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78 K5 Rocker Rebuild

wazzabie

wazzabie

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This thread will document my replacement of the rocker panels on a 78 K5 blazer. I was able to locate some OEM rockers for the 78 K5 still with the GM stickers. I also ordered from Tabco inter rockers and floor supports.

This is my first attempt at sheet metal repair. I hope the community finds this useful.

OEM GM rockers in EDP black
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New Floor Brace from Tabco
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Fitting the inter rockers from Tabco. The Tabco's are made in the USA and are based in Ohio.


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More pics to come.

Also I could not find many vids out there on this. Here is one good one about some rust repair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtxvWu12avA
 
I'm not exactly sure that I have all of the body parts I need for this. It looks like my inner rockers are not going to be long enough. I'm looking at the parts catalog I have an it looks like the inner rocker is part of the floor in number 21. It looks like it is just a straight piece. So maybe I can make my own inner rocker.

I'm not exactly sure how to do this and I'm very apprehensive about cutting into the rockers. It look like in the pics the outer rockers are one part of the larger assembly #12. However there are GM part numbers for the outer rockers.

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I'm not sure yet if I'll need to remove spot welds or just cut into the rockers. I'm also not sure If I should cut my new rockers or cut my body to match the new rockers.

Here are some other pics I found showing what I may see when I cut the rockers out.

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After doing some reading I've decided I will be building a brace before I cut into the rockers. I will take off the door and mount a brace that will attach to the hinges and mount to the door bolt.

Does anyone have dimensions for the inside of the door as shown in the photos below for the 78 91 k5? My doors are sagging and I'm not sure I can trust the current dimensions.

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Here are some pics of the rust on the drivers side.

The floor support is rust near the bottom and the sides as shown in the pic below. It looks good near the body mount. I would like to try and save it and patch the floor support. Only part of the inner rocker is still there. The inner rocker come straight down from the floor. Rather then using the Tapco part I think I'm just going to get a flat sheet of metal and make my own inner.

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Here you can see were the rust is showing thru on the outside rocker.

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Excellent, doing same, never heard of tabco, so I already got some usefull info. Keep on rockin.
 
Where I live is near a school and people walk by often on the side walk. My driveway is short. I'f I start to sandblast in the drive way then the air may be unhealthy for those waking by on the side walk. I live near on a popular side walk with lots of people. Maybe I could do this at 2am? I'm not sure. I don't want to cause any trouble.
 
cut out the bad, "to be replaced" metal, than drive it over to a sandblasters yard.... easy peezy... worth the few hundy he'd charge ya...

look in the phonebook under "sandblasting" many of them have yards they do work in.. some are mobile, but that's not what your looking for in this case...
 
ryoken said:
cut out the bad, "to be replaced" metal, than drive it over to a sandblasters yard.... easy peezy... worth the few hundy he'd charge ya...

look in the phonebook under "sandblasting" many of them have yards they do work in.. some are mobile, but that's not what your looking for in this case...
Click to expand...


OK I'll look into that. I think I'm going to need to go somewhere else for the high fill priming and paint. The driveway is just about 1 1/2 car lengths to the sidewalk. There is someone I know close by who has a paint booth. So maybe I could rent some time in it.
 
I made some more progress on the K5. The interior has been removed. I didn't find any data sheets under the floor mat but I did find some perfect bolts that some on had dropped and has been sitting there since new.

Some parts of the floor are in mint condition. Other parts have rust. It looks like a lot of it may only be surface behind the driver seats.

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This part of the floor will need to be cut out and replaced. The floor support is badly rusted. This will require removal of the body bolt. I assume I just unbolt it from below. I'm not sure if I need to support the cab near the location I remove the bolt. It may not hurt. I'm going to need to remove the rubber mount I assume so I can get the the floor support section for removal.

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This is the piece under the floor that will need to be replaced.

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Here you can see the bad floor support. The floor support collected dirt and water that rotted the floor and rocker above it.

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I bought this little sand blaster from Northern Tool. Only $50 and made in the USA.

The plan is to take the wire wheel to the rust and sand blast to get into the pits. For abrasive I may use the black sand. I also really like the Gator abrasive disks but they wear out so quickly.


http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_33184_33184

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Has anyone tried these rust removal pads from Lowes? I bought one and it worked rather well for a few minutes. It wore out so quickly.


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I don't know if it will help ya out or not, but Greg and I both have a ton of pics in the beginning of both of our threads of what you're going to be cutting into. Although both are 1st gens and some of the pieces might not be the same, it should be about the same practice on both.

I'm sure that you've seen Greg's, but

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=224462

and mine..

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269675

I hope it helps. There was a lot of head scratching when I did mine and without Greg's thread it would have takin' a lot longer.

Good luck.
 
I'm back! I've been through alot since I started this thread in life and had to put this work on hold.

There are several panels that attach with the front floor support. First touching the front floor support on the K5 is the floor pan, then inner kick panel and then the outer rocker. I did not find anyone that makes an inner rocker panel. The inner rocker panel is also part of the floor pan.

I took measurements and I 'm also going to weld in braces tomorrow within the door jam so that I don't get anything misaligned.

Today I started to cut out the outer rocker.

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Here you can see the front floor support brace. The inner rocker is also part of the floor pan. The sheet metal is very thin for the inner rocker.

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I'm trying to drill out and grind the spot welds on the rocker. It is difficult to know how far to drill. I left some metal but when I took and air hammer to it the entire plug came out.

Any advice on removing the outer rocker. I would like to save as much of the floor pan as possible. At about every inch along the outer rocker is a spot weld.

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I'm thinking about trying this method for the rocker removals. It will save the floor pan in inner rcoker

 
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