Chevy & GMC Vans

Hehe talk about ingenuity.. wasn't gonna pay ridicolous prices and welding for new rocker panels, so I went to Home Hardware and picked up a couple of pieces of flexible galvanized sheet metal and some rivets and voila.. problem solved. The job took a couple of hours and 2 snapped drill bits. For this job I used 1/8" rivets and for drill bits I used 1/8" titanium ones, the reason being they cut faster than normal bits and make the job go faster.

did you spray any form of rust inhibitor on the existing rockers before covering them up? it looks nice but its just gonna trap more salt or moisture than it currently was and cause them to keep rotting away. with them exposed you could at least wash that area out and keep them from getting much worse. i would consider taking them off and spraying inhibitor on there otherwise. still a clever fix dont get me wrong!

Nope I didn't do that.. I didn't do that with my Dodge Van either that I had.. I did pretty well much the same repair and then I took a can of roofing tar and applied it from behind and I will be applying a thick layer of the stuff in the inner wheel well. The plan is to apply rocker guard on the exterior a little later. Also I'm getting the thing oil sprayed in the spring, that'll take care of any rust issues


But I understand what you are saying

Nice!

I haven't done anything like that for years. I used aluminum for race car bodys to do exactly what you showed there on an 1980 Dodge back in the '90s. It came already painted (with white plastic film IIRC), I fitted it, coated the original rusty panel with undercoating and then riveted it in place with big head stock car rivets. I put my seams under the big removable chrome strip that the van had. Good for cheap and easy.

Anymore I just junk them when they get rusty and move on, taking off the good stuff. Cash for clunkers is prolly gonna change that, though. Hard to find a good beater anymore.