Hi,

I've got an 84 4runner that's rusting away. I've never welded before, but I've got a welder that I'm planning to try to use come summer.

I've got a lot of rust on the rocker panel, and it comes up a little bit into the door well. Has anyone had any luck welding this area before?

I've got a MIG welder that takes gas, but it still plugs into the wall. Not the one that you use a different outlet for. Still need to get gas for it.

Is there some place that supplies replacement rocker panels? So I could just slice the old one out, and weld a new one in?

Thanks!

 

Ive done a bit of rust repaire on my rocker panel before

I used .6mm welding wire , my main advice would just practice on some metal same tickness before hand its pretty thin , and just make sure you dont get it to hot or it could warp the panels




This is the sections i cut out



This is the patch panel i made from an old door i had lying around



After welding , before grinding back


Im sorry i dont have any pics of the finished product

 

Oh, awesome job man. That came out great.

Now, after it's welded on there, do you coat it with POR-15 or something? I was learning about parkerizing. I don't have a set up. But I was thinking if I did parkerize the metal before hand, at least it would be protected on the front and the back.

 

The key to welding sheet metal is not letting it get to hot. Mine was a rust bucket when I got it, lots of panels and holes to be fixed. sheet metal can warp easy, just take your time and let your spot welds cool. My method has always been to spot weld then move a few inches away and spot again. then come back to your first spot and hit right next to it. Takes awhile but its the best way I have found to prevent warping. Like 1xd_351 said, practice befopre you do your truck. good luck and remember to cut just past the rusty area. welding rust areas can be a pain.

 

What i did was coat the inside with rust kill then after the job was done sprayed fish oil down the inside , i mean a lot of fish oil , the beauty of fish oil is its wet so it can get into all those cracks and crevices but then it dries so if theres a bit of rust you missed it will soak in then dry to a coating


Bruzer's advice is spot on , just try and keep the panels as cold as possible ,

i have seen people cool the metal with a wet rag . but I would not recommend using water to cool the panel, as rapidly cooling metal can make it brittle

Also again as bruiser said cut past the rust as these old trucks rust from the inside out

Below is a small rust hole i had , when i cut the rust out and looked inside there was a lot more


You can see my originally cut past the visible rust but wasn't enough had to cut further

 

Fish oil, huh? I'll have to look into that.

I'm def going to need some practice. When the summer rolls around, maybe I'll hit up the junk yard and get a couple old doors to practice on. I think I'm going to order a rocker panel from http://alfaparts.net/ and try to weld that on.

Ya, I've heard from a lot of people you need to keep that metal cool or it will warp. I'll have to remember to try to do that.

 

How did the repair job come out on the rust hole? Any pics? That looks like a tricky spot.

 

spoiler alert !!!

so .. unless you get in the back side and seal the weld area up again , all the repairs you would do would be pointless .

I know this is NEW SCHOOL .. but has any one ever thought of epoxy ?
for this application .. way better then welding , MO


.

 

Well i wouldnt exactly say pointless , its still going to last a lot longer that rust or just bog , but yes any repaire will rust out again , thats why they rust out in the first place , the factory welded them . Thats why i try and fish oil the inside of all my repires

Most rust repair panels are designed to be welded in . And ive never played with apoxy repaires but the ones ive seen they usually spot weld them aswell so still going to rust



And yep heres a pic of the patch panel , this was with .8mm welding wire i changed to .6mm heaps better to weld thin metal

In the second pic you can see it slightly distorted in the lh bottom corner

 

nice work..

 

I suggest listening to Slacker....if you realize who he is, and what he does for a living...you will realize he has a lot of information to share and you had better listen.

 

X2 for Slacker advice...

I think he has repaired a few moldy trucks.

 

Not doubting his advice guys , just saying welding is still better than rust :p

If you have the means and knowledge then glueing it is a good option , all new cars are built this way

 

don't mean to "rain on your parade" , looks like your doing a fine job .
what I'm suggesting , is , why do the repair if you know its just going to rust again ?

you can still do the repair basically exactly the same way you are doing it now , except , put down the welder and use epoxy . With epoxy , you wont have to seal the back side , and sanding and finishing is way easier .. you don't have to worry about warping metal , and your gaps are very forgiving ..
I know it's a little late now for you to do this now .. but maybe next time , maybe this will help someone searching a repair thread !

rock on !!
.

 

Yep no worries i can see what you mean

 

What I have done in the past is try to make panels or buy panels pre made from someone. But I always end up having to Mod them anyway to make them work. Now I find myself going to the junk yard and cutting the pieces off of the vehicles that are going to end up in the crusher. Just makes the process a little easier.

One thing about welding on the Toyota metal is it is very thin. I mean very thin. You have to use .023 wire on a low voltage setting. And even at that rate, you sometimes still have to stitch weld it in to keep from having to much heat build up around the area.

 

Rockers are rusted on my 'mod' mobile 4runner. Rather than weld in sheet metal, I plan on cutting the rocker out and welding in some sort of integral rocker panel/rock slider which sandwiches and goes under the pinch weld. Saw an example on blueberry krunch's build thread on pirate. Seems like a good idea if it is not a resto candidate. I would like to see some other examples of this idea.

 

Ill take some pics tmrw of mine. Guy i bought it from cut out rockers and welded in 2x8 or 2x6 tube. Beefy.

 

Cool, but should it be a new thread?

 

put some pics in my thread so not to hijack this one.


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