Among all the different parts we received when we purchased the 109 were five original folding steps. All of them had some percentage of the orginal rubber mat and all of them had quite a bit of rust damage. In addition, the mounting arms on two or three of them were bent pretty badly. It looked like the truck had either caught them on a rock or stump or had actually settled its weight on them, folding them upwards towards the door sills.
Sand blasting the steps removed a lot more material than we were expecting. A couple of spots on the steps looked like swiss cheese afterwards but there was still enough steel in them to support at least 190lbs (which is what I weigh). We had the steps powder coated in a gloss black. Then, I took a strip of the left over horse matting that I used to make floor mats and cut out new treads for each of the steps. I drilled holes and bolted the treads on. It is not stock, but it looks pretty good. See the attached pictures.
About midway through this project, my wife and I were talking about how the 109 does not have much side impact protection. Aside from the ouriggers, there is nothing but thin sheet aluminum for eighteen inches or so before you get to the main chassis. And in those eighteen inches are the seats in which the driver (my wife) and our kids sit most of the time. So we decided that instead of installing the original folding steps, we would have some side step/sliders fabricated. In addition, I thought one of the rear steps that I have seen on Defenders would be nice to have.
This is where a good friend of ours, Paul Koch, comes in. Paul is a master welder and fabricator (Affordable Pordable in Duvall, Washington) and has the enviable ability to just look at something and then go make it out of steel, aluminum or whatever. Just before we left for a short vacation to Whistler, B.C. we described what we were looking for to Paul and left the 109 with him. When we returned, we had a pair of heavy duty side step/sliders, a rear step that is, essentially, a bumper and a bunch of other bonus items including:
Sand blasting the steps removed a lot more material than we were expecting. A couple of spots on the steps looked like swiss cheese afterwards but there was still enough steel in them to support at least 190lbs (which is what I weigh). We had the steps powder coated in a gloss black. Then, I took a strip of the left over horse matting that I used to make floor mats and cut out new treads for each of the steps. I drilled holes and bolted the treads on. It is not stock, but it looks pretty good. See the attached pictures.
About midway through this project, my wife and I were talking about how the 109 does not have much side impact protection. Aside from the ouriggers, there is nothing but thin sheet aluminum for eighteen inches or so before you get to the main chassis. And in those eighteen inches are the seats in which the driver (my wife) and our kids sit most of the time. So we decided that instead of installing the original folding steps, we would have some side step/sliders fabricated. In addition, I thought one of the rear steps that I have seen on Defenders would be nice to have.
This is where a good friend of ours, Paul Koch, comes in. Paul is a master welder and fabricator (Affordable Pordable in Duvall, Washington) and has the enviable ability to just look at something and then go make it out of steel, aluminum or whatever. Just before we left for a short vacation to Whistler, B.C. we described what we were looking for to Paul and left the 109 with him. When we returned, we had a pair of heavy duty side step/sliders, a rear step that is, essentially, a bumper and a bunch of other bonus items including:
1. an oval plate to mount three auxiliary gauges in the lower dash,
2. a box that mounts where the original auxiliary panel mounted that included three 12V power outlets, three switches and two expansion holes.
3. One of the switches now powered the light bar the previous owner had installed, but never hooked up. The other two are for the interior LED lights we are installing.
4. a completely reworked accelerator pedal and linkage that actually allows us to use the full power of the Chevy 6. As it turned out, the pedal/linkage had been adjusted such that when the pedal was on the floor, the throttle was only open 1/3. Now, it is possible to actually smoke the tires!
2. a box that mounts where the original auxiliary panel mounted that included three 12V power outlets, three switches and two expansion holes.
3. One of the switches now powered the light bar the previous owner had installed, but never hooked up. The other two are for the interior LED lights we are installing.
4. a completely reworked accelerator pedal and linkage that actually allows us to use the full power of the Chevy 6. As it turned out, the pedal/linkage had been adjusted such that when the pedal was on the floor, the throttle was only open 1/3. Now, it is possible to actually smoke the tires!One interesting little detail Paul discovered while installing the side steps was that the body of our 109 does not sit on the chassis straight. It is actually off by about and inch over the lenght of the truck! Fortunately, he built the side steps to be perpendicular to the chassis so everything will line up when we do the chassis swap.
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