Expanding foam in rocker panel?
 

Yesterday I asked about 2x6 rocker panel replacement and a member suggested I do it by myself instead of getting a shop to do it. I'm the type of person to do stuff myself instead of getting others to, but in this case I have no choice due to not having a welder, nor any welding experience or even a buddy with one.

It got me thinking and I figured if I do end up buying a welder and start to learn how to do it, it might be a nice project to get into.. but my problem is that winter is coming fast here (north east), and the last thing I want is snow and salt doing more damage. I don't think I'll have the time before winter to get the sufficient funds and knowledge/experience to get into this. The major hole is only seen from under the panel and is less than 1/2" wide, but about 8-10 inches long. I can squeeze my fingers in there and if I pull it feels like I could rip a chunk off.

I doubt I'll be able to fix my issue before that time, so what I was wondering is if there's a temporary fix (until march-april) so I can limit/reduce the amount of salt getting inside my rockers. What I thought of is expanding foam, but I read it could actually do more damage by keeping moisture in. I also thought maybe put some bondo and paint over it with some type of rubberized paint. Keep in mind it's for about 6 months until I replace the whole thing with a 2x6.

Any suggestions is greatly appreciated!

You might want to look at using POR-15 w/fiberglass to do a temporary repair on it. (Actually applied properly POR-15 seals rust up really well and lasts a long time.) I would definitely not put expanding foam in there!

While expanding foam may seem like a good idea, it is not. As you stated, it will hold moisture longer than if it just wasn't there at all.

Your best bet would be to grind off the rust that is there and seal the bare metal from exposure. Then you would cover up the affected area and keep salt and sand from doing its thing until you are ready to properly do the repair/modification.

The consensus seems to be no expanding foam, so I'll forget about that idea.

I'll look into fiberglass and por-15.

I'll try to take a picture to show, but I'm afraid to just poke through the metal if I grind it as much as possible. Last summer I buffed the rockers, quarter panels and the bottom of doors in order to bedline the whole thing, and this rocker panel is the only one affected like this (rotted from the inside).

I wouldn't mind some rust on the outside and I'd be able to wait, but since I have no way to attach a mud flap in the front, all the snow and salt is going to go right in the hole I described, possibly affecting areas that are still intact today. I want to avoid that at all costs.

Just let it ride until you are ready to do the steel rockers. The cancer is already in there.

Also installed my brown dog mounts and 784 injectors. The mounts took about 3 hours. Had issuea lining up the passengers side. I was able to install the injectors without unhooking the fuel rail from the fuel line. The computer needs about 50 key cycles to re learn the injector parameters so i am not collecting and mileage data, but it does seem to pull harder at 3 to 4k rpms

Bondo is not your friend. If you just want to keep water & salt out of it until you can get a proper repair done, try aluminum tape. Not duct tape, which is cloth backed, but the stuff that is really used for duct work, aluminum strips with a really, really good adhesive.

.

Clean the area scrupulously, and tape that sucker up. Unless you hit gravel or a rock, it will still be in good shape come spring.

No, it won't look good, but it will do the job.

^^^ there's your answer. It really won't change much over a few months. You're going to hack it all off anyways.

I would just let it be tell you can fix it later in a few months.Anything you could do would be a bandaid and your gonna replace it soon so why waste your time or money?

Dang, I was hoping it would learn after some mileage. 50 starts regardless of year? How long does it need to stay on?

+1 on aluminium tape. Maybe don't grind it down as much as possible but as even as you can get it. Just a wire brush and some light scraping if you're really worried? My rear doors have a fair bit of rot to them from very old, worn window seals. Do you know if this or another reason has caused your rust? If you end up waiting I'd at least try to solve the source of the problem ahead of getting it fixed.

A lack of under coating and road salt is why most rockers rust out.The floor pans can rust from the inside out the outside just depends where you live.

Ah, I just got lucky then. Either mine sat in a garage for a long time or some noble gentleman took the time to undercoat. I'm gonna be pulling the carpet soon, hopefully I won't end up with some of my own pics to post...

