Benny posted on June 16, 2011 11:36
While crawling around under the jeep the other day I noticed some rust on the bottoms of the rock sliders. On the passenger side the paint was begining to bubble off. Well I decided this morning I was going to take them off an freshen them up a bit. Sounded like a quick morning project...Nope! The stock Rubicon rock sliders are fairly stout and work pretty good for how they are attached. Just 3 main bolts and 6 little nuts hold them to the body. They are not even attached to the frame at all, but they will hold the weight of the jeep on a rock and with the Hi-lift. I have smacked them pretty good a couple of times on some rocks when I drug the Jeep through the 311 trail at Evans Creek. My big gripe with the stock sliders are the clearance between them an the body. There is a small gap but not big enough to let dirt and junk get washed out, so it collects up and I can see it becoming a rust issue when the jeeps get older.
The rust: 
The Gunk build up: 
After I removed and brushing off the majority of the mud I took off the plastic end caps. Holy crap! even more rust inside....great. Just tapping the sliders on the ground and look at all the crap that fell out!
Pulled out the pressure washer and got the loose paint and dirt off. After searching the web I found a tip that several other Rubicon owners have done to curb the inner tube rust issue. The plan is to liberally coat the inner tube with oil, then fill the tube with expandable foam and sealing the end caps with RTV sealant. Probably just going to finish them off with the ole standby duplicolor bedliner spray.
Now off to the Hardware store.......to be continued