Hello, I bought my car in November of 2006, looking for something I can fix up and not have to worry about. When I bought the car, there was only minimal body rust, on the 1/4, and above the moulding on the back of the 1/4 before the rear bumper..

The other day I put my car on a hoist in autoshop, looking to change my fuel filter, and grease my front end, and I noticed later in the day, that my rocker panel on the drivers side has a hole about 7 inches long, 4 inches wide that is completely disinigrated. The moulding is still there, so it doesn't look bad from just a glance, acually, you can't see any rust at all. But here's my question;

How should I go about replacing my rockers, I want to do both, because the pass. side is getting soft. Would I have to brace the car so it doesn't snap in half, or just go all out with a sawzall and a mig welder? I'm going to wait to do this, but I want to know what kind of work I'm going to have to do in order to do a proper job. I love my car, and I want to keep it as long as I can. Thanks, KP.

 

The best way to fix rocker panels is to cut em out and weld in new ones, just like any other body panel.

 

So there's no risk of the car snapping in 2 without them?

 

It would be ideal to put it on a frame jig and make sure its not flexed when you put the new rockers on

As for it snapping... Currently your rockers are disentigrated or 'soft'
They are giving no support and the car is not snapped yet

 

I have that exact same prob LOL, I was just thinking of fixing that today weird, but I am going the cheap/easy way I am taking a peice of sheet metal and covering the hole with that, its not gonna be perfect but it will keep it from getting worse and hide the big hole. If you want to do it right to make it look mint my friend says he got a catolog from JC whitney just for our cars and they have replacement rockers for our cars I guess they just go over the original ones not sure how it works but I think he said they were like $30 for 1 you should check into that.

 

At my local car part store they're 42 + tax. I gotta change my fuel line, and all my brake lines first though..