On my '97 the rocker panel on both sides had about 8 inches of metal removed due to rust. The rest of the rocker is solid but I would hate to repair this and a year later have the other end rot. I do not want to use the square tubing but I want to use the aftermarket rocker panels from jc Whitney. Is it as easy as poping out the spot welds and using a air chisel to remove the panel? After that just lay the new piece on and weld it up?

 

Pic

 

Here is a pic of the inside of the panel..its starting to rot as you can see and I can easily push a screwdriver through the rotted metal. Can this whole piece be removed or no?

 

Cut them off and put some rectangular tubing there

 

I wanna avoid that and just use the rocker replacements. I would need the inner and outer correct? I have a cheap harbor freight welder and not sure it can weld a thicker metal

 

http://www.greatlakes4x4.com/showthread.php?t=46943

 

I c... I haven't had any experience in factory style replacement panels

 

That looks awesome..if my welding skills were better and I had a miller tig then I would do it

 

My passenger side inner rocker was completely rotted out, cut out all the bad metal, cleaned up the inside of the outer rocker and POR'd it. Formed a new inner rocker from 20ga. sheet metal and welded it in place. Looks as good as new now. If your HF welder is flux core, your just gonna burn right through sheet metal. You really need to use a true gas welder and .023 or .025 wire

 

Couldn't say anything about the harbor freight welder, but I've got a little Lincoln welder and on the lower settings it worked just fine with .035 flux core.

 

When I buy the rockers should I get the inside and outside rockers then?

 

I'll second that, I've got the little Lincoln from HD, and am a rank amateur welder, and I was able to weld to the factory sheet metal successfully (after blowing a few holes and learning how much heat is too much)

 

It really depends... if your pinch seam is in good shape and you don't have any holes through the inner rocker into the cabin, you can get away with just the outer rocker. If the pinch seam is gone but the rest of the inner rocker is solid enough, you could fab up a pinch seam lip like NavyDoc did and weld it to the bottom of the inner rocker. If enough good metal is missing, you might just be better off getting the whole replacement inner rocker.

 

I've been welding for around 15yrs, by no means a professional but I think I do pretty good work. I've used the cheap flux core welders from harbor freight that friends have bought and have never been able to get good results on anything thinner than 18ga sheet metal. They just don't have the capability to get the heat down low enough. I'm sure some of the welders by lincoln or miller probably would give much better results if you play with the settings enough. If your outer rocker has decent metal, it's pretty easy to fab up a new inner and weld it to the outers pinch seam. My rot extended up into the wheel well also. So I built a whole new wheel well as well.

 

My buddy has a miller so he said I could borrow it to do the job. That's solves that problem...so since the inner is rotted out I'm gonna order new Inners and outers and go to town. Is it hard to separate the two or just use a air chisel and drill to drill out the welds?