Rocker Panels                               

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Moisture is one of the biggest killers of your car.  It lets rust get a foothold, and once established, rust is nearly impossible to get rid of.  So why would GM design a car with the intent to LET water get into places where you can't dry it?  This was their big marketing scam called "flush and dry".  Water was routed from windshield drains, cowling etc. down into the rocker panels with the intent of the water running out near the rear wheels out a rubber flapped opening.

Nice idea in theory, but let's add to it the leaves, etc. that get into these areas and block the passage of water, and even absorb more water then sit on the metal for years with no way to clean it out.  You can see the idiocy in this can't you?

The net result for us Corvair owners is the outright rotting of the rocker panels.  Convertibles have it particularly bad because the rocker provides a substantial amount of structural support to the vehicle.

This section will document how I went about replacing the rocker panels in my car.  I started with the driver side simply because that was the side of the car I could easily get to first.  I did take a number of pictures, but I did forget to take a few of some intermediate steps.  I plan to capture these on the other side as I go about that one.
 

The picture at the left shows the front part of the left rocker area.  This does not show all of the rust problems as a previous owner used substantial amounts of body filler to "repair" this in the past.  You will notice that the pillar seems to be affected as well.  First order of business was to rebuild the bad parts of the pillar, but to do that I needed to know exactly how far the rust had gone.

I cut a small access panel in the fender to see what was going on behind the hinges.  This was a good thing, because yes there was more bondo.  Not a surprise really, but it did give me a chance to see more of the "inner guts"  I was rewarded to find that the rust had only gotten about 6 inches up the pillar so I set about rebuilding it.

I don't have pictures of the pillar repair, I'll have to take these when I do the right side.  I basically took 22 gauge steel and formed, fitted and welded pieces together on top of the rusted out section.

Then I drew a line around the template piece leaving an outline on the rusty pillar.  I cut out along the lines, then put my template into place and welded along the cuts.  It fit like a glove and looks really nice.
My attention then turned to the rocker itself.  BIG NOTE OF CAUTION HERE!!!!  In Convertibles, the rocker is a major support for the entire car.  You run the risk of the car becoming a curved piece of steel if you don't provide support!!

I used 1" square steel tubing to brace the door opening at the top hinge to the striker plate of the door.  Cheap insurance folks.