Detailed partial rocker panel replacement

The guy who did the autoglass on the '69 Camaro build asked me to repair some rust on his 1999 GMC Trailblazer and as he also does the glass in my projects, I thought I'd be a good car buddy and do it for him over the long weekend...

Didn't look too bad to start with....

But like the Foreigner song,  Three dressed up as a nine - the closet you got...the worser she looked!

 I noticed the door was out of alignment to the dog leg and rocker - so I took photo of that to see if we couldn't get that better off in the end as well - 

 Using the new piece as a partial template, I measured and cut a section so as to use it to  mark it out on the vehicle

So out came the cutting tools and safety gear

With the replacement rocker measured thrice and marked - 

I first cut the rocker - a bit bigger than needed - because its always easier to trim is down than having to add pieces later

 On the vehicle, I did the opposite, by cutting out the minimum amount -  to see what was behind the rust.  What's that in behind the rust? Why it's a snoot-full of dirt of course!

 Packed full of moisture-holding dirt, which gets in through gaps and drain holes, rusting out the rocker from the inside -

Yikes!!

Once the outer skin was off, I could see that the inner rocker was also rusted through, 

so with a masking tape line as a guide, off it went as well.

 The portion of the new rocker that I wouldn't use was used to replace the inner portion. All I needed to do was reshape it to become the inner panel, using the brake and some hammer-shaping on the anvil.

 Fitting and shaping in 2 pieces took over an hour

Which included mock up, reshaping and cutting to a precise fit..

Once it was the exact right shape and dimension, I soaked any remaining surface rust with POR's MetalReady and left to work overnight. This solution turns iron oxide (rust) to iron oxite, which is an inter substance. It also helps make metal more conductive for welding by depositing Zinc Phosphate.

 The next day, with everything prepared properly and dried,  welding the inner panel ensued. But before welding, I hung a welding blanket across the door opening to protect the interior from weld splatter - or worse!

Here the inner is welded solid, using a back and forth spot-weld pattern so as not to overheat it, which can lead to warping, burn through and fire hazard.

 With the inner welded on, I  trimmed and fit the outer panel so as to ensure it would fit over the finished the inner

 Then, plug-weld holes where drilled in the new outer panel,

 so as to attach it at the bottom, to the new inner panel

Prior to welding on the outer panel, I coated the new inner panel - as well as the original surrounding metal - with POR15, for maximum rust protection

 Both back and front

Then, the outer panel was welded in, little by little, ensuring it would line up with the body and door

 The lower connecting edge of the wheel-well also needed attention, taking me 3 tries to get right!

 With everything set and welded, the welds were ground down and the entire panel cleaned up, ready for a skim coat of filler

A skif a filler was next to finish it off -

Tomorrow I'll do a final sand of the filer, then put some more POR-15 on it as well as on the bottom of the rockers so they can either stay black, or can be painted at a later date.

So, a total of 8 hours, over 3 days, and the rotted out rocker was repaired in and out. This repair will last the life of the vehicle - and likely longer, since I made a point to shape the wheel-well connection so as to allow water and dirt to drain out more easily. It's not often I spend my time on 'later model' rust repairs, but once in a while I don't mind helping another car-guy out. It's one of the many things that makes our hobby so much fun!

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A look back: E-tek Racing, with our Driver, Shannon "Chili" Hill!

                     

  A look back: E-tek Racing, 
with our Driver, Shannon "Chili" Hill!

Everyone who loves cars thinks about racing. Many people DREAM about racing. Some people dream about racing and maybe talk about getting a racing licence and maybe, just maybe, one day get some seat time in a real race car!

Well, it helps to know someone with the skills, time and money - and motivation to help you gt there. Then, just buy yourself a car - and get started!

Race cars hate weight. The more you can strip, the better. So, out came the interior, the sound deadener, the wiring - and anything else not needed to go, turn and operate.

Next is strength. A solid chassis handles better. Most small cars are of unibody construction of some sort, which means most of it is held together with the same light sheet metal as are the body parts. Through carefully engineered bends, boxing and gussets its made stronger, but anywhere you can add rigidity and tie it together, is a good thing.

This gusset, along with double-walling the top and bottom structures, gave the front end of this 240Z an incredible amount of added rigidity, allowing us to delete any external after-market shock-tower bracing.

The front cross member is also a source of flex and stress. This piece was hardened (and thickened) by a chrome-like process plating, called nickle-alloy overplating.

The rear suspension arms where also nickel-alloy plated and the stock strut springs where swapped out for TOKIKO's, 30% stiffer and 1.5" lower than stock.





With everything stripped from the interior, seam sealer was applied to ensure moisture and fumes did not penetrate the cockpit.

We couldnt have compelted this project without a driver who wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty wrenching, sanding or promoting. Her motivation, positivity and ability to work towards an end goal made the entire project worthwhile.

After a year of long hours in the garage -designing, wrenching, sanding, it was finally painted, thanks to Brighouse Auto Body, in Richmond BC. Few know that this was the shop I grew up in, owned by my father, which was sold off after his passing. 

The new owner, Frank, did me a solid and painted it for us at cost.

Sponsors are as important as is practice when building a race car - and lucky for us, promotion was something neither of us had any problem with!

With the car looking good, we kept promoting it, doing gigs for our sponsors, all the while testing and tuning until all the bugs where worked out.

And finally, it was TRACK time! 

Westwood Raceway in Vancouver was our home track.

Once again, we thank our sponsors, but mostly, it's a tribute to putting your mind to something and getting it done!

Back to E-TEK's webpage HERE

Check out my YT Channel HERE!