therza

A couple of weekends ago I installed a set of AL PSC Brawler Rockers. These are the kind of sliders that require drilling holes in the tub and installing nut-serts. I followed PSC’s instructions but ended up with one bolt that was off just enough to prevent it from seating completely flush, one on each side no less. I called PSC and they recommended drilling out the nut-sert and ovaling the hole out in order to install a new nut-sert in the direction it needed to go. That seemed a bit extreme, so I decided to try something else. I took deep socket and the nut-sert installation tool and “tweaked” the nut-sert in the direction I needed it to go in order for the bolt to fit flush. I did not turn the bolt, but rather used leverage to change the “direction” the bolt screws into the nut-sert. Go easy, it just takes a tiny movement to produce a change in how the final bolt fits. It is not Pebble Beach show car perfect, but you cannot see it unless you stick your face right over the bolt and stare at it. It sits maybe a millimeter or less up from the counter sunk whole. Good enough and a whole lot easier than drilling out the nut-sert and ovaling out the hole.

Having done this and thinking about it, if I had to do it over I would do it slightly different from the PSC instructions. PSC has you using the armor as a guide for drilling the holes. Problem is that they want a ¼’ pilot hole, but the bolt hole opening in the armor is slightly larger, thereby allowing for some margin of error when drilling the ¼” pilot hole. I tried to make sure I was centered each time, but doing it by eye means it was not perfect. I think this is how I ended up with one bolt on each side off just enough to prevent it from screwing in flush. Here is what I would do instead. I would find a drill bit that matched the size of the bolt holes in the armor piece that attaches to the tub. I would then use that drill bit to just make a very slight drill point in the sheet metal. You don’t want to actually drill a pilot hole of this size. Reason being it will be too close to the final hole size. When you go to drill the final hole, 25/64” for PSC, the bit will “walk” around in that large pilot hole. Rather use the drill bit that matches the bolt hole to mark the center of the circle – almost like using a punch to mark the center of the hole. Then remove the armor piece and drill a small pilot hole using the “mark” you created earlier. Then use the 25/64” bit to create the final hole for the nut-sert. This should give you a hole in exactly the location needed for the bolts.

The other source of error in locating the bolt holes is the nut-serts themselves. After you install them, you can see that the bolt hole inside the nut-sert is not always perfectly centered in the nut-sert. It was common for some of mine to be slightly off center. I think this is just part of the process of crushing the nut-sert. As it crushes, if it bites more on one side than the “other”, it will tend to pull the hole to that side. This error is very small and can be “fixed” by using the deep socket method mentioned above. I think if all my 25/64” holes had been dead on, the tiny error from the nut-serts would not have even mattered.

There were a few holes on both sides, by the front fenders where the inner sheet metal was close to the outer sheet metal. PSC warns you about 15 times in the instructions NOT to drill through the inner sheet metal. But there was not enough depth to get the nut-sert flush into the sheet metal. So I took a punch and dented in the inner sheet metal. After touching up the paint on the area I dented in, I could get the nut-sert to go in enough to be flush with the outer sheet metal. But the next problem I encountered was the bolt from the nut-sert installation tool. It protruded out past the nut-sert and contacted the inner sheet metal. I solved this problem by putting three washers under the head of the bolt of the nut-sert installation tool. This made the end of the bolt flush with the nut-sert, which is all it needs to be. See attached photos.



As long as I have written all this, might as well share my nut-sert installation technique. I used a somewhat low powered 20V battery impact gun. Installing the nut sert requires two wrenches – one to hold the sleeve of the nut sert tool and one to turn the bolt that crushes the sleeve. It is important to keep things straight and not allow the force of the wrench to distort the crushing process or you will almost certainly end up with a sleeve at an angle, which would cause issues with the bolts mounting flush. I found that the electric impact gun allowed me to keep things nice and level as I crushed the sleeve. The electric impact gun made short work of installing the nut-serts. And it saved a lot of time and effort. But I would not try it with a high powered air driven impact gun. I just bumped the trigger so as to apply very few impacts as a time. I don’t think an air driven impact gun would have that kind of control. You don’t want to over crush the nut-sert because the threads will strip right out. Now I know I over did a few of mine, but none of them stripped. One thing that was interesting is that if I put the gun in reverse to back the nut-sert tool out of the nut-sert and it spun backwards, meaning it was not yet crushed enough, I could just put the gun back on forward and resume crushing it. Worked pretty slick. So the key is don’t over do it! If the nut-sert is not sufficiently crushed, just keep crushing. No harm in stopping and checking. Once you strip the threads, its time to drill out the nut-sert and start over.

