Rocker Panel Replacement...And Beyond

[petew]

I am finally about to embark on the restoration of my 57 Country Sedan Wagon. First order of business is going to be rust repair and that will include full rockers both sides, a lower fender patch pass side and a driver side dog leg. I plan to attack the rockers first. I purchased a set of full rocker panels from Black Car , very nice product.
Yes there is a question in here and the question is has anyone here done this job and do you have any pointers ? My plan is to grind back the paint and try to find the factory spot welds on the rockers . If they are within the coverage of the replacement panel then I will  drill the welds , fit the panel and duplicate the spot welds with rosette welds. Am I on the right track here or is there something that I am missing ? Lower fender and dog leg shouldn't be a problem but those rocker panels are pretty large.

Pete

[RICH MUISE]

Take alot of measurements before you start cutting anything out. I had to go back and "straighten" my first rocker because I didn't know any better, and assumed the forming of it was correct, and of course it wasn't. What I'm talking about is the underside up to where it is flanged for attachment to the inner rocker. Also check the angle of your old one ...where the aluminum threshold sits....to make sure the new one is at the same angle. I'd get one side done before you cut off the second side so you've got something to refer to. You're gonna find out almost nothing on a '57 is actually straight. Almost every surface has got some kind of transitioning curve to it. Kinda lays waste to the term "straight as an arrow".
Tack weld in place, then do alot of eyeballing and measuring before you weld it in solid. Try to have the car in a place where you can stand back from it when you're "eyeballing". I didn't and it cost me lots of time.

[petew]

Thanks for the tips. I do have a large shop but will most likely roll the car outside to check the fit from a distance. I always do all of these jobs one side at a time rather than destroy the ready reference that is just on the other side of the car.
I did a test fit about an hour ago over the existing driver side rocker and everything lines up pretty well . Next step is to get it outside and do a little spot weld hunting with the grinder.
You are right measure, sketch,  photograph then cut.

[petew]

 Well new outer rockers are in, new foot wells for the rear floors, lower front fender patch panel and an inner and outer lower quarter panel on the driver side. Thought I was done until I took the rubber mat out of the front and found some fiberglass "artwork" in the pass side front floor.
It's all cut out and another patch panel is on the way.
All this rust in a car that spent it's whole life in California !
I hopefully had added some pictures including one of the front floor after it was cut out with it's former fiberglass skin.

[Limey57]

I had a 60 Impala where the entire floor pan had been fibreglassed, after removing the fibre glass there was only one hole 2" square so I can only assume whoever did it either had shares in a fibreglass company or they thought doing it would protect the rest of the floor!

I'll second the comments about double checking panels before using them.  On my Ranchero I had a pair of rocker panels from a well known supplier, the drivers side was an excellent replica but the passenger side didn't have the correct concave shape along its length and didn't match the factory concave shape in the rear quarter or the lower front fender.

Also, although I braced the door apperture with angle iron before I removed the old rocker I still had to jack the A-pillar back into place after as it had moved slightly.

Some good work going off there, always fancied a 57 wagon, maybe one day......

[RICH MUISE]

Great job. That car looks to be in pretty good shape overall, really less than normal rust if you've found everything. I love that color combo..are you going to repaint it the same?
I know I keep harping on this, but it's important.... Your floorboard rust was probably caused by bad cowl drains. Get some new ones put on. If you have the fenders off, it's a quick job.
Keep up the good work.

[petew]

 Thanks for the support . Yes, it will stay the same color. It was a factory coral sand car , I can't do that one of the reasons being the interior color choices and I love the willow green.
The fenders will be off soon so I appreciate the tip on the cowl drains, used to that from working on mid 60's Mustangs.

[RICH MUISE]

Forgot about your oem coral, green dilema you posted about last week..short memory.

[petew]

Got the pass side front floor mostly completed this weekend. A little more work on the toe board and some touch up welding underneath and it should be complete.

[RICH MUISE]

Looks good Petew. The only suggestion I might make is if that's a primer your coating the underneath stuff with, I'd switch to something like por-15 or the kbg(?) encapsulating products for a longer term protection.

[petew]

  It's Rustoleum rusty metal primer that I have had good luck with in the past. But you are right POR-15 would be a better choice, didn't have any on the shelf but did have the Rustoleum .

Pete

[Boss/Cyclone]

I used peganox on a project.  Worked good and is not sensitive to uv light. 

[petew]

  Well Rich you were 100 % right. I took the nose off of my car today and found that the passenger side cowl drain was shot. The picture shows the gap left from the rotted rubber on the drain which allowed water to drain right onto the passenger side floor resulting in the floor rot.
No other surprises , drive train comes out next.

[RICH MUISE]

Pretty easy call...they all need them replaced at one time or another.

[RICH MUISE]

Compared to most unrestored, that's a pretty clean looking car you got there. Had it ever been redone?