I never had a good look at my car from under until I purchased a lift....now that i had time i noticed the inner rocker panels on my 69 convertible are freakin rotted all the way through. Im actually suprised how my car didnt snap in half. I noticed since then that every time i go over a large speed bump, the gap in between the doors gets smaller...meaning if im driving with my finger in between the gap when hitting a bump, i feel a pinch.

Now my question is, has anyone changed the rocker panels without tearing the whole car apart. I ordered replacement ones and have them, i also ordered new floor pans for both driver and passenger sides as I dont like to cut stuff and salvage parts.

My car is nicely painted, doesnt need any other body work so I want to know what advice you guys have. I ripped out the entire interior today (took an hour) and now the car is ready.

 

Back when, I did about a dozen of them. Roll 'em in, later roll 'em out, cars looked exactly the same but were stiff and solid. Only 'tell' was the blackout paint on the lower pinchweld (which the cars were supposed to have anyway) because there was a row of new welds along there.

These guys have done prob'ly hundreds of them. You can see the techniques in their completed and in-progress pages.

http://www.mustangbarn.com/

 

checked out the site, didnt find anything.....my concern is getting to the front a rear of the rocker panel with all the quarter panels on... any advice.?

 

You're kidding. You found nothing? Here's a series of exactly the repair you need, from that site. It can be done with just replacement of the rocker. As you can see in the last frame, they also replaced the floor. You probably don't need to do that.

 

i didnt see those pics....looks like more than a roll in roll out job to me. no quarter panels on the ride.. need to find more literature and pics before i start cutting...

 

The rails can be done with the quarter panels and wheel house intact. It's not even necessary to remove the front fenders. You will, of course, need to remove the entire interior.

 

I did some more research and yea your pretty right, I also ordered new torque boxes since im gonna be throwing on a stroker kit soon.

Now im def gonna have to remove the panels.

 

You're 'vert is the favorite '69 convertible I've seen, sad to hear it's got damage hiding under it. But I'm also happy to hear you're going to treat it right and repair it. Taking the front fenders off will probably help with the front torque boxes. And you're gonna appreciate that lift when putting some of these parts in.

Best of luck to you!

 

Yeah, I'll confess you rarely see intact torque boxes with rotten inner rockers. Usually you can get at the torque boxes by detaching the lower and center fender bolts and spacing the fender outward with a trimmed piece of wood. Saves a lot of time.

How are the floors and cowl?

 

thanks man, I appreciate your the only one that wrote back to me. Got my inner rocker panels, got my torque boxes and I got a drivers side and passengers side floor pans too. I dont like to cut and salvage parts. Im going to order the rear seat panels as well since those need to be cut up to access the rear of the rocker.

the cowl was changed at some point as well as the shock towers so I dont have to worry about that. what else i did find was a hole on the top of the rear wheel well. Might look for a patch panel for that, can you change the whole thing with the quarter in place?

Fukin guy who had the car before me must have spent days workin the fiber glass on the rust, he patched it up very well and undersealed the entire car both top and bottom and concealed everything. If only he spent the effort to do it the right way. Anyway the entire interior is out, just have to finish removing all the underseal with the paint remover. cant do it all in a day, the fumes are lethal...im seeing double as we speak hehe

let me know about the wheel well. thanks