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65-66 rocker repair

1K views 17 replies 8 participants last post by  Huntingky 
#1 ·
Does anyone make a repair patch panel for the outer rockers on 65-66? I need to repair the last 6-8" just in front of the rear wheels and hate to have to buy a complete outer skin if I don't have to. I pulled off the rocker trim and went to fill in the rivet holes when I realized they'd been mudded over. Now I've got a nasty hole that I hadn't planned on..:shrug:
I can't seem to find patch panels anywhere??
 
#3 ·
Had a similar scenario on my 66, I went to a wrecking yard and had them cut what I needed. There's bound to be a mustang dismantler somewhere in your neighborhood, if not I'm sure all of them will ship. Using a factory piece insures you have the correct thickness, its gotta be 15-16ga if I remember correctly. The after market stuff won't be anything close. Be careful, the inside of the rocker is galvanized, and when welded creates a very toxic poisonous gas, it WILL make you sick. Go to a welding shop and pick up a respirator to protect yourself, tell them what you're welding and they'll give you the correct mask and filter ($30+/-).
 
#4 ·
I was afraid you'd say that- I just spent 8 hours at a friend's yard Saturday and never gave it a thought! I probably could have had several sets- a couple of the cars were even stacked which would have made it easy! Crap.....
 
#6 ·
If you have to buy whole thing, use what you need and advertise the rest, you might run across someone in a similar predicament.
I needed to patch a hole in the front section and made my own patch. Worked on it for an hour and had it curved perfect. The first tack I made, metal memory started taking over and it tried to flatten itself out. Got it looking fairly good but a factory patch would have worked better for me.
 
#9 ·
I was going to say...if you have access to a metal brake and a slip roller you could spit out a repair piece in next to no time. Got any friends that deal with metal....aluminum siding/trim, gutters, etc.? Buy 'em a sixer.:yoho:
 
#12 ·
You guys are absolutely right- wouldn't take much. I was looking for an easy out as my paint deadline is nearing fast! I had the rest of the body done (I thought) when I discovered these spots. On top of that, I found when I pulled the carpet out what looked like odd patches on the floor pans. Some genius had coated the thin floor pans with black silicone and laid a tin sheet on top. The silicone that squeezed through rust pinholes on the underside they took and smeared smooth, then covered with undercoating! The pans actually looked rust free and solid.... until I peeled up the tin sheets. Now I get to install pans too..:mad:
 
#13 ·
#14 ·
Here are a couple blurry pics of my rocker repair. If you look close in the first picture you can see how it is slightly curved to exactly match the shape of the rocker. The second picture doesn't show it very well but it tried to flatten back out when the heat hit it. I will add the contour back with filler or I may even try leading it.
 

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#16 · (Edited)
Yep. I had the same issue on my passenger side. I believe my issue was due to the drain being clogged. Want to see the ugly?

I poked around and it just fell out because tar was the only thing holding it on. After that, I cut the outer rocker open to see what I had to deal with inside there.



I bought a 6 cylinder parts car for virtually nothing because I had to haul it up out of a pasture. It had about half of it missing and put the sawzall to it and cut the inner and outer pieces out. A friend of mine who had a yard and repair business sold it for me for more than I paid for the car so we split the money.

Just after welding in the inner and outer rocker patches. The quarter panel is off also for other issues.




FIXED! iI temped some black paint on it to keep the rust away.

Thats 1 down and about 20 to go. I am embarrassed to show photos this bad of my car but I didn't create this problem. I drag raced the car like this for about a year.

One of my many(cough) launch tests out of my shop. It was lifting quite a bit because the slab there is poured with a down angle on it. I was just starting to get daylight under the front tires when my engine blew up.
 
#17 ·
Here's what I found when I tried to grind off the paint and fill in the rivet hole.... What sucks is that appeared nice and solid when I put the quarter on. Wasn't until I hit it with a grinder that it went to crap :frown2:
 

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#18 ·
Too bad you didn't catch sooner, easier to get to when quarters are off. I had some pin holes in that area and was able to weld them up. Built up the back side with a couple beads then went to front side and filled in holes.
 
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