**Building Skid Plates for an E36: A DIY Project**

When it comes to modifying a car, protecting the underside from damage is crucial. One popular modification is building skid plates, which can shield vital components from rocks and debris on the road. In this article, we'll follow along with Zach Jobe as he builds skid plates for an E36.

**Step 1: Designing the Skid Plate**

Zach begins by designing the skid plate, creating a template to cut out using a jigsaw. He sketches two panels, one over here and one over there, which will serve as the basis for his skid plate. "So kind of cut in some sort of shape like this," he explains, referring to the template.

**Step 2: Cutting Out the Skid Plate**

With the template in hand, Zach cuts out the skid plates using a jigsaw. He carefully shapes the panels, creating holes for mounting hardware later on. "It is time to finish these skid plates up," he says, as he begins welding the braces and adding holes for mounting.

**Step 3: Welding the Braces**

Zach welds the braces together, creating a strong structure that will support the skid plate. He also adds holes for mounting hardware, ensuring a secure fit.

**Step 4: Adding Hardware**

Next, Zach adds hardware to the skid plates, drilling holes in advance to simplify the process. He uses rivnuts and bolts to secure the hardware, creating a solid connection.

**Step 5: Painting and Assembly**

With the skid plates complete, Zach gives them a quick coat of paint using Krylon Colormax paint and primer. "That is pretty much a skid plate," he says, as he begins assembling the parts.

**Step 6: Trimming and Testing**

Zach trims the skid plate to fit perfectly in the fender well, ensuring a smooth finish. He tests the skid plates at various angles, confirming that they work effectively.

**Conclusion**

With the skid plates complete, Zach has successfully protected his E36 from damage. As he reflects on the project, he notes that while the exposed hardware may be a drawback, the benefits of the skid plate far outweigh any minor inconvenience.

**Final Thoughts**

Zach concludes by emphasizing the importance of protecting your car's underside. "A flag isn't just a decoration," he says, as he proudly displays his Donut flag. "Get your Donut flag right now at donutmedia.com and let the world know that you believe cars are for everybody."

