Picked up a '98 for a winter driver. Overall it's in good shape for 200K miles driven in New England. So far I've only found one large hole in the driver side floor that needs repair, the rest of the floor looks solid, but both the inner and outer rockers are practically non-existent. See that rust and debris on the floor? That is what was left of the driver side. There is less left of the passenger side:




I know replacement rocker panels are available for purchase, but it being a winter rig I don't wanna put any more money into it than necessary. Plus, I had some galvanized sheet steel and a brake available at work so I made a couple of replacements myself. I'll slather everything down with roofing tar and rivet them in after I cut and fit them.




Is it a restoration job? No, but the fit is good, it will look correct, it will last, it's inexpensive and most importantly, it will get me a good state inspection sticker.

I'll try to post photos of the process if anyone is interested.

Cheers!

 

This is sketchy and I love it XD. I can only imagine how many people you've made cringe doing this. Just stay safe and if the rust on the bottom looks like this please don't drive it....

 

It doesn't look like that. It's just the rocker panels that are rusted out. The rest of it looks good, including the uni"frame".

 

Initial fitment tonight. I'll dupe it on the passenger side.

 

Where the rocker once was. After removing the loose stuff, I painted all of it with two coats of rust converter:

Driver side trimmed in, simply duplicated the cuts on the passenger side:


Rivited in place with roofing tar on all mating surfaces:




I then coverered all of it with roofing tar, will then bedliner all of it after the tar hardens up.

 

Iove it . Way to think outside the box and save some monkey

 

Saving some monkey, as Sarah McLachlan plays in the background. lol