And depends where you live if they use salt on the roads,Some places it gets too cold for it and they use sand or other stuff.I live in kentucky below the rust belt and i have seen jeeps rusted out bad and i have seen them with zero rust.

I live in Maryland and salt is 100% an issue here. Once it starts to flurry there is consistently more salt than asphalt on the roads. I've never cared about a vehicle enough to power wash the undercarriage until now, and mine is rust free save for where the seals went bad and I plan to keep it that way.

Heh. First time I ever saw a PILE of salt in a gutter was up your way, at least a week after the snow was gone.

Somebody's buddy has the contract, I'm guessing.

50 key cycles goes pretty quickly. you start and stop your rig more than you think. i hit 50 after 4 days.

funny to see this thread is still active.

my temporary solution for the winter is currently POR15 and fiberglass. I still need to add a few coats of the stuff since I can see the rusty water coming through tiny holes of the fiberglass.

next year hopefully I will get a welder and eventually enough skills to attempt this on my own.

Cane - If you're planning to replace your rockers in the next 6 months or so I'd just spray what you have now with a product such as Krown T40. It won't cure the rust but it will stop it from spreading. I spray my XJ every year with a simple shutz gun . It's simple and relatively inexpensive.


BTW - I replaced my rockers with 2"x6" steel tubing and it was a pretty straight forward job. IMO it was much easier to do than using replacement rockers and it's much stronger too of course.

Thank you for that info! Never heard of it before your post, but I did some research on it and it does come highly recommended. I'm going to give it a shot myself.

Yeah maybe I said replacing the rockers, but my plan is actually 2x6 tubing. Did you follow a write-up or figured it out as you went? I have no welding experience so I probably have to practice a lot before I can attempt this.

I'll look into this stuff and if I can find any around here, but right now I patched the holes with fiberglass so I wont be able to spray inside the rocker, so is it worth it more than the POR-15 that's already on there?
Thanks!

I looked at various posts of how others had done the job but in the end I just started to cut away the rusted areas, split some spot welds and size things up. I cut a 6" long piece of the 2"x6" tubing and used it as a test template. It was a lot easier to hold a small, light piece in place to mark cut lines and get an idea of how the final rocker would fit in place.


I have restored several cars and replaced a lot of metal panels over the last 35 years or so. Welding in panels to match the original design can be daunting and a fair bit of work. Welding the rockers on my XJ allowed for some "creativity" and was relatively easy.


Here are a few pics of how mine turned out ...
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/p...ictureid=43614


http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/p...ictureid=43615


http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/p...ictureid=43618

many thanks for this, I'll save the pics for when I'm able to attempt the job.

it seems you have to cut some bits off the rear fender flares, do you have to reattach the end somehow or they hold alright? right now when the screw is loose and there's a little gap, debris tend to get in there pretty good

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...89d44bed5d.png

I cut a few inches off of the front bottom of the flare. The pic below shows the final fit. The flare fits fairly tight and I figured if it becomes a problem I can easily ad a tab to the back and fasten it to the rocker. My plan is to eventually fabricate metal flat flares all around ... but first things first.


On the above pic the rusty/crusty areas were cut out and replaced wit new sheet metal before the I welded the new rockers in.


http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/p...ictureid=55455

Don't know how many of you have this option in your areas but in the small town I live close to they have a full service drive through Car Wash. In this one the "Best" wash/wax BS is like 9-$10 but it has the option with of a high pressure undercarriage wash that works as you pull in very slowly, it will run from the time the ft. bumper hits the sensor till the rear does so.


I am very lucky my XJ as it sits now with the 4 1/2" lift still clears the wash and if it is not clean they will pay for it to go through till it is, much to their dismay at times when it is filthy dirty.


In the winter I take any of my cars or trucks if driven in any salt there to clean the under sides of them, its a good option if you have it to help prevent the rust problem.