Using a battery powered impact gun (I also have a 120V electric impact gun and that worked well too.) really made inserting the nut-serts a simple and fast job. I have read about other people wrenching each nut-sert in by hand. That must really be a pain. The key was just bumping the trigger until the socket was only turning a couple of degrees on each trigger bump. And you can hear when the nut-sert is starting to get really tight. After I was done I experimented on a piece of scrap sheet metal to see what happens if you go to far. As long as I was just bumping the trigger on the impact gun, I could bump and bump and bump without stripping the threads. The nut-sert was pretty distorted from being over crushed, but still completely functional. If I held the trigger down on the gun, the threads in the nut-sert stripped like butter – it didn’t even slow the gun down! Be careful!

The PSC tub armor allows for some error in the bolt holes. Problem is I ended up with one (on each side) that was just out of tolerance and would not go completely flush. I think if I had removed all of the “error” in locating the bolt holes, the “error” from the nut-serts going a little off center would have been within the tolerances that PSC has built into the armor. PSC makes some great products and this post is by no means a ding on them. I am just trying to offer a possibly better way to install them, or any body-mounted armor. Hope this helps.

In the photo of the final product the light color around some of the body armor bolts is that damn anti-sieze grease that PSC recommends using - it just gets everywhere and is so hard to remove!

therza

Oh, almost forgot. I used a spray grease to keep the nut-sert installation tool well lubed. If you do that, it will last the entire install. Thanks Dave at Northridge for that tip!

BlkJck

HNY! Excellent write up, thanks for sharing. That armor is on my list, too.

hagausaf

wish I had known that before installing my fenders. I hate to make my own nutsert tool after stripping the shit outta the one that came in the kit after doing one fender.

BIGCHRIS

Thanks for the heads up, got the body armor for Christmas and can't wait to get it on and with all the advise it should go well, what do you think about trying a slight tap with a punch at the center of all the holes and then the 1/4" bit then pull it off go with the larger bit. thanks again for the tips and looks great.

therza

The problem is getting the punch exactly centered in the hole in the armor. Any little error can add up when you have 13 per side! And shadows in the light can distort where you "see" the center. Finally, its some pretty flimsy sheet metal - how hard do you hit that punch to leave a mark without leaving a dent? I still think finding a drill bit that just fits in the hole in the armor and spinning that in the bolt hole is the way to get it exact. If you need to, drop $20 at Sears for a nice set of split point bits. Well worth it.

PSC recommends installing the rockers first and then removing them for powder coating. After installing them, I can see why.

OverlandJKU

Use a clicker style center punch to mark. It won't distort the metal...

BIGCHRIS

I was thinking that the sheet metal might ding aswell but it wouldn't take much for a sharp punch to give a spot to start a bit from, I don't know what a clicker punch is but I'm open to any help before I get this going, I havn't looked at the directions yet but I guess it makes scence to paint or powder coat if there is a chance to chip it and creat a spot for rust to start,I'll put my last coat of paint on after all holes are in thanks guy's this site dose rock dosn't it.

xYike

Great stuff ... I am sitting here with steel bawler rocker and fenders out in the garage and I am glad I ran across this.

Now ... to find someone to powder coat in north Dallas!

xYike

I'm having this same problem. Google turned up a few similar report of this. I don't think it is due to aligning things wrong. If I erred in alignment, it was not in the direction that it would cause a problem. I have fished around in there with a punch to see what I an running in to ... just a glitch in their design or instructions? Maybe my model year had a slight change? (2011) I don't know what it is but both sides I have two that are problematic. If your punch method works, I will have to wait to try it in the morning. I have kids sleeping at the moment.