I've been interested in this for awhile. To be honest I really wanted to do something with full coverage that covered the cat and everything. But Moots wanted something smaller cause apparently something as big as BartonMDs skid plate (or something bigger like I wanted) was "too much weight". I don't claim to understand it, I chock it up to "kids these days".
So he traded some bourbon, sharpies, and window vent shades for the trailblazer for steel and an evening of my time and electricity, I think I might still of lost out on the deal, but I like me some bourbon lol.
This design was inspired by the pics Karo posted and a bit by BartonMD. With the center piece made I figure making "wings" on either side that bolt on to cover the air pump and cat won't be a big deal and will probably make servicing the underside a bit easier. Everything but the diagonal is .187, the diagonal is .125
It's pretty simple to build and with an O/A it's really quick to cut out. I might have 5 hours in it and that's while waiting for it to cool (it's only warped about .125) and drinking some Makers Mark and smoking an Alec Bradley MAXX. The rear mount for the skid I made by making a bracket with welded nuts that fits up in the holes for the rear tranny cross member. Bolts with washers go through the skid and bolt into the plate inside the cross member. I'll post up some more pics later.
hope you guys enjoy, it's still a work in progress.