wjaholic
My car stole my wallet!
Alright, So the passenger side rocker panel on my big block powered '74 Duster has some rust damage. Easy enough to fix, right? Order a panel patch and cut and weld away right? WRONG! I was going to replace my quarter panels this winter anyway so I figured I would take the opportunity and tackle my rocker panel.
This is what I have to work with,
I didn't get any pictures of the rocker panel patch from YearOne. But this is the one I ordered. http://www.yearone.com/serverfiles/fbshopmain2.asp?hid=120EL15547
$50... I figured its YearOne, How bad could it be? It has to be better than what I have. So I gave it a try. I dont know where they got this pattern from but it will only get you in the ball park. It is way off and I am going to have to cut it up just to make it work.
The quarter panels are going to go anyway. I need to create some room to make the repairs here so I cut a small section that was already damaged to see what I was getting in to.
Alright, so far so good. I marked my rocker panel where I want to cutting at. I want to try to keep as much of the original as I can.
What the heck! Its full of old candy wrappers! I found what looked like 3 empty candy wrappers, atleast one granola bar wrapper, and cardboard from something inside my rocker panel!
This is where it gets fun, most of the pinch weld had rusted away. There wasn't much of a rocker panel even there!
There is no way I can leave it like this! I need to make a new lip to weld the new patch to.
I had a sheet of 16 gauge plain steel that was 24" long. I needed at least 32" x 2 1/2" strip. So I had to cut two strips and join them together.
I stacked them on top of each other and cut a 45 on the ends so I could create a nice strong joint to weld.
Here they are welded together and roughly ground down. I need a nice flat lip to plug weld the new patch to.
So after a lot of hard work I was able to get the new lip fully welded in. But I had to leave it as it is because I ran out of time on the weekend. I am planning on finishing it up next weekend if the weather holds out.
Let me know what you guys think of my work so far.
This is what I have to work with,
I didn't get any pictures of the rocker panel patch from YearOne. But this is the one I ordered. http://www.yearone.com/serverfiles/fbshopmain2.asp?hid=120EL15547
$50... I figured its YearOne, How bad could it be? It has to be better than what I have. So I gave it a try. I dont know where they got this pattern from but it will only get you in the ball park. It is way off and I am going to have to cut it up just to make it work.
The quarter panels are going to go anyway. I need to create some room to make the repairs here so I cut a small section that was already damaged to see what I was getting in to.
Alright, so far so good. I marked my rocker panel where I want to cutting at. I want to try to keep as much of the original as I can.
What the heck! Its full of old candy wrappers! I found what looked like 3 empty candy wrappers, atleast one granola bar wrapper, and cardboard from something inside my rocker panel!
This is where it gets fun, most of the pinch weld had rusted away. There wasn't much of a rocker panel even there!
There is no way I can leave it like this! I need to make a new lip to weld the new patch to.
I had a sheet of 16 gauge plain steel that was 24" long. I needed at least 32" x 2 1/2" strip. So I had to cut two strips and join them together.
I stacked them on top of each other and cut a 45 on the ends so I could create a nice strong joint to weld.
Here they are welded together and roughly ground down. I need a nice flat lip to plug weld the new patch to.
So after a lot of hard work I was able to get the new lip fully welded in. But I had to leave it as it is because I ran out of time on the weekend. I am planning on finishing it up next weekend if the weather holds out.
Let me know what you guys think of my work so far.
