This was a little depressing

[abadsvt]

Well I ordered new rocker panels because i thought there might be a little bit of rust and wanted to take care of it. What i found was depressing. Tons and tons of rust. It actually ate through the front and rear part of the door jambs. I attached some pics. Do they make replacement parts for this? How hard are they going to be to install? Also the pick below with the green arrows is showing another problem that i found. There is the joint between the floor and the rockerpanel that has that lip. That is completely rusted through so there isn't any lip anymore plus as you can see the piece of galvinized piece of metal that someone replaced it years ago. Now there isn't much rust on the floor but all consitrated in the rocker panel and door jamb areas. Any tips or advice on replacing this would be very much appreciated. Thanks Josh

Here are the pics to help explain what i found. This is on both sides.

[abadsvt]

Here is a better pic of what the green arrows are pointing at.

[classicchev]

I agree it is depressing, BUT these trucks are 40 years old and not designed very well. When I did the floor replacement I noticed a few things that would probably help out in the future to slow the process down. When they built these, there was no weld thru primer, and the quality of the primers are not like todays. The little drain holes in the bottom of the inners are usually plugged with crap, I think that is why GM put the holes and caps on the ends, but failed to tell anyone to clean them out if you want a rust free rocker.. I have done a few of these know, and I think the rocker MUST be removed and cleaned up, or you will be in a couple years with rust issues.

And yes they do make repair portion for the front and the rear, just take your time in fitting. The front pillar has a lower portion of the hinge, I cut them off just so I didnt have to deal with the hinges.

good luck with th repairs,
Darren

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Its actually prety easy to do I am in the middle of doing the same repair on mine.. Keep your head up and fire up the cut off wheel..

[Frizzle Fry]

When I see pics like these I can't believe my 61 has perfect original rockers... My 69 sub on the other hand was closer to yours.

[byrd]

Been there and doing that right now, I suggest you make up your own inner rocker patches so you can get the floor you need to replace with it and eliminate a weld seam. I know you do HVAC and I just went to the local HVAC suplly house and they have the breaks to make them and did both in about 15 minutes. They were cheaper( totally free for me, the guy made them for free!! Cool guy I had to provide the metal and the body man Rick helping me gave me that!!) than the repop crap and were much thicker and easier to install, here are some pics from my build thread to show you the parts I had made... Randy

The last 2 pics are the PS outer rocker when I got the cab, looked great from the outside, then after blasting,and the inside was a diff story
What a shame the PO let it rot at the door jam