Pic Request: Trimmed Rocker Panels (1 Viewer)

[disassociative]

I am in the process of restoring an '88 FJ62 that got too much drive time on salty Michigan roads and not enough love...needless to say it has involved a lot of cutting, welding and time. The frame has been reinforced/repaired and I have almost finished with the body work. I am having a tough time deciding what to do about the rocker panels.

They are all but completely rusted out, so if I wanted to keep them I would need to find some new ones and weld them in...a task easier said than done when one considers removing all that rubberized undercoating. I am thinking I'll just cut them off and put the rock sliders I am making in their place. This gives me a bit more clearance, simplifies fabrication of the sliders, and saves me the cost and PITA of repairing the panels.

What I can't decide is how to trim the rockers. Anybody have pictures of what they have done? How far forward/back were the panels trimmed, all the way to the wheel wells? Is it necessary to weld in a bottom plate on the rockers so seal the split panel?

Pictures, words of wisdom and thoughts on this would be helpful!

 

[Absolutamente]

I'm in the exact same boat and have been wondering this same thing...

 

[kling-on]

I just choped mine off and made sliders but she was trail only worked great

 

[baxter650]

Way easy while she's on her lid.

 

[baxter650]

Plan is to fill with 2x4 sliders.

 

[Landcruisin'60]

How far forward/back were the panels trimmed, all the way to the wheel wells? All the way


Is it necessary to weld in a bottom plate on the rockers so seal the split panel? Nope.

Pictures, words of wisdom and thoughts on this would be helpful!

A grinder with a cut off wheel works well for the sheet metal, I ended up using a Sawzall for the braces.

This is the only picture I could find of doing mine

I cut mine for the same reason, they were full of bondo. I was glad with my decision.

 

[gothodgie]

Plan is to fill with 2x4 sliders.

Your 60 has to be 1 of my all time favorites ... Can't wait to see it with some fresh paint(or just primer even)... Everytime i see it i just want to go start cutting on my 60....

 

[DavidAW]

https://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/268759-rocker-chop-home-made-sliders.html

Here's a post I did when I cut and installed simple sliders.
I would go with a 3rd connection to the frame.

They are welded to the frame and there is a gap between the slder and truck. Some have welded steel to rocker, cant imagin doing that.

I have slammed them quite a bit and they seem OK.

One tip was to weld to a diamond shaped plate so you can more easily weld to the frame. ie you dont have to try to weld the top.

 

[disassociative]

https://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/268759-rocker-chop-home-made-sliders.html

One tip was to weld to a diamond shaped plate so you can more easily weld to the frame. ie you dont have to try to weld the top.

Thank you for explaining the diamond! I have seen this said on several other posts, but I could not for the life of me figure out why. No doubt I would have figured it out, but likely after welding three sides Is the steel I see 3 x 2 x 0.25? I was planning to have 4 crossmembers, glad to know I will be fine with 3.

Loving the pictures, getting more excited about chopping off some rusty metal. Couple questions:

Landcruiserin' - Do you have any pictures of your rig post install? It looks like you left the rocker panel section closest to the front wheel, I was thinking about this myself.

Baxter - I'm thoroughly impressed...here I am whining about scraping the undercoating off the edges of the rocker panel and you scoured the entire underbelly! Did you weld the steel in to close the gap where the panel was and then bondo to seal it?

Kling-on - Already a huge fan, your build thread was my inspiration for this type of slider. You may notice that mine look suspiciously like yours...

 

[DavidAW]

Thank you for explaining the diamond! I have seen this said on several other posts, but I could not for the life of me figure out why. No doubt I would have figured it out, but likely after welding three sides Is the steel I see 3 x 2 x 0.25? I was planning to have 4 crossmembers, glad to know I will be fine with 3.

Yes its 2X3 1/4in. I was on a budget so I did the the cross pieces with the same stock. I would rather have used square, like Kingon.

2 connections to the frame have been good so far. Ive slammed on a few rocks pretty hard, so I think 3 would be plenty.

BTW I used Klingon's pics as a guide.

 

[Landcruisin'60]

Landcruiserin' - Do you have any pictures of your rig post install? It looks like you left the rocker panel section closest to the front wheel, I was thinking about this myself.

Sorry I dont have any useful pictures of it. Sadly I sold that cruiser 2 years ago. I cut all the way from the front wheel well to the rear.

 

[boots4]

The line for my rocker chop.

Rockers chopped. I just used a cut off wheel to get the job done.

I didn't close it up. I just used some auto seam sealer in the crack. Then I coated it all with Rustbullet.

This is the underside of the front fender section. I just cut all the way across it. I was planning on fastening the fender to the body with a screw down here but mine seems to be plenty rigid without one so I'm not worried about it.

Made some sliders and used three legs per side. I pinky spaced them from the body to allow for deflection. I tested after welding it up and it was good.

Sliders. You can see some rocker damage towards the middle that happened before I got sliders on.

Slider attachment.

IMO, if you are replacing cut rockers with sliders then I think just sealing it up would be fine. If no sliders are going on then I'd definitely cap them. Here's an overall.

 

[disassociative]

Great pics Boots, thanks for posting!

I like the idea of using Rust Bullet, I was considering this. I can't quite tell, but it looks like the tube you used is 2x2x0.25, is that right? From the looks of your rig, you spend some time on the trail...have your sliders stood up to the abuse?

Thanks again!

 

[boots4]

I think the square was 2x3 .250 wall and the tube is HREW 1.75 .180 wall (maybe .120, can't remember). For hits the square doesn't even flinch but the tube has taken some dents. If you want stronger than go with DOM for the tube. It'll take the hits better but is more expensive. If my tube gets too messed up I can cut them off and put on some new pieces without removing the slider from the frame. I just flapper wheeled the bottom side of the tube recently and put on some new paint. I had a couple good sections of redneck chrome from my last major trip that I didn't want rusting and didn't want to cut myself on when grabbing onto the slider. So far the sliders have held up great and have been invaluable. I use them often.

 

[444kyle]

I like this post because its answering lots of questions for me. But im still wondering what to do with my rust over the rear wheel wells. from the passenger door back. any susgestions?

 

[gothodgie]

Boots your rockers look sweet.... good work... getting ready to do mine soon hope they turn out as good as yours...

 

[boots4]

Thanks Hodgie

 

[baxter650]

I am not quite sure what you are asking but here goes.
By gap i assume you mean between the rocker and the sliders, i don't have sliders done yet so no gap.
There was no bondo used in the capping of the rockers.
After priming i sprayed with panel guard.
Everything on the truck has been cut with zip disks, boxes of zip disks!

 

[kling-on]

... zip disks, boxes of zip disks!

THEY ROCK RIGHT

 

[baxter650]

Easiest thing i have found to cut a straight line, and fast!
Masking tape as a straight line, fool proof, and i should know.
The one thing i do that may garner some comments is i remove the guard from the grinder.
I find the guard and all the sparks it traps makes it hard to follow your cut lines.
Having said that i do use heavy leather gloves and try to keep the body parts i am partial to out of the potential trajectory of an exploding disk.
However great the temptation don't use zip disks to grind!