Hey guys, i started ripping in to the 50. Always my favorite part...finding all the crap you couldnt see when you bought it. Anyway, just wondering what is the best way to go about it structurally? My outer rockers are fine, but the inner structure is mostly gone where the floor pan is spot welded to it. I knew it needed floors, but the rockers suck too. I have the front pans cut out now cause im putting in my 5.0 HO motor and 5spd so its easier to install without them in. My biggest concern is if i need any bracing before cutting out the rocker. Im replacing all 4 while im at it, but will just do one at a time to maintain whatever rigidity is left. All the inner rockers and floors are crap so i just dont want the car to buckle at the roof if i start cutting stuff apart. Let me know what you guys think and what your experiences are. thanks for your help in advance!
Don't know for sure what you mean by "all four".....is it a two door and you are counting inner and outer both sides....or a 4 door and you counting each door opening rocker? In any case, you may find it useful to support the chassis ahead of the rear wheels and behind the front wheels so the car is not as like to sag in the middle as you work on the rockers. If your are replacing the floors, and the outer rockers really are very good, you can probably replace the inner panels without removing the outer panels. In any case, keep an eye on the door alignment as you proceed. In fact, I would adjust the door alignment as required before starting the project, and then by maintaining the alignment as you proceed, you should end up with everything where it belongs. Ray
Yea sorry i didnt state that in my first post, its a fordor car. Its a really weird setup.....from outside the car, it looks like there is not one spot of rust on the rockers. But youlook underneath and all there really is, is like a rocker "skin". The metal just curves down from the sill plate and comes to an end, no inner support at all. Yea i was thinking that might be the best way to go about it, behind the front wheel and in front of the rear wheel. I also thought about keeping jacks on the B pillar location where it ties into the rocker to support the center of the car. I just want to get a plan so i dont take to many steps backwards.
Personally , I would certainly brace the car up as much as you can . You don't want that sucker to move around on ya , and once it does , it's MUCH harder to get it back than it would've been to just keep it there (with proper bracing) . I've cut apart & restored plenty of cars (my job) , and I always brace 'em up . If nothing else , it can't hurt !
yea thats a true story, thanks for the advice! Ill prolly just tie the front of the car and back of the car together with some cross bracing and jack up on the B pillar to prevent any sagging. I will takse a bunch of corner to corner measurements in the door openings and check everything periodically. I think it should be ok then?
Hey, Since the outer rockers are passable from a structural point I'd hang and align all of the doors and tack them with metal tabs to the A , B & C Posts. Since you have the floors out, simply align the inner rockers and clamp/zip screw them in place, and tack weld them until you've 90% of the welding done. Now, remove the tabs and tacks and open the doors and finish the welding. With the rockers soundly welded, you can remove the floor in its' entirty, and weld in the replacement floors. " Meanwhyle, back aboard The Tainted Pork "
that sounds like a good idea too. what if i want to replace the outer rocker too? Like i said, its really fuked up looking because there is basically just an outer skin of a rocker. There is really no structure whatsover with them. If you look underneath my car, the outer rockers just look like a roll pan on a truck. How does this sound, if i align the doors and put some bracing inside, and then weld tabs from the pillars to the door frames to keep them squared up? Then i can weld in the new inner rockers, pull the doors off and cut out the old outer rockers and weld in the new ones? Ive done a lot of collision repairs on rockers, and replaced rockers completely but have not tackled rockers that are rotted out.. Its just kind of hard to find a starting point because i dont know what this specific car should look like underneath ya know what i mean? When crap is rotted, its hard to know what to go off of and where the panel is "supposed" to be.
Hey, I'd forgot about the schewbauxes of this era not having box section rockers That being the case, I'd align the doors to their openings, and brace from A,B to C Post as well as across the interior given the extent of the rot. Once this is done, you can unbolt the doors as this will make cutting out and welding in new metal much easier. Hang and align the inner and outer rockers as a unit, and once their are welded to the base of the A, B & C Posts replace the floor panels and weld them to the correctly aligned & previously welded rockers. " Humpty Dumpty was pushed "
I'd make sure your doors can align properly and that it's not ALREADY sagging. Once you've got everything aligned properly and know it's all straight, I'd remove your doors and toss some jack stands under the body just behind the front wheels and just in front of the rear wheels. Once that's done, weld in X-braces in each door opening(all 4). Then an X-brace connecting the b-pillars side to side(pass. side to driv. side) Once that's done you can cut out your entire floor and the inside and outside rockers. From there, i'd weld in your inner, then outer rockers. Make sure everything is nice and level and square, then install the floor. I guess i basically said what Pimpin paint said.
thanks for all the suggestions, you guys helped me out quite a bit. Anybody have any pics of a "rocker job" on a shoebox? Or any pics of what the rockers SHOULD look like haha?
i put ford falcon rockers on mine, it is a lot of work, and it DONT look stock, but they dont look that bad, i did this becouse im in argentina and here i can dream about finding some shoebox rocker panels, haha
I bought a set of EMS outer rockers,but the inner rockers are really simply to fab your self. So buying them is a waste of money,but thats just my opinion..
I plan on fabing most of the rotten pieces in the rocker...the panel as a whole look pretty good...and solid, however, I do have some pitting that has made its way through
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