Rusty Rockers

[Mettler]

I have a 91 sport. Its a great truck (finally). Ive done almost everything since I picked it up in march. New shocks, all fluids changed and flushed, shoes and pads, rear u joints, front u joints, front wheel bearings, tightened tranny bands, flowmaster muffin, lost the ridculous running boards, fixed the center console armrest, stereo and four speaks. bla, bla, bla...
I love the truck except for the cancer growing on the rocker panel under my door where the front half of the truck is joined to the rear. BIG F-ing HOLE!!! Ive seen a few other square body Sports that have this same problem and Im wondering how hard is this to fix? Is there a patch panel available? Or is there something I can do other than just watch it eat my truck away like the alien robot in The Day The Earth Stood Still? Any thoughts?
Mike

 

[nitro71]

Mines starting to eat away also. I'm going to grind the rust all out. Fill it with fiberglass or something then put the panels back on. If it's past the panels you could prime it after getting all the rust out. Fill it with bondo or fiberglass then paint it.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Mines starting to eat away also. I'm going to grind the rust all out. Fill it with fiberglass or something then put the panels back on. If it's past the panels you could prime it after getting all the rust out. Fill it with bondo or fiberglass then paint it.

that is something you would do if you wanted to dump it. if you did it that way, it will last a year tops, and it will look the same as it dose now. you can buy patch panels and wield them in, or saw off a set of rockers from a 4 door and shorten them down to fit your truck.

 

[Tony H]

They do sell Replacement metal for the Rockers and "Dog Legs".
You will need to drill out the Spot welds to get the old rocker off.

Not going to lie.. It's a bit scary if you've never done metal work on a car.

I did the Dogs Legs on mine. That's the part that goes from Rocker to rear wheel well. I'm glad my neighbor is a Body guy.

Someone on this site cut out the rockers and welded in Box Steel. It looked really cool. If I find it, I'll send the link

EDIT: http://www.broncoholics.com/support/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1416

http://www.showcars-bodyparts.com/explorer.html

 

[Anime]

If you plan on keeping your ride, you're best off getting to those rockers sooner rather than later. Every passing winter takes a surprising amount of good metal with it.

I'd say rip off any of the tupperware/plastic, start pounding away with a hammer or saw or whatever you have and see what the extent of the damage is. If it's only the bottom of the rocker and hasn't eaten anywhere above the bottom of the door line, it's a pretty simple matter of sawing off the rocker and either welding in a replacement rocker panel, fabbing up a replacement from sheet metal, or going hardcore and welding in rectangular tube steel as mentioned. If it's gotten farther up, especially in front of the rear wheel, you'll be fabricating a lot of metal and doing spot repair.

2x4 tube steel (which is more like 1.5 x 3.5 inches) fits in the space under the door just perfect if you line it up with the rear body panel behind the rockers. It's pretty tricky to weld the body sheet metal to 1/8" or 3/16" steel though.

Something else to keep in mind is if you ever want to mount rock sliders on the frame, hacking off the rocker panel completely and just welding on a flat piece of sheet metal to the bottom (to seal it up so stuff doesn't make it into the open dogleg of the Sport) lets you put the slider right below the door and get a few more inches of clearance than mounting it below a full rocker panel. Plus it looks cooler.

I went with welding in the box steel directly to the cut out rocker. It looks awesome and adds a ton of strength. The additional weight on the body also cut down a lot of road noise.