Got rid of my rocker panels! Updated with picture

[bajaviking]

I finally did it, cut out my old rusty dented rocker panels and replaced them with 2x4 tubing. I started cutting out the old at 10:00am in the morning and at 3:00 pm I had the new tubes tack welded into place and everything lined up pretty nice. It was kind of a pain to cut all the old stuff out but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.
Considering that I did it all with a small buffer with a cuttin wheel, hammer and chissel and an arc welder I think I did pretty good.
All I need to do is take it to a friends house so that I can use his mig welder to weld the floor to the tubing. I will try to take some pics tonight.
My girlfriend is afraid of leaving the house now, she says that everytime she leaves me alone for more than a few hours something weird happens to my Blazer

 

[blazinzuk]

My girlfriend is afraid of leaving the house now, she says that everytime she leaves me alone for more than a few hours something weird happens to my Blazer

 

[1976Blazer76]

I finally did it, cut out my old rusty dented rocker panels and replaced them with 2x4 tubing. I started cutting out the old at 10:00am in the morning and at 3:00 pm I had the new tubes tack welded into place and everything lined up pretty nice. It was kind of a pain to cut all the old stuff out but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.
Considering that I did it all with a small buffer with a cuttin wheel, hammer and chissel and an arc welder I think I did pretty good.
All I need to do is take it to a friends house so that I can use his mig welder to weld the floor to the tubing. I will try to take some pics tonight.
My girlfriend is afraid of leaving the house now, she says that everytime she leaves me alone for more than a few hours something weird happens to my Blazer

Yeah, get some pics up here, I'm pretty close to doing the same thing and wanna see the route you went.

 

[bajaviking]

Added a picture to my first post. Still need to accomodate my fenders a little better and fully weld it and add some supports.

 

[1976Blazer76]

Added a picture to my first post. Still need to accomodate my fenders a little better and fully weld it and add some supports.

Lookin good I was actually thinking about cutting it that exact way. Are you attaching it to your floorboard at all or just off your frame?

 

[noahrob]

Yeah, I would be interested in seeing pictures of how the floor was tied into the 2x4 and how you tied the 2x4 to the fender support in the front. I just replaced (not done yet) my floor so this thread's timin gis great...

 

[bajaviking]

There are 2 floorboard supports that go all the way out to the rocker panel, after cutting out the rocker panel I held the 2x4 up against the supports and found that by cutting them down an inch or two the 2x4 can be pushed all the way up against the supports and the floorboard which make it easy to put a welding seam all along the whole door opening. I don't think I am going to spend much time on the fender support in the front and will probably just weld it to the tube somehow but I guess if you want to make it easier to take of the fender you could weld a little angle to the fender support and bolt it to the 2x4 somehow. If you plan on using doors you need to watch the height of the tube, I don't know if doors will still fit on mine now but my doors were so ugly and beat up that I threw them away and I don't plan on putting any back on so this is not an issue for me.

 

[dremu]

While I'm keeping my doors (half doors!) I found that trimming out the rust / door sills made a nice space just right for the 2x6's I put in... I think it's .250 wall, it was whatever they had in the scrap pile that was beefy

Basically, by keeping the top of the slider in line with where the doorsill was, I can still use the doors. Now, the sliders are only welded to the body, i.e. no frame attachment, but I'm running a full cage, so we'll see how she does.

Wow, just looking at that driver's side fender ... Betcha I lose twenty pounds of Bondo on the first flex =)) ... not my doing; I inherited the fender like that!

-- A