Rocker panel replacement

^ ture dat.
I didn't know what I was missing growing up in the rust belt. Everything we owned was either pre-rusted out or started shortly after titling it! Lol

Case in point, I bought a '94 Chevy Z71 Turdbo diesel a couple years ago, cheap, not running project. Truck was maroon after I washed all the green (moss) off it. Been sitting for a couple years under a cedar tree. Original owner, said it wasn't garaged for the last 10 years, daily driven until a coup,e years prior.

That truck had NO rust, brake parts weren't froze up and compared to my moms 97 pickup in WI that was garaged all the time, washed regularly etc, this one looked 3x better.

With the advent of craigslist and cheap flights, you couldn't pay me to buy a used car more than a few years old out of the Midwest or northeast.

Like Girt dog said go south and buy a clean truck that needs an engine and or tranny for a grand or so and bring it back up and swap your truck's drivetrain in to it. A whole lot smarter than throwing money into a turd. These trucks are a dime a dozen.

Don

I may look into just seeing if I can replace the outer skin. I have always flushed water through all the drain holes soy maybe I can get away with it. I also may just leave it.

if you want to ghetto fix it grind out the rust spots, fill the hole with spray foam insulation. let it dry. use an exacto knife to chop it down close to where it should be then sand it to get it better still. then glass over or bondo over it and buy a spray bomb of your color (up here we get them at cross Canada matched to factory in a can) and a can of clear. only a few hours work. not perfect but much better than a big rust hole and the whole thing will run about 50 bucks

Thunderbolt wrote:
Talked to a body shop today about replacing the rocker panels on my 03 Silverado and was informed it is a big job and would cost 5-7,000 dollars ! I looked online and I see why. The doors and box have to come off and there is an outer, intermediate and inner panel. I guess I will let it rust until I can buy a different truck.

I would get more than one quote if I were you. Up here in Vermont it's $1,500-$2000 to have them cut out, new ones welded in, and repainted. That's what I was quoted on my 2007 Sierra last fall from two different body shops.

Rocker panels are structural.

I'm doing a set on a car right now. The panels themselves were VERY expensive and putting them in place is a real witch. The very first thing you have to do is brace the hell out of the vehicle before even starting the process. You have to put temp X bracing everywhere or you end up with a mess.

This is why 95% of cars that are hit in the rocker panel are totaled. Only super rare or very expensive cars are saved.

^ And I drove a few of em when I was a kid living in the salt belt.
To the op, if you are intent or in love with the truck/drivetrain, those trucks are dime a dozen everywhere. Come out west or down south, buy one that's clapped out, needs an engine or whatever and get to swapping parts.
Rusty old vehicles are typically not a financially efficient thing to fix. If the body is rusting out, everything else below the belt line is also a rusty pile waiting to go.

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:

deltabravo wrote:
Just drive it till it folds on half, like this "folding plow truck"

Folding Plow Truck

Bahahaha I bought a Meyers plow and it came with an 1979 GMC Blazer that when you pushed the clutch the front end would bend down! There were no rockers left and the truck flexed so much that the driver side door latch pin snapped off going around a left hand corner! :E Took the plow off and dropped it off at the scrap yard.

If you have that much rust the truck is not worth fixing. Move on.

Don

What is not funny and actually very scary is that there are thousands of vehicles like that on the road.

deltabravo wrote:
Just drive it till it folds on half, like this "folding plow truck"

Folding Plow Truck

Bahahaha I bought a Meyers plow and it came with an 1979 GMC Blazer that when you pushed the clutch the front end would bend down! There were no rockers left and the truck flexed so much that the driver side door latch pin snapped off going around a left hand corner! :E Took the plow off and dropped it off at the scrap yard.

If you have that much rust the truck is not worth fixing. Move on.

Don

Just drive it till it folds on half, like this "folding plow truck"

Folding Plow Truck