I have to cut my "rocker-panel" body stiffners off to gain access to my longs.

A couple of questions,

1- should I cut straigt across, or should I scribe some kind of pattern to ease in reassembly and/or reduce warping when replaced?

2- as a beginner welder, how much room (width) should I give myself on the attached end, keeping in mind that I MUST gain access to the longs?

I am sure I will laugh at these questions when I gain experience.

Thanx

T

Pictures first....

KT

Hey Tony, I remember when you came to Dallas you said you were picking up a welder.

I too and thinking along those lines. What did you end up getting? Sorry bout the OT.

here is a fancy schematic!!

But you get the idea...

do i cut it straight and how much room do I leave to reattach?

T

The rocker panels are riveted and screwed on. I'd recommend posting pics and getting more info before you do anything. You could make more work than need be.

Need pics. More time and more money =

Sorry guys,

my rockers are WELDED on to the body panels.

it was done by some PO to add stiffness to the car.

I did some exploratory bondo removal and found tack welds near the edge of the door sill (sp) and beyond.

i pers. like the idea of adding more rigidity to the frame, but I must get access to the longs to fortify them.

Sooooo, that is why I am asking for help. If I took a picture it would show a rockerpanel welded to the body panel ...like my drawing above.

Cheers and thanx in advance!

T

might be best to try to grind out all the PO spot welds, will probably take the most time though.

First you'll need to take the rocker off where it was welded. You won't have room to work on the longitudinal if you don't, and you'll need to put them back on the way they are supposed to be put on. Unfortunately, you'll probably find more bad things.

Don't take the prior owner FUBAR another step away from a correct repair.

Any of the longitudinal reinforcement kits that attach to the outboard half will require removal of the black rocker panels.

Hey Tony,, i wonder how you were doing, how did your engine drop go??, for you rocker you want to try to save them as they are in really good shape, get a grinder with a rough wire wheel and get all the bondo out , this will give you a complete picture of what you got to do, but according to what you said in the post, the best is get all the bondo off and then grind the weld, to keep the panel,, they are quite pricey and since your are nice ,

I think saving the rockers for future use could prove to be very time consuming.

Also, it seems that welded on rockers would not provide any significant stiffening. It is a very light guage steel and is very flexible. Only a few places to attatch them, too.

Most stiff kits use 16 guage and are welded to the longs at many points to provide reinforcement.
All the little holes in the stiff plates are welded up.

KT

Here is a click of what was going on under the rocker!!

the rocker is NOT a thin sheet, I would guess 1/10th of an inch.

No laughing!

T

hey Tony,, mine looked like that , i had to bend some metal to replace the inner longitudinals, at least your outer looks ok, did you remove the metal sheet that covers the inside, this will give you the final picture of what needs to be done