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(bell rings)- This is my oil panand it holds all my oil.This is a rock from the desertand there's a lot of rocks in the desert,and they all want to make myoil come out of my oil pan.So today we got to make some protectionto protect my oil pan from these rocks.We're gonna make a skid plate.I can't wait.(upbeat music)Huge thanks to eBay Motorsfor sponsoring this season of Money Pit.We couldn't have donethis show without them.And by now you all know thateBay Motors is the best placeto buy or sell your parts and cars,and trust us, we know,because we used it to find our E36.I've been talking for weeksabout how focused they are onmaking a secure automotivemarketplace for car folk like us.They've got the ability toguarantee the car you'regoing to buy is the car you're getting.And I can guarantee thatyou'll find almost anything youneed to get your ownmoney pit up and runningon eBay Motors.Click the link in the description belowand get started today.Now let me get back to the pit.In case you haven't been paying attention.We recently bought this one stock BMW E36,and we've been modifying it to be a funrally-inspired car thatwe can rip off road.Now sure you can drive a stockcar off road to some success,but we want this carto be better than that.We want it to be more reliable than that,and we want it to look cooler than that.So we've been testing outa bunch of rally inspiredmodifications over the pastfew months and finding outwhether or not they're worth all the time,money, and effort thatthey take to install.And that's what we're doingtoday with a DIY skid plate.All right.So you might not think of askid plate when you think ofreally cool mods to do to a car.But this, like I said,is supposed to be drivenoff road and off road,there are a lot of rocks,especially where we'regoing and those rockscan get kicked up andsmash our undersides.And some of our undersidesare pretty importantand pretty vital.So I want to make sure they're protected.So today we are going tobuild some skid platesto protect the engine and its oil pan.And I want to protect the gastank because I don't reallywant that stuff spewing outeither, that could blow me up.So today we're going to usesome aluminum and we're going tomake a nice burly skidplate for the whole front,basically, including the engine.And I've got some reallydense plastic kind of stuffcalled UHMW that I'm gonnause for the gas tank.There's going to be alot of manual labor here,a lot of holding heavy stuff upand tracing things and makingtemplates, a lot of work.So I thought it'd be nice tohave an extra set of hands.So I brought a friendalong, that's Anthony.- Hello?- So the first thing we'regoing to need to do isfigure out how we're going toattach this thing to the car.We're probably going to haveto build some standoffs.There's probably gonna be some welding,some cutting involved.And we're also going to haveto make a template and tracethe shape that we want to make this,probably out of cardboardso that we can cut it out of this.- This'll be easy. Theydo it all the time.- Yeah, they do it all the time.- They?- Yeah.- This is a four foot byfour foot sheet of aluminum.It's three sixteenths inches thickand it costs about $265,which is pretty expensive.That's about how much anaftermarket skid plate goes for.Problem I have with aftermarketskid plates is that a lot ofthem don't really protectthe oil pan that well.So I figured we'd buy a big sheetthat's a little bit bigger than we needand make one to suit our needs.- And there's really nothingon the market for gas tanks,our quarter-inch UHMW cost about $175.You know, it's cheaperthan a whole gas tank.- And so we spent a grandtotal of about $450.Now there's going to besome elbow grease involved.I don't know what that's worth.- It's not cheap. I can tell you that.- The grease?- The grease.- Cardboard, the most handiestfabrication tool of all,we're going to cut a skidplate out of cardboard.It's a lot easier thantaking a first crack at itout of aluminum.We'd probably end up wastingall that money we spent.So we'll make it out of cardboard.Then we'll make it out of aluminum.It's going to go around thefront here kind of wide,and then it'll get a littleskinnier and come back insideof the control arms, protect the oil pan,and then it can stop just past the oil panas far as I'm concerned.(upbeat music)We're just making a shape.And then ultimately wehave to make it againout of metal, as I make it, you know,I'm kind of erring on the sideof too big and we can alwayscut a little bit more off andjust kind of honing in on.All right. So I'm justgoing to pop some holes.We're going to put ourrivnuts up in this bar,and I'm just going to put someholes through the cardboardand make marks in that bar.That way, as long as wemake the aluminum piecethe same as this cardboardpiece, our holes will line up.That's how we'll mount upthe rear, three holes across.I mean, I probably couldhave like evenly spaced them,but no thank you.Not today.Now we need to do the same thing.We're going to physically putrivnuts up in the subframeas well and do a couple ofmounting points here and here.So I've got to get those figured out.How's that look?- Oh yeah, we're good.Send it.- Should have some nicemarks on the sub framewhere we'll make bigger holesto install rivnuts later.Now we can cut this thingout of the aluminum.- It's time to cut.- Look, we got just enough aluminum.Timber!All right, now I'm readyto cut this skid plate,and I'm going to use a jigsaw to do it.I've got a metal blade on here,and I think this is going tobe basically the most efficientway to get through thisquickly and I'll be able tomanipulate it pretty well tomake the shape that we want.(upbeat music)All right.So one of the problemswith cutting aluminumis that a gums stuffup, it's kind of soft.And so if you're using aband saw or a cutoff wheelor a jigsaw that we're using,you'll often run into aluminumgumming your thing up.And as you can see, we've got this here.We've made it about threeinches and then the teethare filled with aluminum.It doesn't come out,the blade quits cutting,and it kind of sucks.