Rockerbox/water drainage/ Rust ?

[pound41]

I am in the process of putting floor pans rockerboxes the whole 9 yards in my 70 blazer. Unfortunately I am doing it with no available garage space. I have everything almost ready weld back in. Anyway I have noticed when it rains. The water draining off the cowl/ fenders drains down and lands in the rockerbox area where the floor support inner rocker all tie together, It pools in the indentation in the rockerbox where the cab supports sits. Anyway from there the moisture begins to wick towards the inner part of the rockerbox headed towards the rear. Also it begins to travel down the rocker area. Reason I am asking is this normal? Because the water travels where it is rusted. This blazer came from western Tenn where it shouldn't seen a lot of snow and salt. In most of the blazers I have seen and owned when the boxes were gone.. they were totally gone. These are not. just on the inner seams. Anyway should I drill some holes in the boxes. Any ideas or experience.

[krue]

Mine drain pretty good, cuz there ain't nothing there.

[bouncytruck]

I think you are finding why rocker box rust is such a common problem. Add a little road dirt in there and you've got a rust breading ground...

[pound41]

Bouncy:
I know. thats what I mean. the boxes are good in the middle and on both ends.the rod that crosses is still a rod. inside the box is dirt and some rust. the more water that comes you can watch it wick across the box and then travel. I almost want to drill some weep holes in the front of the boxes but don't want to cause a bigger future rot issue. anyway thanks

[71RestoRod]

Here's what I did. It was a lot of work replacing all of the "missing" metal so I wanted to do something extra to make the new stuff last...

First off, I used a ton of seam sealer in that area you're talking about to try and keep the cowl drainage out. The picture below is pretty crappy but you can sort of see where I sealed the bottom corner of the kick panel where everything comes together.

I took the rocker boxes out to repair them. While they were out I POR15'd them inside and out and then topcoated with a roll-on bedliner before re-installing.

I painted the inside of the rockers with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator before installing them, then after I painted the tub I used an undercoating gun to spray the inside with the Eastwood Anti-Rust undercoating. I cut the corners off off the bottom of the front and rear of the inner rockers for drainage holes. I have seen a few guys drill holes in the bottom of the rockers on the outside, but I couldn't bring myself to go that far. One guy I talked to with the holes said he might as well put holes in them 'cuz if he didn't mother nature would do it for him...

[AWK]

Up here in Rust Country we us poor mans undercoating (used motor oil) drill
a 1/2 in hole in your boxed in body parts and shoot it with oil and get some
undercoating plugs and put in the hole, it don't stop them from rusting but it sure slows it down, if done twice a year...
hope this helps you.
p.s. don't park on a pave drive til it stop dripping.
hope this helps you.

[Burt4x4]

When I cut out my rockers I painted the inside of the boxes with Por-15.
I think some kind of rust prevention coating is your best way to fight the moisture. Something like Por-15 bonds to the steel like ceramic...you can actually see it bubbling while it dries...somekind of reaction to the rust I guess...they even sell a silver paint that is impregneted with metal flakes for bad rust areas. Just don't get it on your skin...it has to wear off...
Good Luck

[vtblazer]

Another 'preventative' measure is to enlarge the drain holes on each side of the cowl if your able to get to them.