bottom of rocker finished edge question

[zinz]

Gents,

This has bothered me for a couple weeks. The new rocker panels from W&N have a curved lip/ledge at the bottom. This seems to me a perfect place for mud and debris to collect, then block the drain holes and begin the rotting process... Do I cut this off?

Here's a picture, please excuse the unground spot welds

If anyone has a picture of how they finished this off, I would be grateful.

Ed Z

 

[rsporsche]

having looked at my rockers when i had the covers off, i don't remember seeing an exposed lip like that. i would have thought that would be where the weld seam would be - finish off with seam sealer. i could easily be wrong

 

[eriknetherlands]

Ed, your setup seems right to me. Indeed it matches the original panels I had on my car.
What you have now is how it was from factory. See attached picture from my car, showing original panel positions.
The pic is looking at the left side rocker, at (what's left of ) the lower B-pillar reinforcement. left upper corner is the door opening. right upper corner is where the rear wing should be.
On the left is the cut through the outer rocker, and it sits ~5 mm lower compared to the inner sill with the drilled out spot welds.

I share your thoughts that it is indeed a place for mud to creep up and in.
Take a tyewrap at the end of the driving season, put the car in the lift and clean out those water drains.

And some unsolicited advice- ignore it if you want to drive anywhere soon-
But mind you, the rust comes from the inside, not the underside.
I'm quite surprised to see so much brown on the underside of the floor and between the welds on the sill. How are the internals of that rocker; same colour?
If so, having mud on the outside will not define how long the rockers will last; It'll be the rust coming from the inside that will consume them. drown them in protective wax/oil/the likes.
I would also grind the hell out of the brown spots while you still can. Use one of those 1/2 inch (13 mm) narrow belt sanders for nooks and cranies.
Then use a rust converter to get to any pinhole rustpockets that your belt sander doesn't reach.
Cover that finally with epoxy and underbody coat.

Should last another generation if done so.
Erik.

 

[zinz]

Thank you Erik,

That just seems so odd to me... a perfect little shelf to hold mud and grime.

Yes, I removed all visible rust from the inner rockers while the outer rockers were off the car. Everything was treated with rust-stop, then painted with etching primer. What I haven't gotten to is what you see in the picture.. grind the spot welds down and paint that last bit with POR15.

I'll be sure to clean out those drains once a year as everyone recommends.

Thanks for the insight.

Ed

 

[mulberryworks]

I had a lo0k on the forum and found a post by John Hein in 2010 that has a link to some photos of a clean 2800cs you might find useful.

 

[zinz]

Very nice. Thanks so much. The pictures aren't definitive, but gives me a better idea how the factory job looked. It seems these bottom edges become quite beat up over time. I have a plan in my head at the moment of how I will clean this up.

I'll post pics when I'm done.

Ed

 

['69 2800cs]

Erik's experience mirrors mine....that curved under area was completely solid in my rockers while the innards turned to dust 20 years ago.

They truly rust from the inside out!

 

[aearch]

I mentioned this area as a serious place to monitor once a year.

 

[Mal CSL 3.0]

Hi Ed Z,

You should get that gap closed up and seal with some filler. In this photo you can see how mine has no gap

Also one thing I did was get rust proofer squirted inside my inner sills. They made a small hole and sprayed inside. I suspect like all e9s I might have some rust growing from the inside of my sills as my bare metal rebuild is getting to 20 years old now, so spraying the inner sills at least gives me some hope that it will slow down any corrosion process that could be happening.

 

[Stevehose]

Can you post a pic of where they drilled the hole(s)?

They made a small hole and sprayed inside.

View attachment 41356 View attachment 41357

 

[Mal CSL 3.0]

Can you post a pic of where they drilled the hole(s)?

Hi Steve,
Was in the corner of the inner front sill where the 3 metal seams all meet. They stuck a tube in and sprayed rust proofer around.
Area was then covered and resurfaced.

 

[autokunst]

please excuse the unground spot welds

Hi Ed,
No apologies necessary for unground spot welds. But I would be concerned about welds made on/to rusty metal. Welding oxidized metal is akin to gluing something to dirt - the oxidation will contaminate the weld and it will oxidize very quickly. Also, there will not be adequate penetration into the parent metal. Were these sections clean when the welds were made, then since rusted? Just looking out for your best interests.

One more follow up question - do you know what filler metal was used? Some formulations deal with dirty metal better than others (although clean metal is best).

 

[zinz]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all the comments. There are many pictures in my project thread where the outer rockers were replaced. All the inner rocker surfaces were treated and etch primed before reassembly.

The spot welds you see are a combination of welds protruding from outside in, and afterwards, we drilled holes from inside outwards and plug welded again to insure these rockers weren't going anywhere.

The technique we employed was not just clamping the outer rocker to the inner rocker, but we screwed everything together with small sheet metal screws and removed one screw at a time and plug-welded the hole shut all the way through to the far side. This of course after priming all the inner surfaces.

Afterwards, I sprayed Eastwood's inner frame rail coating inside the rockers till it ran out all over. It comes with a 24" tube and 360 degree nozzle. It seems to work very well.

This car was rebuilt in the 80s, and I think they might have trimmed the bottom of the inner rocker in some sections as the lip of new rockers hangs below as I'm pointing out.

I absolutely will fill this gap and have several ideas how to accomplish it.

Thanks again everyone.

Ed

 

[Stevehose]

Thanks. I took those baffle plates off and blasted wax all back there and reinstalled.

Hi Steve,
Was in the corner of the inner front sill where the 3 metal seams all meet. They stuck a tube in and sprayed rust proofer around.
Area was then covered and resurfaced.


View attachment 41362