVO high and tight bumper sits above the pinch seam and so when you come off of a big rock or obstacle, the pinch seams were the first thing to get hit. Of course, what we really need, is for the bumper to be taking on the hits but that would mean, we'd need to install a bigger one and that really wasn't something we wanted to do. So, we decided to address the problem in a different way.
After getting the body damage repaired, we decided to go one step further and trimmed off the trouble spots. Specifically, we completely removed the pinch seams from the rear fender back. Essentially, everything that was being covered by the factory plastic trim. Of course, to make everything look right, we also removed the fender liners and black edge trim and here's what our Gladiator looks like now.
By trimming off the pinch seam, our rear bumper and frame rails have effectively become the lowest point on our Gladiator's rear end. And, for the most part, they should now be taking on all the hits. Well, that and maybe the 3rd muffler - something I may need to look into. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and really, this is something we should have done over 2 years ago.
Anyway, just thought I'd share what we did and with the hopes it can help others out.
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