Rock Sliders for your 4Runner for under $130

I made these rock sliders to armor up the sides of our 4Runner for some future awesome adventures.
Here are the details...

Measurements....
I made the rock sliders 68" long. Whatever your rocker length (the length between your wheel wells) make your sliders 4" less than that length.
All the angles are 45degrees as I think that looks good, but you could probably make the rear kickout angle a bit less, say 30degrees so it comes into the back of the slider further along the side of the vehicle. That would make the kickout a bit longer and likely look a bit more balanced.
The extension arms that attach the main rail to the frame plates are 8" long and on my 4Runner (07 Sport) that puts the main rail directly under the pinch weld of the rocker panel. However once you've made them you'll place them under the rocker area of your truck and see where they need to be, then measure the distance to the frame. Measure in each spot in case it's not the same on each side or even along each side.
I have a 3" space between the main rail and the outer rail (I think I may have said in the video somewhere it's 4").
The kickout is just 2" further out than the outer rail.
For getting the upsweep angle I chose 5 degrees as I like that look. The higher the angle the more clearance you're going to have.
To measure the angle with use a level/measuring app on your phone. Put the sliders into place on the side of your vehicle and place them in an angle you like. Then, with your truck level, measure the angle of your rock sliders.
Then, with your sliders on a flat surface, take your extension arms and butt them up against the main rail of the sliders. Tilt each one up to the desired angle (measure again with your app) so the bottom of the extension arm moves away from the rock slider and the top of the extension arm stays in contact with the slider. Carefully tilt down/lower the extension arm to lay on the ground without letting the bottom edge on the ground shift positions. Then measure the gap that you just created. Mine was about 4mm. So I drew a mark 4mm in from the top of the extension arm and angled a cut line down to the bottom edge and just cut out that angle. Then when I welded the extension arms to the sliders that angled the rock sliders up the right amount.

Materials
Six 6ft lengths of 2" x 2" steel square tube. I used 3/16th" wall thickness but you could probably use 1/8". 3/16th is a lot heavier and beefier but I'm ok with that.
One 4-5ft piece of 4.5 to 6" wide steel plate, by 3/16" thick (for the plates to attach to the vehicle frame and for the support gussets
Strip and Clean angle grinder discs (great for getting mill scale off the steel to prep for painting (https://amzn.to/2W8wXhd)
Harbor Freight Titanium Unlimited 200 welder using 240volts but this would work on 120volts. I used 0.035 steel MIG wire (https://amzn.to/2W2rCbf) $31 with shielding gas.
When I welded the 3/16" tubing together I set it at 260 wire speed, 19.5 volts and 7 inductance. To paint I wiped them down nicely with acetone and then taped off the edges of the plate where I was going to weld them to the frame of the vehicle and then took a sanding disc on the angle grinder to the areas I'd marked off on the frame during test fitting. To coat the sliders I painted them up with ...
Primer - 2 coats Rustoleum Self Etching Primer (just bought this from Lowes)
Paint - 2 coats Rustoleum Flat Black spray Enamel (https://amzn.to/3743xaq)
One coat of TruckBed liner spray. I think I used Duplicolor but whatever you have that will give it some texture (or whatever finish you're looking for) will be great.

Don't forget to disconnect the negative wire from your battery before welding.
When done welding and everything has cooled down (it will take a while) then hit the welds and frame sanded areas with some black rust preventive paint. I used a paintbrush and some Tremclad and dug into the welds etc to make sure I got good coverage.

Disclaimer:
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