LD50 1st gen Rusty rocker panel bodywork - rockerpanel replacement

Hello fellow explorer enthusiasts!

Got some questions asked while doing my driver`s side rocker panel repair so I decided to write-up the other side. Hope I can help anyone out..

FIRST:

-Disconnect your battery, do not do any welding with your battery connected. Yes you might get away with it, but some components in your electrical system can be damaged by welding voltages. (plus you avoid any battery drain) Some people also disconnect their ECU and Alternator, I have never done this myself and have done quite a bit of welding on the Ex (You make the call)
-Take your doors off, they need to be well out of the way.
-Remove the trim from the lower areas of your door openings and pull the door seals out of the way
-Get some poly (plastic sheet) or your interior will get dirty. Tuck it in your trim where ya can, tape it in, whatever you decide is best.
-Throw a tarp at least over your front window to avoid getting sparks burns on it!

If you got your mojo goin` and you are following along, about an hour has passed and you should now see something like this in your garage:

 

[ld50]

It`s a rough guage so cut close to where you think the line should be right, but not along it.
Put it back in place and see how close you are, if you were careful you should have some slight trimming to square everything up.
Put a grinding wheel on your angle grinder and shave the edge untill it`s perfect, or until you can effectively butt weld it together.

Hows this look?

 

[ld50]

Drill a bunch of holes along the sections that used to be spot welded.

When she`s good to go, get your welder set up. Now I gotta say, if you can get or borrow an auto-darken hood, it makes this stuff much easier.

Start at the upper edge, you want to get this butt weld first. You may have to manipulate the piece as you go along in order to keep it as level as possible with the original metal. With mine, I found that the angle in the door lip was a little off, so I had to use vise grips and a flat head screwdriver to coerce it into the desired shape before welding.

 

[ld50]

Remember to stitch. try to get as much of it as you can.
Once you`ve reached a point where you can`t really see any spots to get because of slag, take a grinder to it to smooth it out.

As you can see, since my door lip was a little out of whack, I tried to weld up to the point that it was even. This held it so I could bend to fit from that point.

Once you grind her somewhat flat, you can weld any spots you missed.

 

[ld50]

I used a simple method to bring my lip back in line. I jammed a screwdriver in the gap and hammered it back..

 

[ld50]

Anyway I got her. Anyone else get screwed up optically when looking at this pic?

 

[ld50]

Take the door back off!

Now weld up the upper part that you drilled holes in. Start in the center, and swirl the weld tip around in bigger and bigger circles until you are out of the hole. Don`t forget to run along with vice grips as you go, so the metal is always tight together.

Once the door is back off and the upper is welded, grab your replacement rocker piece and set it where it goes, with a little bit of overlap.
This lines up your rocker with your dogleg as it will be when done. You want the rocker to fit naturally with the dogleg, for example, the upper part of the dogleg is welded now and will not move but you don't want to go ahead and weld the lower section of dogleg on and find that you have to squish the rocker to fit. Make sense?
Vice grip tight on the bottom and weld a couple of holes to secure the dogleg in it`s final position, then you can take the rocker off and put it out of the way.

 

[ld50]

Dogleg in!

With the rocker out of the way, start welding the rest. Move the vice grips with you, keeping it tight.
Once she`s welded up, you`ve just completed the most trickiest part of the job.

Notice how we have a little bit inner metal left? Easy to trim off and better to have it a little long.

 

[ld50]

Seam sealer

Okay, before we get carried away we need to seal our seams in the inner metal. Run your preffered buffer along the welds to clean out the slag. just ask at the auto parts store for seam sealer. The sealer I bought comes in a container similiar to caulking, so you need a caulking gun to squirt it out along the seam. After, with a rubber glove on, smooth it into the seam to make sure its getting into any nooks and crannies.
If you think I should have done this before mounting the dogleg, you`re right, however, I was able to get my hand inside to seal it up. Do the same on the backside.

