Hi Guys,

I am attaching a couple pics of the side panels of my truck where there's a lot of rust on the bottom.





I had a body guy tell me he could replace those on both sides for $750, but then I got to thinking maybe there's a cheaper way I could do it myself. So I wanted to post here and ask the forum members what materials/products or whatever I would need to repair these myself?

If anyone has any step-by-step instructions to go with their suggestions I would appreciate that, too. Thanks.

 

Replacement panels would be the best bet. But, you got a spot welder? And sort of body working tools? Most of what you are paying for there is labor...... If you can do the labor, and have the right tools, can prolly do it for under 200 bucks. If you don't have the tools, that makes life a bit more interesting.

Personally, I hate body work. And I suck at it. Probably why my rockers look a LOT worse than yours.

 

I had a buddy of mine say I was crazy for spending $750 to fix the side panels. He said I would be better off to spend that kind of money on other areas of the truck. However, the body guys who made this estimate also fixed my driver door—the latch in the door had caved in and they put in pins, repaired the latch and welded and painted it back up and it looked brand new!

He said my doors were in awesome shape for the age of the truck (there's no rust anywhere on either door). Along with the rockers he said they could just cut off the bottom portion of the back panel on each side, put in a new piece and weld and paint it to look good as new.

I'm still considering it....

 

If you can get it fixed I'd do it. The rust will eventually spread and get worse....

 

Take it from a full time Body man. Replace to whole rocker and cad corner at one time.Make sure he weilds to while rocker in and need just spot weilds as I have seen done in the past Makee sure he also uses some PRO15 on the back side of the rocker so on rust will forum again in the same place. I do think the price is high or it would be here in Pa