rocker/floor/post

[panalukes]

I'm about to tackle a little rust project. Seems like the best way to approach this is to do a piece at a time to keep everything squared-up. Any other golden nuggets of wisdom from the folks that have done this before?

I cut away at the inner rocker to see what shape the bottom of the post was in. Is there any merit to cutting in the lower 5 inches of the post instead of replacing the whole thing?...below where the hinges mount. The forward and aft floor bracing looks solid so I think I can keep those. My plan is to cut out and patch the floors. Then hit the rockers. The lastly the post...either the whole thing or just the bottom.

 

[panalukes]

Correct picture orientation this time

 

[suckerpunched]

One thing to expect with rust is it usually ends up worse than expected. On mine, I changed the front floor area. support channel was OK. I patched in the front 8" or so of the inner rocker. It is easy to access once the floor is out. my outer rockers were good. I also patched in the bottom few inches of the kick panel and bottom few inches of the post. Brace it up, keep it square. For me the door alignment is my guide. I left them on pretty much the whole time. make sure bottom of door stays square to the rocker and rear of door stays square to quarter panel. If something starts to move it will show up in your door alignment. Shim your bracing back to square and keep going.

 

[mdside]

I am about to start doing the same.. Everywhere I look there is more and more rust haha

I think I am going to pick up a portable soda blaster to help find/eliminate all the rust!

 

[panalukes]

Do you guys have any pictures of where you are putting the braces? I think I too will patch in with pieces rather than replace entirely. I'm hoping that will keep things in place by not removing too much metal at once.

 

[panalukes]

First day.

 

[suckerpunched]

I did my mine with the body off the frame, but the most critical is probably under the front side of the rocker. Also If doing it with the body on the frame you might think about a new set of body mount bushings. Trying to get good alignment with bad body mounts is probably the best direction.
Heres a few pics of when I did mine.

 

[JAFO]

I am about to start doing the same.. Everywhere I look there is more and more rust haha

I think I am going to pick up a portable soda blaster to help find/eliminate all the rust!

Soda blast doesn't remove rust. You have to use more aggressive media, so make sure you use a good respirator. I have one of those harbor freight blasters with the soda adapter. Does sand, aluminum oxide or soda equally well. I buy the oxide stuff from tractor supply. Soda is expensive so understand what it will do for you before buying bags of it. It is safer health wise using soda but still use a good respirator.

 

[panalukes]

Update on the project: I got the floor pan, inner and outer rocker, and door post back together. I started the prep on the 4 other anchor points for the roll cage that goes in and discovered some more rust problems.

 

[panalukes]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a primer to use on the bare metal?