 

[ld50]

Rocker install

Clean and prime any weld areas with weld through primer, then hang replacement rocker over area to determine trimming needed. I`m going for a ballpark overlap between .25 and .5 of an inch.
-i hit the seam sealer with primer too..

 

[ld50]

At the front of the rocker, an overlap would look out of place, even with a bit of bondo. I want a but weld here, where it shows outside. Place the panel on and make sure the trimming all lines up, then cut the front of it again, this time going through the replacement AND the original piece. This will leave you with a perfect match for the but-up.
-The sliding forward of the piece to make up for the material lost to the zip-disk should not cause problems, we`re only talking 1/8 of an inch, if you`ve trimmed for .5 inch overlap, you`ll be more than fine.

 

[ld50]

drill holes in Rocker where welds are going..

 

[ld50]

Line up that buttweld up front, see how perfect it is? Make sure to have a couple of vice grips holding the panel in place all the way back so you don`t start welding it up uneven. Start with the buttweld and weld it with some stitches. Be careful not to heat it all up too much!
Once you are happy with that part start welding in the holes, then start stitching in the lap welds.

Every visible weld will be covered and smoothed with a small amount of bondo, it is essential that you have no holes, gaps, or seams under bondo. Bondo is not for filling holes!

What I did was stitch, clean up with buffer and grinder, stitch more, clean up, fill missed spots, etc until the goal was reached.

 

[ld50]

Now you can grind the places that used to be spot welded but are now hole welded.
Try to smooth all the welds down and use a buffer until you can get rid of any slag or weld soot. Bondo goes on metal only so it must be very clean!

I want to repeat this, so you don't half-ass your bondo:
It is essential that you have no holes, gaps, or seams under bondo. Bondo is not for filling holes!


If you find any gaps or holes anywhere you`ll have to weld them up!

 

[ld50]

Okay, I got all the welds nice and clean and ground as smooth as I could, making sure not to grind any original metal while I was at it. your buffer will also remove small amounts of metal, but don`t go too crazy with it, or you can burn the metal, or fold it over and create small air pockets in the weld area (peening).
I gave the areas a light sanding with 150 grit sandpaper. You also want to sand any and all paint or primer from the areas that will have body filler applied to it. Bondo is for metal only!
Mix your Bondo as the directions state. Mix it on a non-porous and clean surface. I used a piece of metal left over from my replacement pieces after I had cleaned it with acetone to get rid of any oily residue it might have held.
The rocker panel I also cleaned well with acetone.
Then I applied the filler somewhat thick, in order to ensure I had enough to smooth it flat and even.

If you are not fast enough with the application the bondo could "kick" before you`re done. If it starts to harden, it`s done, throw it away and mix a new batch. I did mine in two batches so i didn`t have to worry about hurrying and end up not applying enough.


I`m not a bondo proffessional or anything, that`s all the info I have on using it.

 

[ld50]

I sanded with a sand block and 80 grit sandpaper until I was pretty close everywhere. Then I went to 120 and then 200. Now if someone wanted to go even further they could go to a skim coat, which is a finer bondo. I am covering with Hippo-liner (same as rhino) using a brush, which gives a rough covering, so I`m not so worried about the bondo being immaculately applied.

-still gotta fill in the fenderwell gap, which I can weld in while avoiding the backside of the bondoed area. Ill do that next. in the meantime I sprayed the rocker with some sandable primer to keep it clean.

 

[mikewild]

nice work! I have to do the same to the rear lip on the passenger side. How much was the replacement 'dog leg'?

 

[ld50]

The replacement metal was pretty cheap, I think the doglegs where about $45 cdn apiece, and the rocker sections around 50.

 

[ld50]

Fenderwell hole

I used a piece of cardboard to design my replacement metal for the fenderwell, Then cut it with the zip-cut, and primed it with weld through primer.

 

[ld50]

Once I had it fitting nicely, I drilled some holes in the back edge.

 

[ld50]

Then I welded her in as per my previous methods, cleaned it up a bit and put a generous amount of seam sealer on the seams.