What should I do about the rust forming on my passenger side rocker?

I'm not ready to do a full rocker repair/replacement right now. How can I "stop the bleeding"?

Should I just sand it down and touch it up, or will I be opening up a can of worms?

http://home.comcast.net/~chris.karam/Img_1082.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~chris.karam/Img_1078.jpg

As far as rust goes...If left untreated, it gets worse and worse and the larger the area, the wuicker it spreads! I would do something soon. Look into the various products out there and do what it takes!

Dano

Chris,
Unfortunetly, I'm willing to bet that rust started on the INSIDE. It's just now rearing it's ugly head on the outside.

I'm not trying to bring you down man, but you're not going to stop that rust at the rear of the sill. If you pop off the interior panel and shine a light down to that area, you're not going to like what you see.

I hope like hell I'm wrong, but if you go poking around into that rust, it's going to go straight through. It looks the same on the front. Moisture collects down inside those areas and comes out as bubbles.
:(

If you attack it now, you might be lucky and get away with patching. But it's what's INSIDE that you need to worry about.

That's what I was afraid of.

So until I'm ready to replace the rockers, rear quarters, etc. I guess I'll just let it go?

Not what I want to do, but if mess with it and it goes through I'm screwed even worse.

If I'm way off base let me know.

Thanks guys.

I don't know....
But picture 1078 looks like that area has been repaired already at one point.

I'd pull the rear seat side panels and get a bright light and a telescoping adjustable mirror and go looking around down there. You may also be able to get a look through the rocker drain hole in the rear wheel well with a real bright light aimed in there.

My convert has the same rust, however it's worse, it's rusted right through... My car's had quarters done before, and the body man sealed up all the drainage holes in the quarters... Removing all of the interior, I've found the rockers to still be good, and the quarters good, with the exception of the spots you've pictured. I notice your car is also a convertible and it's had quarters done... hmmmm

I'm going to have to cut these bad spots out and fabricate steel to fix it...

Keep us posted...

John

I was speaking to tech support at Rick's today and was told that the rear door jam area is either available now as a replacement panel or soon will be. I'm not sure what the cost is/will be but it might make repairs in that area much easier. I think it would be worth your time to give them a call.

I wouldnt let it go until you are ready for a full repair. I would at least take the paint where it is bubbling off and put something over it. Like POR15. That will at least help stop it from going any further. Be carefull not to push too hard on the rusted metal. So you dont go through. I would also do as suggested and take that panel off on the inside of the car and see what kind of rust is on the inside. Might be possiable to get all the scaled rust off on the outside and the inside and then just POR15 over it for now. But what ever you do, Dont let it go. It will only get worse and make repairs even harder. Also you can take it to a body shop and have then "Scan" the color of the car and get a bottle of touch up paint. touch up over the POR15 to make it look "Decent" until you are ready to restore

Also while you have the back panels off. Get a 1'gal craftsmen shop vac. The small ones with the small hose. Vacuume out any debris you see. Also now would be a good time to take off your kick panels and vacuume out your rockers. The small hose from the craftsmens shop vac fits right down into the rocker opening inside the kick panel recess area and does a good job cleaning. I just got done vacuuming mine out.

Ok, I janked the rear seat out again along with the interior panels.

Here are some pics. The first one is passenger side where the surface rust is bubbling through as shown in my first post. Second pic is driver side. Last one below is through the carplug hole. Kinda blurry.

I know this is not the inner rocker, so until I can get the car good in the air with a telescoping light/mirror I won't know the real story.

But this doesn't look awful, does it? I guess I'm fishing a little bit. I expected it to look worse.

Thoughts?

http://home.comcast.net/~chris.karam/Img_1085.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~chris.karam/Img_1083.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~chris.karam/Img_1089.jpg

Man Chris, looks a lot better than I thought it would.
Definitely looks like it's been repaired at one time as witnessed by the pits shown in that first pic, on the left side of that seam where it's sort of shiny.

Kind of looks like it's been blasted or wire-wheeled really well. That's good. I would have thought the rust you can see bubbling from the outside would have gone all the way through. You might be able to get away with repairing the outside surfaces real well, maybe with small patches, and cleaning the inside surfaces real well and spraying rust inhibitor down in there. Looks like it stays pretty dry down inside. The wheel houses look in good shape to my untrained eye also.

You're whole car is in such good shape, it'd be a shame to go cutting the body apart when you MIGHT be able to get away with area repairs instead. I'd be willing to bet your inner rockers are in better shape than you think. You'll probably still need to do quite a bit of painting once you get into fixing those exterior areas.

Can you say "frame-off restoration"? ;)

Hwystarjoe--

Check this shot out. This is driver side. I noticed the paint bubbling under the door sill plate. I took off the plate and...not good:

http://home.comcast.net/~chris.karam/Img_1096.jpg

Can't tell from the pic but you can put your finger through it to the inside.

I am totally NOT a body guy. Do you recommend a quick-fix repair of this piece until I'm ready to go whole hog?

Thanks for everyone's input in advance.

Chris, I guess it all depends on WHEN you're going to go "whole hog".

If it'll be years before you start cutting body parts off and replacing them, you're looking at some moderate patching. If it'll be next year, treat the areas as well as you can and rattle-can some paint or primer over it. Either way, you're going to have areas on both sides that won't match the rest of the car without a lot of repainting.

You may not lose the rockers. The damage may not be as deeply extensive as you fear. But it will keep getting worse. If you want to stop it, cut out the damage, weld in patches and try to match the paint. Or leave it in primer. But once you start cutting, you might not be able to stop because you'll keep finding more and more rusted steel.

Chris, your in about the same boat as me here.

If the door jamb area is availible now, or soon from any of the sheet metal repop guys, you'd be able to cut the areas you need out and have them welded in. I would not be so concerned with matching the paint... get it as close as you can. With the doors closed... who'll know...

If the parts are not yet availible, just grind off the scale, and cover (por-15?) on the inside and out... keep in mind, when you do repair this for real, you'll need to remove all the paint prior to any welding.

You'll be okay..

just keep it clean and dry, make sure your quarter drains are clear...