Might want to be very cautious about Ziebarting. From almost every where I hear/see that it makes them rust worse as it holds in all of the moisture while looking shiny and black on the outside as you can never really get the base material clean enough for 100% adhesion so pockets of moisture and crud get trapped. Fluid film or melted wax mixed with boiled linseed oil is a better choice as it can breathe and wont trap moisture in. But I do 100% agree that it needs to be protected after install and be maintained.
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I'm not trying to blow holes in the whole NOS versus aftermarket thing, but the inner and outer rockers (and essentially one/two of everything else) I bought for my 79 are the within 0.004 of the OG metal with primer and 2 layers of paint on it (so essentially the same thickness deducting thickness of paint), nothing that would be noticed in welding. Now I will agree that the steel is of lower quality, but still welds fine (both flux core and tig) and for all of the patches I have purchased and used which include but are not limited to- rockers, cab corners, both inner and outers, kick panels, floors, bed patches have all fit pretty good. This inner rocker was fusion welded with tig and had no issues at all, both driver and passenger sides lined up to where the outer and inners were spot welded at the bottom from the factory. Also the cost of NOS metal like that is outrageous (don't get me wrong, I love me some NOS GM stuff and have a small stash of stuff), I paid 200 for my 79 as a complete truck with a good title (yes it's a crust bucket and it hadn't ran/moved since 1995, but engine runs now and full resto in progress). Finally, when my 79 was re-painted somewhere between 79 and 93, so at max no more than 14 years old, the cab corners, wheel arches, and floors had already rusted off and were caved and paved over with body filler. So while some things were built to last, some things didn't fare too well due to poor drainage and metal layered on top of each other.
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Dang.
