Installing Side Steps

Whether you found yourself a set of original side steps (good for you!), or you settled on a set of reproduction ones, below you will find some side by side comparisons and some installation tips.

 

Here is an NOS side step.

Bottom of the NOS step.

Note on this set, the left mount (rear) is about 1" shorter, this is because this one mounts to the hat channel.

Side view.

These are the original steps on Steve Chabot's CJ-3B.  Take note of the slanted bracket on the left, and the bolt through the side of the body.  It appears that the early steps mounted beside the hat channel and not on it.  It was also bolted through the side of the body.

 

This is a photo of one of Robert Baker's original steps.  You can see that the bracket in the top of the photo is slanted.  It actually slants back, but in this photo, since the step is bent, it looks like the slant is from the back side.

 

So, you want to install some reproduction steps?  Here is a comparison of the NOS bracket (bottom), and the repro (on the top).

NOS side bracket (bottom), repro on the top.  All four side brackets on the repro steps are 1" shorter than the original ones.

Here is my converted side bracket to mount the repro steps like the original mounting style (see below for details).

Here is the NOS rear mount.  You can see it mounts to the hat channel. 

It appears that the original step mounting style was just behind this hat channel flush with the floor.

And here is my second generation rear bracket installed.

The final install.

  

 

Here is how to install reproduction steps, or how to convert that NOS tread you found on Ebay.

Actual original steps are pretty hard to find, and if you do, they are pretty mangled.  The reproduction ones being made now are a decent copy, but that's about it.  The original steps had a diamond pattern, not like the circles you see on these.

 

The brackets supplied seem to be for a CJ-5 because there is no way the steps would mount without some modification to them.  The supplied bracket is on the left, and my modified bracket is on the right.

To modify the bracket I remove the x'd out portions with the plasma cutter.

The strip of metal on the right will get bent in, then the top mounting tab (on the bottom in this photo) gets reversed.

A bent and welded bracket is on the left.

The finished brackets ready for paint.

The only thing I did not do was bolt the left bracket through the side of the body like in the original photos above.

To mount the NOS tread, just remove the bottom mounting brackets.

I swapped over the mounting brackets and then gave them a coat of gloss black paint.

Most people wouldn't even know these steps are not original.