Rocker Panels

[carnut_cars]

I know this is really stupid, but I am just getting started. How do I get the outer rocker panel covers off? Mine appear to be riveted in. Do I pry them off and just break the rivets? The same seems to be true with the vinyl threshold covers only the rivets are plastic. Thanks for any help anyone can give.

Dave

[JmuRiz]

The outer rockers can have the rivits drilled out. Just get a drill bit that just does not fit in the rivit hole and drill away. Then remove the bolts from below and in the wheel wells. Be prepared for a lot of dirt and yuck inside of them! Then just use a rivit gun and similar sized rivits to put it back together. There is a way to save the plastic topped rivits but I'm not sure how, anyone?

Nathan

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'73 2.0 914

[derek_sf]

anyone else have a hard time getting the bottom rocker bolts out? why in the world did they make these with a flat screwdriver head? just couldn't get mine out, so I had to cut the heads off. now I need to drill and tap. ugh.

[JmuRiz]

No doubt about it those were some hard bolts to get off! I smacked them w/ a hammer a few times after spraying WD-40 on them to try and loosen them up. After some time I was able to remove them w/o stripping the head. My car had no rust under there so maybe that helped too.

Nathan

[HMeeder]

Nathan

When putting the rivets back in I used aluminum, I had considered using stainless steel, but I figured that I would want to pull the rockers off at some point in the future, and aluminum would be easier to remove without damaging the car. I also thought that the stainless may potentially rust (it's not supposed to, but it depends on the quality of the alloy, I suppose.)



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Herb
'72 1.7 Tangerine 'Teen
'74 2.0 Red Rustmobile

[funnyguy]

I started taking my rockers off this week. I put some penetratin oil on all the bolts. Several times repeating. i couldn't get the forst to budge. I moved to the second. I was able to knock the washer under the screw out with a screwdriver and hammer. then it started turning, but not easily. I kept oiling it. I only wanted to save the screws, the rockers are shot with rust. Well, I thought it was actually comming. I don't know my own strength, and torqued the screw, and the head twisted off. Ewps. So i just ripped the others off. I'm going to end up using some other solution to hold them on I guess.

I had a lot of trapped dirt in my rockers, but the underside had very minimal rust.

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Mike Brancato
AIM: funnyguy00
ICQ: 9348858

'76 914 2.0 rust machine

[Paint Legend]

Funny Guy-

You sound like a crazy dude wrestling with all that rust. As a Dumb Old Minnesota Farm boy I feel your pain, our DOT loves salt! I want to compare notes with you. My favorite rust buster is JB 80, which they claim is twice as good as WD 40 and I think so to. JB 80 is also twice as expensive but the stuff works. I always spray down any nuts and bolts at least a day before tackling any project and life has been much simplier. I will even spray areas for long-term projects while working on the car, can't hurt.

Regards,
Tom