SHO Restoration Right Side rail???

[SHO04093]

I just Purchased a 92 SHO MTX that needs a little love to say the least, My question is this I Have some rust on the right side on the rocker area right when you open the Right rear Passenger door right under the Ground effect trim. I have enclosed some pictures of the area and what i am wondering cause I have looked up parts and was wondering if this area is considerd The side rail right or is it the actual Rocker? I am not giving up on the car Do to it being a Diamond in the Rough rough if you know what i mean thank you

 

[mrecoolgar]

It's called the rocker.
My 91 is similar if not worse.

 

[ohfosho]

i know that there are rocker panels available for the Gen 1 tauri, but they didnt find a listing for the gen 2 when i was getting ready to do body work.

i just patched what i had. best to cut out the rusty parts and put in some new metal, and coat it in POR15 (this stuff is suposedly the greatest at stoping rust).

 

[pjtoledo]

That section is part of frame of the car. It is actually composed of 3 pieces. The outer part you see in the picture, a similarly shaped inner piece that forms the edge of the floor, and a basically straight verticle piece. All three are welded together at both the top and bottom. There are a couple of bulkheads inside the outer section to assist it in keeping its shape. They are just glued in.

Perry

 

[inverse1216]

heres a thread i dug up where he had actually got replacement rocker panels and welded them in.

http://www.shoforum.com/showthread.php?t=47743&highlight=rocker+panel

the links dont work any more but im sure if you pm him he can send you the pictures. i read this thread when he was doing this project and saw the pictures very impressed and well done for someone thats never done it before. plus your rust doesnt seem nearly as bad as his. hopes this helps. there are a few other threads on rocker panels too just run it thru the search function. later

andy

 

[awb85]

Oooooo...Rusty rockers huh. I have a Gen I, but here are some pictures I have up if you'd like to get an idea of what's involved. I bought the spot welder, and borrowed a mig welder from a friend.

EDIT: Old link back up: www.sho.a-brown.com

Originally I was going to just buy some sheet steel and bend it to fit (I built a brake out of 2x6's...).

-Alex

EDIT: I'm unsure how likely it would be, but if you really wanted to, you might be able to buy the Gen 1 rockers, and maybe they're a good enough fit, or you could at least use it to get patch pieces out of. They cost $41 each at www.millsupply.com

 

[gtstang1967]

just get some 1/8" sheet metal and tack weld it in or use sheet metal screws. i replaced a wholefloor pan and rocker panel on my uncles jeep with it and all i did was spray it down with undercoat so it wouldnt rust again. its been 6 months and it still looks new. its cheaper and its wasy because the metal bends easily. every junkyard 92 mtx has those panels rotted out probally traps mositure somehow.

 

[wally05]

How do you get the trim on the rocker panel off? I want to assess my damage. It isn't bad I'm sure, but I need to know to see where I stand. I can see a little bit on the right rear, so I'm sure mine is starting to spread.

Korey

 

[gtstang1967]

the trim comes off easily.it has small phillips head screws that hold it up i believe they are plastic. after that it shoudl come out. out of all the screws holding it up my car only has 1 left!

 

[wally05]

That's what I thought, I'll take a look later today.

Korey

 

[ohfosho]

you dont need to pull the side skirts off to see how bad you are doing really. if you have bad rockers you will usually have a spot in the vertical up wall of the rear fender well, and the skirts only cover some of the actual rocker panel, so you can tap on the metal to see if it is hollow/rotted/breaking.

 

[glass]

I just finished redoing a 1993 MTX that had rusty rockers and some other rust in front of the rear wheels and in one wheel well. I cut out the rusty stuff and welded in new sheet metal (I bought a sheet at Lowe's 1/8 inch). I wasn't going to take the car apart and do this but less than two weeks after I bought it a lady hit me at a red light and tore up my rear bumper cover, drivers side tail light, inner body panel and trunk lid. She didn't hurt the quarter panels or I would have probably parted out the car. This motivated me to take it all apart and redo the whole car. That's when I found the rusty rockers. The project was a ton of work but I learned alot and kept another SHO from the crusher!