Rockers

I like rockers… rockers of all kind. I’m an equal opportunity rocker liker.

Some rockers look like this:

I suspect some folks think that’s where I should spend more of my time. Nope!

Maybe this is what you like:

I have more appreciation for rockers like this:

In fact, here’s some tracks from Jimi to appreciate while you read:

Castles made of sand — Jimi Hendrix

Foxey Lady — Jimi Hendrix

Voodoo Child — Jimi Hendrix

Hey Joe — Jimi Hendrix

Although related to my project, this also isn’t the rockers I have in mind:

This is the kind of rocker I’m digging into:

Of course, mine weren’t so shiny. when I got the truck someone (PO?) had tack welded a patch panel ON TOP of the rusty rockers with some truly tidy welds:

I cut those off before it went to the media blaster and in fact I cut out a bunch of rusted-through areas the night before taking it… I was a bit rushed so didn’t get images then. After it got back I could see just how bad they were, and I removed all the rusty sections (which was pretty nasty/dusty/rusty/blech) as there was some media blast material in the rockers which was trapped in there. I ended up ordering new patch panels as they were one of the few patch panels that are available online. Even after removing the panels, I had to patch some of the support structure. I didn’t worry about it looking tidy, it just needs to be there.

Once I stitch-welded and primed the under panel it looked better for sure:

After the under-support was repaired, I went about trimming down and welding in the patch. Here is one round of my fitting it. The full panel would completely replace the rocker from end to end. I didn’t want to disassemble the rocker from the pillars in order to get it completely removed. So, I trimmed the panel down to the parts I wanted to replace. I used one of the bends for the majority of the seam. That should help the finish body guys to disguise the weld.

It’s getting there. The first tack!

It took 3-4 goes at it to get all the seams to line up with their 60 yr old counterparts.

Yep, it was very close though…

I clamped it with the ridges lining up and gave this corner a tack. You can see the curves weren’t identical…

Basically I could get it to line up closer when I leaned on it a bit. So I leaned on it a bit and tacked it in.

Oof…. I always think I could have done better. I think the reality is that it’s just hard if you don’t do it every day.

I cut a little, nudged a little, tacked and worked my way to the corner.

then it’s a game of tack, stitch, coerce, nudge, hammer, fiddle, and get it all to line up.

A little further along:

After first grind, I found a few holes to fill. Yeah, I’m not that great with this stuff.

After second grind, I tossed on some primer:

… and with the finished door mounted/aligned looks pretty good!

Rock on you crazy rockers!

Now to do the drivers side…