Kick Panel Rust

[basemodel67]

The only rust I have in my truck is at the bottom of both kick panels. The rockers are fine, and the floor is good, but there's about a 1" x 3" strip of the kicks missing right at the bottom. Do I need to remove the rockers and lower door post to repair it? I don't know how well it could be repaired without doing it that way. Anyone have insight on this?

[basemodel67]

OK - Here are a couple of pics of the affected area. Also, this should serve as proof that us Cali guys deal with serious rust.

[mbgmike]

To do it the correct way yes you would have to remove the rocker.

The only other way is to clean out as much as you can, treat the inside. and weld in a piece with a flange and weld it to the floor but thats just a cheap fix. If its a work truck thats what I would do.

A lot of people think that california vehicles don't rust. We have replaced many parts on Ca trucks and cars.

[Lippyp]

Mine looked like that on the inside but when I took the rocker off (which admittedly was rusty and the main reason for doing it) it needed the bottom of the pillar replacing and the floor repairing. You might be surprised what horrors lurk within that cavity.

[elektrik]

Whew. That looks ugly. Glad I don't have that problem!

[basemodel67]

Actually, it looks A LOT worse in the pics than it is. I have not been able to find any other rust, but I am still going to fix it right. I guess I will need to start a build thread soon.

[Beelzeburb]

Mine looked very similar to yours before I started digging into it. Like Lippyp said, you never know what horrors you'll find in there. That area comprises three pieces of sheet metal layered on top of each other. That rust riddled area you can see now is only one of the three layers.
I tackled mine from the inside and had to cut out a section of the floor, floor support and kick panel to get adequate access to replace all of the rust that only looked minor before starting in with the cutoff wheel.

[RustyDan]

Originally Posted by basemodel67

The only rust I have in my truck is at the bottom of both kick panels. The rockers are fine, and the floor is good, but there's about a 1" x 3" strip of the kicks missing right at the bottom. Do I need to remove the rockers and lower door post to repair it? I don't know how well it could be repaired without doing it that way. Anyone have insight on this?

Hey that UTAH guy went though it. I'm gonna someday, My truck lived most of it's life in Ogden Utah. The salted roads are killer on sheet metal.
Hence the name. rustydan
I'll watch this thread.

[extd56]

Originally Posted by basemodel67

OK - Here are a couple of pics of the affected area. Also, this should serve as proof that us Cali guys deal with serious rust.

That area seems to rust also because of debri that needed to be cleaned out from the cowl area. I have seen a lot of trucks out here that rusted there because fo that reason.

[kev2809]

mine had the same rust spot. check out my thread..my whole lower a-post was rusted out

[basemodel67]

Yikes kev! You guys all got me so scared I had to go out and poke around to see if there is a bunch of hidden rust. I didn't find anything , so I hope I'm OK with just replacing what I can see. I will probably do new rockers while I'm at it. Does anyone know which new ones fit best? I've seen some of the pics on here of rockers that don't fit worth a crap, and I don't want those.