My driver side rocker is turning to dust! I recently replaced the tranny and while on the creeper I reached for the rocker to pull myself out from under the truck and my hand went through the panel. The driver side front fender aint much better, but it's a bolt on replacement. Just wondered if anyone has as much body rot as me and how hard it is to replace a rocker panel. I assume you just grind out the old one and weld in the new panel. I don't know why one side of my truck is rusting away while the other side is as solid as the day it was new

 

I have the same job to do on my 99 1500, pretty much a measure, cut and replace.
Left side rotted out, fender, doors, rocker panel, box side boiling out, right side good.
We live in the snow belt and when salt is spread on the roads it goes in the middle of the road, we drive thru it and the salt blasts off the paint then attacks the bare metal when driven thru slush. Had a half inch crust of salt on the left side of the frame, you could break it off and put it on your fries! The right side is furthest fom the salt blast.
Almost all the vehicles I've owned rotted out on the left side first. I like salt,not!

What's it like to work on a truck that isn't rusted and siezed together? A rust free truck up here is a dream. 4 years then rust takes over and pieces fall. I should post pics of our 97 Caravan, its got holes and missing metal since 2002. No stopping it rust.

 

Yeah, salt really sucks! I just want to take care of the rust issue before nothing is left of my truck. I can deal with all the dents but rust holes I can put my fist in is not cool.

 

Will you fab up the rocker panel or purchase it? The show Trucks! had a show about panel replacement awhile back, should be a webvideo of it somewhere on their site. A picture and 1000 word thing.
Try to cut out as much of the rotted part back to good metal, make a couple of referance marks for measuring points before welding.
Going to start on my '99 1500 4x4 soon, not too concerned about exact body lines, just got to keep the mud & water from coming up thru the floor and cover in holes that someone get cut on. It's a farm/pushtruck, just need to be clean and safe to drive. It gets blasted with mud and rocks on the track.

 

I have a 96 Ram that still has solid original rockers.

 

I will be buying a replacement panel, I just hope I can find enough "good" metal to weld too lol.

 

I hear yah, picked up mig tips today for my welder. 90% on the time we run .035" wire but for sheet metal I like to use .023" wire.

 

I have the same problem with mine. I bought it in the summer last year with minimal rust; However, now both of the cab corners and rocker panels have multiple rust holes through them.

Has anyone had them replaced by a body shop? All i would want done is for them to cut out the old and weld on the new, not painting it or anything. I can paint it(would probably use bed-liner), i just don't know how to weld, or know anyone who knows how to weld.

 

After doing some research I found they make an adhesive you can use instead of welding. From what I hear it's as strong as a weld. I think this would be feasable on cab corners but maybe not so much with rockers.

 

Have you guys seen my truck ?....