I started Saturday by cutting away more of the Inner Rocker and drilling out dozens of the spot welds on the rocker and the braces below the floor pans. We used the " Blair" tool and it made the job a bunch easier. ( Thanks again Alex). We did drill a small pilot hole in the center of the weld so the "Blair" would stay in place while drilling. Be careful not to rock the tool back and forth while drilling because you will break off the guide pin in the center of the tool.The goal for the day was to get one of the Inner Rockers installed.
This picture shows the underside of the Inner Rocker on the drivers side. Yes, that is the open area that between the camera and the rear tie. That is how bad the rockers were.Well, this was going to be a big task.
We spent the majority of the day on the spot welds. When you purchase the Blair tool , it is more realistic to expect about 100 welds to be drilled out before you sharpen the tool or replace it. We hoped for a bit more then that. Remember that when it comes time to order yours.The Inner Rocker had close to 100 spot welds itself!
We realized that the torque boxes were well past the point of repair. We needed to look at the amount of time that would be spent cutting them out so they could be re-used and the time it would take to repair them and compared that to the cost of the new ones. Mark won that battle so we decided to cut out the out torque boxes too. This left a massive hole at the front of the floor pan area. We did not install a brace between the two door braces, I hope we don't regret that. I need to recommend that to Mark. The reason was that there is a fair amount of movement possible after the torque box is removed and I don't want the opening where the torque box goes to open more then needed.
We cleaned and straighten the entire Outer Rocker Panel to receive the new Inner Rockers. We have not primed the interior of the Outer Rockers yet. The straightening took a while. When we removed the old Rocker, We used a chisel to break a few of the more stubborn welds. After we did that the sheet metal at the top of the Outer Rocker was full of waves and needed to be straight, clean and flat.
This is the rear of the Inner Rocker area. We left the rear brace in place and connected to the Transmission hump to help keep things lined up
I picked up the new Torque boxes because after the dry fit with the new Inner Rockers, we knew we were getting close but we wanted the T-Boxes to be a part of the dry fit too.
Mark and I were happy with the way things were fitting together. This is before we clamped the Rocker in place. This is only resting where you see it. It is not completely in place at this point.
In the days when I was not at the shop, Mark keeps working on the car. He spent time media blasting many of the old parts getting them ready for paint. He has given me space for the storage of the parts and has stacked most of the parts on shelves to keep them separated from the other projects that he has going.
