Suburban rear rockers

[Khayward]

Are there any places which sell OE style panels? My rear rockers are shot, inside and out and I bought the inners and outer from LMC but the rot extends into the C-pillar curve and the panels I bought obviously won't cover that.
Also trying to discern if there's something been cut out of the sheet metal already (see photo).
Any advice welcome!

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[Originalthor]

That's the way it was from factory. kinda goofy looking but thats the same way mine is.

 

[bucket]

As of yet, nobody makes proper rear rockers. It's a shame, because if the proper stamping was offered, rear rocker replacement would be a breeze.

 

[Khayward]

As of yet, nobody makes proper rear rockers. It's a shame, because if the proper stamping was offered, rear rocker replacement would be a breeze.

That's pretty lame. Has anyone worked around it with other panels that sorta fit? Maybe I need a parts truck, like the 3/4 ton big block truck at my in-laws house in Inglewood....

 

[Khayward]

An update: found a solid shell at my local wreckers, they're going to cut the whole inner/outer/backers off both sides for me. Depending on how they look inside I may attempt replacing the whole mess as an assembly, if that's possible. Anyone familiar enough to know if it is?
Would have been OK using the repair panels except it's my first time doing this kind of work and cutting/fitting/stitching seems like added opportunities to screw it up.

 

[Khayward]

Ok, another update, picked up the sections from the wreckers yesterday. There is some crustiness in a couple of spots, including a hole near the back on one side, but the majority, including the insides, are clean and solid.
I had hoped to be able to only partially disassemble the donors and put them on as subassemblies but it looks like they're built up in layers, so next I want to figure out the appropriate order for disassembly so that my inevitably rough welds will be mostly out of sight.
An added bonus is that I needed at least one patch for the edge of the wheel well behind the back door and both sides came with that section. Also came with lower hinges etc, might keep some of that 'junk'.
Will be stripping extra stuff off and washing them down today, so more pictures later.
Any tips or hints would be welcome!

 

[bucket]

If it's just your outer rockers that have rust, 100% just replace the outers. There's no sense in making a bunch of work for yourself. Having those nice used donors makes it very simple, just drill out all the spot welds and install the nice ones in place of the rusted ones.

 

[Khayward]

If it's just your outer rockers that have rust, 100% just replace the outers. There's no sense in making a bunch of work for yourself. Having those nice used donors makes it very simple, just drill out all the spot welds and install the nice ones in place of the rusted ones.

Inners are gone too in the back. One of the front inners is also pretty shot.

 

[Khayward]

Over the last few weeks I've been working on taking apart the donor panels. The first one I took all the way apart, did a lot more drilling and cutting than necessary but oh well.
Took apart the second one yesterday and managed to remove the inner and outer rear rockers as an assembly but will still split them so I can treat the inside - the first side was starting to rust inside but nothing a wire wheel couldn't take off.
Had to drill out the welds on both pillars, plus a couple on the seam where the weatherstripping goes, then the ones on the floorpan (from underneath), then a few holding the inner rocker to the parts of the floorpan that hang down. There were also a couple of welds in additional locations on the face of the panel. When I take the parts off the truck I'll either get a flat-tip bit or use a grinder, the weld cutter I bought is overkill for sure.

Need to straighten the parts a bit but now I know how they go together removing the ones from the truck should be less of a pain.
Now I get to work on figuring the front ones out as they're integral to the dogleg and B pillar.

 

[bucket]

Lol, I'm super jealous of those nice clean panels.

 

[Khayward]

Lol, I'm super jealous of those nice clean panels.

Lol, it was literally the first vehicle after the entrance to the wrecking yard, definitely a lucky find!