Rocker Repair

[feint movement]

Decided to start on my rocker panel repair today.Sorry about the bad quality from my camera phone:

I have started to cut out the rust. As for the repair, aesthetics is not a big issue as I have sideskirts to go over them. But I want it to be a nice sealed repair. I will be using light gauge sheet metal, and rivets vs a welder as I have a ****ty welder which only burns holes through sheet metal. So here it is a 1989 Canadian 240sx, driven through 17 winters. I hope to have this repair done by sometime next week, but I am a full time student and have little free time. Unfortunetly I will not be repairing the metal frame inside the rear rocker panel as it would requie me to cut out a ton of the rocker which isn't rusty. I will have more pics tomorrow of progress.

[Thamm]

good luck on the rapair. man 17 winters has got to be rough with your 240.Welcome to Nico!

[eazye2000]

Rivets will offer very little structural strength. You can Rivet everything in place, then take it to be welded in. That may work.But good luck on the project. Keep it updated, and take lots of pictures!

[LostAndFound]

i have a ****ty welder and welded mine in place

just do a lot of tacks, and then a little fiberglass or filler over the gaps to help seal it, spray it inside and out afterwards

[feint movement]

Rivets will offer very little structural strength. You can Rivet everything in place, then take it to be welded in. That may work.But good luck on the project. Keep it updated, and take lots of pictures!

Yes that's what I was thinking of doing.

Okay I got some pictures of the chaos, but before that, some info for owners not aware of this proble or how it occurs:

... My 240sx was just like any other 89 240sx that was driven through snow. Luckily in my area they don't salt a lot, but use gravel and sand instead. This rust issue as we all know is common on S13s, because of the roof drain which drains water into the rocker panel. Well over time dirt gets in there and clogged it up, so water can't escape. The water + the grit trapped in the rocker over time rusts out the bottom which leads to a hole at the bottom of the inner wheel well. Just about almost all 240sx's i see here have a hole in the lower wheel well. Well many people think it's just a minor problem, not knowing the cause is from the inside out and not the outside in (which is visible). Well if they took a close look, it's not more than just a body panel which rusts, there is a frame inside that gets eaten away too. So I'm cutting out the rocker and showing people what's inside! Here's what's scary, that inner frame is connected to a bolt which YOUR SEATBELT IS FASTENED TO! If the rust gets to that nut that's dangerous!

Okay! Here you see that I roughly chopped off most of the rusted metal. Yes there's a piece left hanging (i need to go buy more cuting discs). You can see there is frame there!

Inner shot! You see that hole in the inside frame? That's where your drain tube for your roof goes though. And see that bolt? That holds ur seatbelt retracter assembly in, and YOU or your PASSENGER when you brake hard or hit something! Luckily The rust is still pretty far from that... But Por 15 will be applied to slow it down enough that it won't reach it for quite some time.

Here is a shot point up at the damage/inner frame. You can see a chunk of the frame has been rusted away, but on the right side it's rust free! Now I can't get in there and fix it unfortunetly cause that would require me to cut out basically the entire rocker panel... So i'm gonna spray a ton of Por 15 in there in hopes it will slow it down from spreading.

So tomorrow I hope to finish cutting out the rest of the rust, and cleaning up the edges with a grinder to accomodate new metal.

Now many of you are going "holy balls, isn't that frame pretty structural?".Well I look at it this way, this car has been driving around for the last few years with that thing rusted, and by now it's supporting pretty much nothing and I havn't been having issues. But my car is mostly for the track, and a roll cage is going in. The biggest concern is if your seatbelt anchors are still sound.

[eazye2000]

Yes! Looks like you're on your way to some good repair work. Keep the pictures coming!I'm dumb when it comes to body work.. What is this 'Por 15' you speak of? I'm off to Google it now..

[feint movement]

My repair is similar to James' : zerothread?id=280618

His was worse than mine, you can see in one picture where the rust went right through into the cabin carpet!

to sideskirts which are gonna cover this repair
Modified by feint movement at 10:59 PM 1/8/2008

[eazye2000]

POR 15 FTW! Looks like some awesome stuff!

I'm going to be tearing my car down to it's undies, and seam welding her. That POR 15 looks promising!

Keep up the progress! I love the DIY stuff!!

[sommmatt]

I start on those spots on Friday... not going to be fun. Looked clean as hell, and then I pulled off the mudflap thing. Scary what you find under those.

[feint movement]

I start on those spots on Friday... not going to be fun. Looked clean as hell, and then I pulled off the mudflap thing. Scary what you find under those.

Talk about it... (this summer before I started fixing the bubbling paint/rockers)

Now it looks like crap... lol. But hopefully it will be back to better than before soon.

Windsor hey? How's your S13 holding up over there?
Modified by feint movement at 11:13 PM 1/8/2008

[Didderson]

Any suggested spots to move the sunroof tube to? Be sure to include a pic when you're done because I'm worried now lol. Must check 2 see if i can help slow this w/o cutting yet becaues mine's not that bad it seems.

[feint movement]

Any suggested spots to move the sunroof tube to? Be sure to include a pic when you're done because I'm worried now lol. Must check 2 see if i can help slow this w/o cutting yet becaues mine's not that bad it seems.

Im gonna put a hole at the bottom of the rocker, and either weld, or epoxy a brass plumbing fitting in the hole. The tube will slide over the fitting on one end and drain out the other side of the fitting OUTSIDE of the car ( to nissan for dumping the tube to hang in the rocker, we'd all be happier if they routed the dump tube more wisely).

I hope to have it sealed back up soon, so I can slap my sideskirts over them and be done with the rockers.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

looks like its coming along nicely. Just think man, mine did all that (on Both sides), without having a sunroof, and without having water drain into that area.

I made use of the rust on the drivers side, and routed my exhaust through that area, before sealing it all back up. Sidepipe ftw.

Por15 is good stuff, but remember, it isn't meant to be used on the exterior of the car. UV rays eat it up pretty quick. What I did is after griding down all the welds, is run a fiberglass filler all along the welds (to seal any unseen pin-hole leaks), prime the entire area, then use a rubberized undercoating to seal everything. So far its working great.

[sommmatt]

Talk about it... (this summer before I started fixing the bubbling paint/rockers)

Now it looks like crap... lol. But hopefully it will be back to better than before soon.

Windsor hey? How's your S13 holding up over there?

Modified by feint movement at 11:13 PM 1/8/2008

Well I'm sure you consider our winters as mild compared to yours, but just because we don't get the massive volume of snow doesn't mean they aren't salt nazis. Any car with a steel chassis just disintegrates after a few years around here. My S13 is off the road during the winter haha.

[feint movement]

Okay so here's the guts of the rocker! Again all that metal is left haing, cause I still need new cuttings discs. I went to the store today to buy some, but bought the wrong ones which couldn't cut worth a damn... So I guess I'm taking the rest of the night off. Also my shoulder blade has crapped out on me, so I'll rest for tonight. I'm out to find some Por15 tomorrow, and hope to have the panel fully removed, and the Por 15 applied. And I'm off college at 2Pm tomorrow so I'll get to work with daylight for once.

You can see that frame inside is gone! And the ammount of sand and dirt in there was ridiculus!! Enough to fill a pickle jar! Now this rocker is trulely Canadian

Can't wait to finish up this side.... Then I guess I'll have the other side after to battle.