Here is my mod to the rocker panels. I did the same thing to the bronco years ago and it looked like a piece of 2x6 rectangle tubing would do the trick here.
It turned aout a little bigger that I had hoped. but due to the way the body was shapped it had to be that wide to protect all the places very well. I may come back and cut an 1' or so out of the outside section to taper the bottom up even further to try to get rid of the running board look.

I built a skid plate for it over the weekend that turned out really nice but the camera died so I can't get any pictures. I will post them up as soon as I can get my camera going again.

Jake

Looks nice.  One of these days I need to get sliders on mine.

Looks good  . I'd stick with the running board look, like you say it keeps the body off the big rocks/trees. Keeps the hi-lift off the body too. Taper the ends in and I reckon it'll look great, I'd weld a couple of plates to the underside or maybe fab some small recesses so that you can locate a hi-lift securely.
Thats exactly the sort of thing I'm considering to get rid of my rather dented sills. Does it go back to the back of the stock sill?

Nice job!,

I noticed that you got rif of the stock running boards right?

How do I do it?

I was thinkin bout takein them off my Vitara, but really don't know how.

Nice job, looks great! 

Impressive....most impressive...but you are not a jedi yet!

But Seriously they look awesome

Nice, I wanna do this to mine as my rocker panels are shot, what do you weld to underneath? do you have any shots with the door open? Does the door scrape on the weld?
Thanks!
~Dave

I cut right at the verticle line where the bottom flared out a little. then I bent the verticle piece flat so I'd have a stronger piece of metal to weld to. Slide it all the way until it is tight against the back of the original rocker panel metal and I welded it all the way along the out side and stitch welded it on the back side. There is probably 3/8" between the door and the tube.

I hope to have my camera replaced soon so I can get the rest of the pictures for ya. I tested everything out today and it worked great so far.

Jake

I like it.  How about some pics from underneath?