first side (driver) probably took a good 3-4 hours total time, over 2 attempts. the second side (passenger) took probably 1hr. you learn alot from the first side
this is just how i installed it, going off the included directions (i think). please read the included directions CAREFULLY and follow those, not what i'm doing here. don't blame me if you do something based on what i put here and it messes things up!
now on with the show.
as Oly22 said, the bars are -slightly- different lengths from the tip to the first frame mounting rail. only about a .75in difference, very hard to spot by eyeballing (fooled me anyway). you'll need to make sure the longer side is towards the front. jack stands are a life saver.
i didn't do this for the drivers side, and wish i had. so i lined up the rail to where i wanted it to sit on the vehicle, with the rail on the jackstands. i then used the banding strip to mark a couple of the holes with a drill bit. then i pulled the bar back and drilled the holes, still using the metal band strip as a template. after i'd screw a hole, i'd shove a bolt in it to hold the place.
now a problem i had on the drivers side, was that the holes were too high above the very bottom of the lip. this caused the bolts to not want to go through the hole in the body seam. so on the passenger side i drilled them a little lower (except one) and they all went in no prob. just be careful not to drill -too- low on the seam.
next was the frame drilling. jeez i had issues with this. i think 2 of the bolts on the drivers side are at an angle. luckily i only had one on the passenger side. 2 of the drill bits i had wouldn't seem to bite on the metal to actually start the drilling process. so i bought a dewalt set that had i thought was good metal bit. i ended up breaking it (more on that in a min). so what i did was, after attaching the rail to the body with the 4 bolts, i used a floor jack with a piece of wood on it and placed it right under the arm. a few jacks later (i did them more quickly and jerkily than if i was jacking up the car) the rails were at a level i liked. much easier doing it that way than trying to beat it with a hammer into place.
i then marked the spots by starting to drill the hole, but only enough to show a shiny spot on the frame. then remove the rail, drill the holes, then replace the rail. sucks when your holes don't line up though. sucks worse when you try to drill it out a little and the drill bit bites way too hard and snaps in half. at least i had all the holes drilled!
these seemed to line up much better
once you're lined up with the frame holes, start screwin. these may be self tapping, but man they seem to require alot of force to really get them started. then after they're started i switched to a breaker bar while it was threading.
after that tighten the seam bolts all the way and you're done!