- The slow blade speedand a slow feed speedmanaged to make that lastblade last a lot longer.She's done.- I'm going to make a knife out of that.- You look likea Final Fantasy character.- That looks like a skid plate.- Yes, right here we do have,in theory, the skid plate.- So now that we've got theshape cut out on and put thetemplate back on here and we'regoing to go ahead and makethe holes that we marked out earlier.So we'll put holes in the skid plate,then we'll put rivnuts inthe car and we should be ableto mount this thing up as we tested it.(upbeat music)All our holes are really close,but they don't quite line upby like very small amounts.So I'm just gonna make theseholes a little bit biggerthan the skid plate, give usa little more wiggle room.- We kind of did it.- We definitely totally did it.- It's up and I'm not holding it.- I mean, that's a skid plate.We need to attach it a little bit more.But that is a skid plate.So we need to make a brace to mountthe front of the skid plate to.So basically all I'm going todo is make a little foot padthat goes up here and thenwe'll weld a tube to it.It'll come down here to another foot padthat'll bolt up to the skid plate.So I'm just measuring right now.I think this is what I'mgonna use for the foot pads,trying to get a size determined.These foot pads are goingto be four inches long.And they're each gonna have two holes on.This is going to be one of our braces.I'm gonna go cut this off.It's just shy of eight inches.This is basically goingto be the brace set up.It's going to be like this and like that,pretty simple, not toopretty, not too fancy,but it is going to work.So I'm going to put theskid plate back up nowand make sure that this length is right,that I don't need to shortenthis or hopefully notadd anything to it.They fit pretty nicely now,I've got them shaped up just right.We'll go get started onthat gas tank protection.So the gas tank is on kind ofboth sides of the car here.So we're gonna need tomake two little panels,one over here and one over here.You know what it is?Template time.So kind of cut in somesort of shape like thisand make a hole here, mount it there.Then, once the welder'sback up and running,I'll weld a little plate fromhere, like a little rectangle,it hangs over that thiswill kind of slip intoand that we can put holesin and fasten it to.I think that'll work just fine.I think we're going to cut these outwith that jigsaw again,but nothing to use.Last time I get to do this.Texas.Texas 2.0, clean the fur off this thing,and then look at putting them up.(upbeat jazzy music)It is time to finish these skid plates up.I'm going to take this skid plate offand weld up our braces,put some holes in here tomount it to the front bumper.And then this will be done.Damn.(upbeat music)Well there's a little bit ofsplattery but that makes sensecause we kind of have a hodgepodgeof parts holding the tip together.But for this project,that'll be just fine.That'll be strong enough.So now I need to,I forgot I need to makethese holes a touch biggerfor the hardware that'sgoing to go through themand then we can add theholes to the skid plate,put it back up and look at our work,and marvel at its glory.All right. We're outin the paint booth now.I'm going to give thesea quick hit of KrylonColormax paint and primer in flat black,just to keep these things from rusting.That is pretty much a skid plate.Now I want to put somehardware through the frontof the plate and the bottomof the bumper right here.I already made a couple holes.Put some more hardware through it.And then the front's done done.Solid. Solid.(upbeat music)Let's see if we're going tohave to trim this thing anymore.Or if it just fits.Now if you take a peek,skid plate does line up prettywell with the fender wellor the fender liner.So that gives me hope thatwe're going to be okay.Well it works at full droop.Oh yeah, it works.And the higher it goes,the better it works.So as long as the otherside is good as this,we're looking all right here,I will say the only thingthat I really don't like aboutthis skid plate that we justmade is this exposed hardware.You know,if I bash one of these on a rockand just shear the head off,then it's kind of goingto be a pain to get out,but it shouldn't be too badsince all these are connectedby either these braces orrivnuts that I've put in.So if I do break a bolt offand just drill the whole rivnutout and insert a new one,but I think it would be betterif we reassess this hardwareso it was hidden.Or I was thinking about justkind of cutting some chunks ofaluminum out to makelittle kind of shieldsfor the hardware.Maybe if I break a bunch of hardware,then I'll add hardwareguards to the skid plate.(trumpet music)(triumphant music)- A flag isn't just a decoration.A flag represents an idea,a community of people and the qualitiesfor which they stand.- And if you believe in Donut's message,that everyone can like cars,then what better way toshow it than with a bad-assDonut flag, hang it in your garage,hang it in your bedroom or watch it waveproudly on your at-home flag pole.I'd say they're available for only $19.98,which is so much cheaper than $20.So get your donut flagright now at donutmedia.comand let the world know that you believethat cars are for everybody.(upbeat music)(upbeat music)- All right, mission accomplished.We got some skid plateson the front of the E36and we've got the gastank covered from damage.This thing's ready for abeating from underneath.And so the next thing we needto do is go back to the desertand test out all our mods andsee if they were all worth it.See if we can beat thelast time that I set,but that's going to befor the next episode.So thanks for coming to thisone. I hope you enjoyed it.I hope you learned a thingor two, had some fun.I know I did.Until next time you cango follow me on Instagram@zachjobe and follow Donut @donut media.And I'll see you guys in two weeks.Goodbye.