TomCat_Ford
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- January 24, 2009
- Messages
- 210
- Reaction score
- 0
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 98 Explorer
Hey guys-
Just more questions from me. Yesterday, when I was working on the leaf springs, I noticed some rust on the rocker. This is on my '98 Sport, so I have those plastic rocker covers. I popped those covers off, and low and behold... she has cancer. The rest of the car is so clean (spent most of its life in Florida... even the chassis, diff, etc are all pretty clean), but those darn rockers are so prone to rust damage. How would you guys recommend repairing the damage? Only the back half of the rocker is infected... the front half is perfect... not even a bubble in the paint (I'll sand it down anyway to re-paint them). Are their OEM rocker panels available for the Sport? The '96 parts car I have has rusted out rockers as well. Should I just cut out the rust and weld in patch panels? I have the tools to fix it and access to someone who will teach me how to do the repair work (I have never done any body work of this nature before). I'm a college student, so keeping it inexpensive is important, but my time is also extremely limited. There needs to be a balance between cost and time spent. Being that I'm in the rust belt, I highly doubt that I would find an Explorer with intact rockers in a junkyard, so that's out. Thoughts/comments?
Also, my father (used to work in an auto body shop in his high school days) said that they used to use used motor oil to protect the rockers and other rust-prone areas from rotting out so quickly. He said that back then, cars rotted out much, much quicker than they do today... the days when every garage had a puddle of motor oil under each car. Thoughts on this? He said to apply it something like twice a year and it would likely last for the rest of the life of the car. What other things could be done to protect the rockers?
Thank you!
-TomCat
Just more questions from me. Yesterday, when I was working on the leaf springs, I noticed some rust on the rocker. This is on my '98 Sport, so I have those plastic rocker covers. I popped those covers off, and low and behold... she has cancer. The rest of the car is so clean (spent most of its life in Florida... even the chassis, diff, etc are all pretty clean), but those darn rockers are so prone to rust damage. How would you guys recommend repairing the damage? Only the back half of the rocker is infected... the front half is perfect... not even a bubble in the paint (I'll sand it down anyway to re-paint them). Are their OEM rocker panels available for the Sport? The '96 parts car I have has rusted out rockers as well. Should I just cut out the rust and weld in patch panels? I have the tools to fix it and access to someone who will teach me how to do the repair work (I have never done any body work of this nature before). I'm a college student, so keeping it inexpensive is important, but my time is also extremely limited. There needs to be a balance between cost and time spent. Being that I'm in the rust belt, I highly doubt that I would find an Explorer with intact rockers in a junkyard, so that's out. Thoughts/comments?
Also, my father (used to work in an auto body shop in his high school days) said that they used to use used motor oil to protect the rockers and other rust-prone areas from rotting out so quickly. He said that back then, cars rotted out much, much quicker than they do today... the days when every garage had a puddle of motor oil under each car. Thoughts on this? He said to apply it something like twice a year and it would likely last for the rest of the life of the car. What other things could be done to protect the rockers?
Thank you!
-TomCat
