Dirt Filled Rockers.....

[Jeff Norwell]

I mentioned this on an earlier thread.... but here are some pics to show....Only the tops had rot...the bottoms and sides are perfect....49 years of junk!
Easy fix...just some nice flat guage to weld and done.

[Jeff Norwell]

2 more pics....

[RICH MUISE]

Hey.....I recognize that....it's TEXAS dirt!!
Man did you luck out..don't think I've ever seen one before only rotted on the top of the rockers. Nice to see you getting started on it...you'll probably have it finished before mine.
Rich

[Ford Blue blood]

I have a little tool I made for washing the inside of the rockers and the inside of the frame.  Made a small nozzle that sprays radially, hook it to a 4 ft length of rubber gas line, to an adaptor to the garder hose.  We are on city water and it is 65 -70 psi, that much pressure coming out of those little hole breaks things up and flushes the chunks out pretty good.  I go into the rocker from the plug/hole in the very front and into the frame from a bunch of places.  I do drill a 1/2" hole in the frame bottom just before it starts to go up in the front, just a little ahead of where the cross member bolts in.  Have flushed out gravel, mouse nests, spiders and one snake skin (in a Texas car), messy but it does the job.

[Ecode70D]

Questions for Jeff
 
      1.  After you get all of the heavy stuff out , how are you going to clean it so that you can apply some sort of sealer inside?

       2.  What are you going to seal the inside rocker with that it will get some good penetration?

       3.  Are you going to make the top cover piece removable so that you can monitor it and clean it again?
 

[Zapato]

  Are you going to make the top cover piece removable so that you can monitor it and clean it again?
 
I like this idea, might be overkill but if you're already repairing the rockers it would be the time to do it.

Zap-

[Jeff Norwell]

Questions for Jeff
 
      1.  After you get all of the heavy stuff out , how are you going to clean it so that you can apply some sort of sealer inside?

ANSWER- I plan to clean with (first)CLR to remove all scale and flake surface rust.... this will loosen any small particle of dirt I cannot get by hand,then..power wash and throughly dry.

       2.  What are you going to seal the inside rocker with that it will get some good penetration?
ANSWER-I plan to open the factory drain slits open much more(1/4 inch at least)... the use a KBS or Eastwood Rust inhibitor product.(KBS Rust Blaster first)
then coat the insides with a chassis coat over the rust inhibitor(sounds unnessacary)But I never want to deal with this again.


       3.  Are you going to make the top cover piece removable so that you can monitor it and clean it again?

That could be a very good idea...using the door sill as a cover itself.... but my initial thought was to seal it permanently...and specially the entrance area hole at the lower front inside fenders(big factory hole on each fender)I was on planning of sealing that up with a rubber large biscuit of some sort.

 

[Zapato]

Have any of you guys used ''Must for Rust'' rust remover, neutralizer. Used it on my B-B-Q and am quite pleased. Scraped off the big flakes the sprayed it on and in 15 minutes or so was covered with a white haze, wiped it off and followed it with rust-o-leum hi-temp paint. Fired it up to cook the finish on and it looks good as new. Found it at Lowes after seeing it in a metal working tool catalog for about 3 times the price.

Plenty of info online about it.

Zap-

[LAUDY57]

I think I mentioned it before, but every nook and cranny in mine is getting "Fluid Film".
(No, I'm not a dealer)
-non-evaporating
-Non-drying
Stays in place on vertical surfaces and goes into metal pores
-Displaces moisture
-yada-yada, probably will grow a new toe if you want one
But, it does work. It's used extensively in marine use here.

[Jeff Norwell]

Yea...Fluid Film is AWESOME!.... I bought a built 312 stroker years back that was built,stored for 10 years.and still was filled and coated with Fluid Film!

[Ecode70D]

Thanks guys!!! I was fishing for ideas..  Now I have some to look into. 
Jay

[57chero]

That large hole in the lower cowl down behind the front fender came with a removeable rubber plug from the factory.

[RICH MUISE]

I have one question,or worry, now that I've done some on mine, about that fluid film. I'm assuming your talking about the petrolium based wax parrifin stuff like made by 3M. Since it is petrolium base, and never dries out, is it flammable? What would happen a few years down the road and you were welding in a repair patch panel to repair a dent in a rocker panel?
If Jeff's rockers were mine, I'd sandblast everything I could get at with the top of the rocker cut off then zinc phosphate followed by por 15. When I put my new rockers on, the inners and the inside of the rockers got por-15'd except very close to where it was going to be welded.

[Ecode70D]

 "[quote author=RICH MUISE link
I have one question,or worry, now that I've done some on mine, about that fluid film. I'm assuming your talking about the petrolium based wax parrifin stuff like made by 3M. Since it is petrolium base, and never dries out, is it flammable? What would happen a few years down the road and you were welding in a repair patch panel to repair a dent in a rocker panel? [/quote]"



Rich.....
That's a good point which I had forgotten about.  I purchased my 40 from one of my customers.  When he first bought the car and before I knew him, he had that sticky stuff applied to the bottom side.  When I had to do an engine swap for him and any  other related work on the under side of the car, I had to use rubber gloves because everything was sticky.  My tools had to be soaked in solvent in order to get the stuff off.  I always "jokingly" told him that the tools had to go back to Sears because they were ruined. At that time I had rented uniforms, so they were the ones that had to deal with getting it clean.  That was a good thing because I never would have brought them into the house to do them at home.
         That stuff was applied over 15 years ago and the underside of that car is still sticky, but not as much as when it was first put on.  Can't say if the stuff works or not because we all know for the most part that we as "caretakers' never deliberately drive our toys in bad weather anyhow.
          Maybe that fellow up there in the land of snow  knows the answer.   Most likely he doesn't take his cars out in the snow also.   

[LAUDY57]

You guys raised good points about working on the panels later so I got my FluidFilm, and a propane torch, went outside where flames or "booms" wouldn't matter and expected a conflagration.
I started with a piece of square tubing with water on it, sprayed the FF on while the piece was in the vise and applied the torch. Nothing happened except the FF ran down and away so I tried a piece of sheet steel and same thing. I thought, shoot- I gotta be able to light this stuff up and since it didn't explode I moved inside. I bent the sheet piece L-shaped and put in the vise, fired up the acetylene torch and repeated the test. What happened is the stuff ran done the vertical surface and puddled in the groove of the L shape. Here I was able to light it up but only where it stayed in a puddle, it kept running away and the flame would go out, no dripping flame.
Maybe it would act different if it was on for a few years, I thought it would be most flammable when fresh. I guess the next test is to see if it can be washed off with anything besides heat although any solvents are going to be flammable, I would think,and to see how long a closed container eg. a cup of it would burn on the surface.
By the way, Rich got more white stuff in the form of hail than we did here (which was zero) because of our proximity to the ocean. If we do get any it is gone in a day or two but it sticks on the mountains of course and stays up there until spring.
This movie stuff is kind of fun, thanks Rob! I'll post the video when it finishes uploading to Picassa -it's taking forever.