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Fri Jul 03, 2009 8:43 pm

i am going to have to replace rockers in my 71 westy soon (well, it will be the first project when we get the new house built. tough to sell our old house with bus guts everywhere :D ) the passenger side is no biggie, but i want to retain the seam on the drivers side. it appear that the rocker is 'L' shaped at the top, which would be (from the factory, i assume) spot welded to the 'middle' panel, then spot welded along the bottom where the drains are. my best guess is i may be able to access this from the top with the interior panel/table removed. i have a 69 that getting scrapped tomorrow, perhaps i will just slice it open to see what it looks like.

has anyone correctly replaced a drivers side rocker? pix? links?
not doing this anytime soon, just doin' the research :wink:

Fri Jul 03, 2009 8:48 pm

Not sure if you have ever seen this thread but the work this guy did is AMAZING. I have seen where people have gone to great length's to fix rusty barndoor or other splitties but not many go this far on a Bay.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=174390

It should at least give you some encouragement! :D :wink:

Fri Jul 03, 2009 9:11 pm

That seam is under the floor so removing the interior won't do you much good. I've done them in the past by welding the rocker to the side panel patch before installing the assembly, sorry no pics. Or weld it from inside if the floor is bad along the outer edge, still a biotch to get at the vertical seam through the B&C pillars.

Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:02 pm

Somewhere I've seen beautiful full step by step picture coverage of installing new inner and outer LH rocker. Sure can't remember where though. The end result was like factory OG. The seam you were talking about was spot welded from the inside. When and if you find the good info please post it back here.

Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:27 pm

Is this the link you're thinking of?

rocker replacement

Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:38 pm

Mark wrote: Is this the link you're thinking of?
rocker replacement
No, but very interesting. That's one job none of us would want to have to do. He refers to it as the nearside. And says he previously did the offside. It's the "offside" that Skills is asking about.

Sat Jul 04, 2009 5:29 am

Desertbusman wrote: Mark wrote: Is this the link you're thinking of?
rocker replacement
No, but very interesting. That's one job none of us would want to have to do. He refers to it as the nearside. And says he previously did the offside. It's the "offside" that Skills is asking about.

that is correct, i need the drivers side for a US spec bus. the passenger side will be pretty easy.

busdaddy wrote: That seam is under the floor so removing the interior won't do you much good. I've done them in the past by welding the rocker to the side panel patch before installing the assembly, sorry no pics. Or weld it from inside if the floor is bad along the outer edge, still a biotch to get at the vertical seam through the B&C pillars.

thats what i am afraid of :cry: i could snip the rocker about 1/8 to 3/16 down from the seam, and trim the rocker to fit, but that is a little (well, a lot) more work and a bit of a cheater way to do it. my floor is solid, so if the spot welds do not extend into the cargo area, looks like i am screwed with that idea. i will cut open whats left of that 69 and try to get a visual of how its done. i can picture what it looks like, but still wont hurt to check

Sat Jul 04, 2009 5:42 am

I'm doing mine right now. I've fully welded it in with no respect given to the seams at all. I'll be using a triangle file to cut back through my weld and basically re-draw my line in. I scratched my head for a few days before coming down to this conclusion.

Sat Jul 04, 2009 7:46 am

er...... I assume you are not talking about valve rockers or rock and roll beds...

Is it a case of "for those outside the US - these are called Cills"

;)

Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:10 am

skills@eurocarsplus wrote: that is correct, i need the drivers side for a US spec bus. the passenger side will be pretty easy.

Here's the link to his "offside" repair: http://www.specialpatrolgroup.co.uk/spooky/sills/os/os.html

The main page is here: http://www.specialpatrolgroup.co.uk/spooky/

Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:40 am

Thanks, that's the one I was thinking of. Wrong copy & paste on my part.

Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:42 am

Ya but, he hacked in one of those splitty rockers (or sills :wink: ) with no seam. Not what Skills is after.

Sat Jul 04, 2009 11:40 am

Keep searching. Someone had awesome coverage putting in new inner and outer LH rockers. It was very professional, not mickey mouse.

Be sure and let us know if you find the good info. My new LH rocker has been colecting dust in the shed for a couple years.

Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:05 pm

I just did mine and it was important to me to keep the seam, so I used the new auto body adhesive that Detroit is using to put cars together now.

http://www.goferauto.com/panel-adhesive.html

I had to borrow an "Automix Applicator Gun" from a friend with a body shop, but there are other adhesives out there that are manually mixed.

I think it came out pretty well.

Sun Jul 05, 2009 9:43 am

busdaddy wrote: Ya but, he hacked in one of those splitty rockers (or sills :wink: ) with no seam. Not what Skills is after.

^^^^^ exactly. i don't want to loose the seam.

chazz79 wrote: I'm doing mine right now. I've fully welded it in with no respect given to the seams at all. I'll be using a triangle file to cut back through my weld and basically re-draw my line in. I scratched my head for a few days before coming down to this conclusion.

:shock: :shock: that sounds like a shitload of work

as far as the cold weld body panel goop, i am just a bit concerned how it will hold up to body flex on the bus, plus, how would it hod up to old seasoned steel? i would have no problem if i was using new steel, but the part it need to stick to is pretty old.

here are some pix from the 69 i just picked over.

the cargo floor is a couple inches above the rocker seam

here is a 'cross view' of the construction of the rocker/cargo floor

here is the profile of the center body panel and rocker

so, i was thinking, you could go about it a couple of ways. first way is, flatten out the rocker so you could spot weld it to the fold in the body, then curl the rocker back over, and spot weld along the bottom. this way will take a bunch of time to get right. the second option is to cut above the seam about 3/4 of an inch or so, take the 'L' and weld it to the rocker, re-weld the seam and rocker combo back to the bus.

thoughts?

Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:48 am

Thread resurection: Guys I need a little help here. I need to replace the lower sill and inner rocker EDIT (driver's side) on my 78 Westy and have a few questions for you.

Question #1 - I have no "real inner rocker" (read on) and therefore must assume this job has been done before and someone took a short cut -OR- it completely rusted away. Oddy, the area between the lower sill and inner rocker was packed full of insulation. That of course gathered moisture from a seam crack in the back of the front wheel well and basicly rotted mine from the inside out. So to get to the point. I assume I need: (1) an "exterior" inner rocker **the one under the bus**, (2) an internal "inner rocker" ** sandwiched between 1 & 3** and (3) the exterior rocker panel? Right?

Question #2 - I see they sell both slip on and weld on inner rockers. Is this the same part? One better than the other?

Question #3 - