Need rocker panel/pan help

[luna negra]

I've got a rusty '79 K5 with some rocker and floor pan issues. I've never tried to do body work so before I start cutting and welding, thought I would ask here first. My main question is how much to take off and replace. The driver's side rocker is not that bad except for one part. Would you just try to replace this bad section or go much larger? Also, what's confusing me is the order of things - I assume I start by cutting the outer rocker off, then fitting that back before the inner? Or do I fit the inner and outer together, then tack? The youtube videos I've seen aren't clear on the order of things. I presume that the outer/inner has to be done before anything with the floor pan correct?

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Passenger side

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To confuse things further, the aftermarket inner rocker piece that was sent by RockAuto doesn't really make sense how it fits - it's much too short for the overall outer rocker length. Any insight y'all could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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[bucket]

I'll try not to gripe too much about the reproduction floors and inner rockers, but I don't know why any of these companies don't pony up and make them like GM did. The inner rocker thing is a joke.

Anyway, I'd replace the whole outer rocker. You can never really see how bad they are from the outside. Hold the replacement rocker up to the existing and mark where it extends too. Make your initial cuts well inside of that area and remove the outer rocker. Then cut out the bad areas of floor and temporarily screw the new floor pans in place. Then trim out your own inner rockers out of flat sheetmetal, to fit what you had to cut out in order to repair the floor. Screw those in place as well. Then do the final trimming for the outer rocker and screw that in place too. Then close the door and make sure the gaps are good.

Make adjustments if necessary. Use the screw holes for alignment of the panels when you weld them in. Weld the floor, then the inner rocker, then the outer rocker.

 

[bucket]

Also, there's a lot of variables, adjustments to the game plan are often needed.

 

[luna negra]

Thanks bucket. This is exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for.

I'm keeping a photolog of everything so I'll post up a build thread when done.

 

[luna negra]

Speaking of bad reproductions, the floor pans I ordered several months ago are no where close to fitting correctly. I see what you mean now. The ribs that are stamped in don't even come close to lining up with the original - offset by 2" at least. Other angles are way off as well. Never looked at them close until I got the old rocker out-my bad.

I know there's probably some threads on this but does anyone have any recent info on who makes better replacement panels? I could pbly use these and beat and bend them out but I'd rather have something that fits better. Thanks