Rocker Panels  3        

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After cutting out all the nasty rocker panels, it was clear I needed to get an inner support rail to replace the rusty hulk I chopped out.  As I mentioned in a convertible, there is the rocker panel, but inside this rocker is a very heavy piece of steel designed to provide additional support INSIDE the rocker.  You can't order these from a vendor, so you need to find a fabricator/sheet metal shop that can make them for you out of 3/16" stock.  To do this you need to have plans and measured drawings.

The Corvair community is a fantastic group of folks who are more than willing to offer their experiences to help out the next guy.  Using the Corvair Forum I found a guy who had done exactly what I was doing AND he had pictures as well as measured drawings for the inner support.

 


The pictures to the right were provided to me by one of the guys from Corvair Center in their forum.  As I have said a number of times this group of guys (and some gals) is fantastic and willing to help you with any of your Corvair questions. 

The top image is a measured drawing of what you will need to have made for you out of 3/16" stock.  Click on the image to get a full view.  I had mine made well before I cut into the rocker panel.  What I found inside was a bit different than the drawing you see to the left.

My  car had the original rockers in place so I had a chance to see the original support beam.  It had the same basic shape as what is in the drawing, but it was turned so that the opening of the "C" was toward the car, not the outer panel.  The second image shows how this "new" panel fits, but imagine the inner support flipped and you have what I found in my car.
My suspicions were further confirmed when I looked at some other pictures this Corvair guy sent.  In his "before" images, I saw the rocker panels were welded and had a seam under the door sill.  To me this suggested the panel had been replaced at some earlier point, and thus the differences you see.  Frankly the differences don't seem that big of a deal in the long run anyhow.  The reversed inner support simply moves the point of support slightly more toward the centerline of the vehicle. 

The pictures to the left basically show the end or near end of the driver rocker install.  There was quite a bit of trim and test to get at this point so please be prepared.  The rocker panels were cut to fit around body panels etc so don't get frustrated.

You can see by these pictures, there is quite a bit of clean up work left to do, but you can see I ran a weld bead along the seam between the new panel and the car, then also put in a series of plug welds through then new rocker to weld the new rocker and the inner beam together.

To prevent rust, I coated the inside of everything with POR15. Now that it has been welded, I will need to hit it again since some of the rust coating will have burned off as the result of the heat. 

This is possible because at the wheel wells, the rocker area is still open, just like a tube.  This will allow me to get a coating inside before I seal it up.  I think I will be wearing some POR15 for a while on my arms and hands as I do this with a swab. LOL.

I happened to have a piece of aluminum door sill from the tear down, and used it to check how the new rocker lined up.  Sweet and straight dude!!
This is as much of the driver side that I have for now.  I will fill in some of the other interim pictures once I move to the right side of the car.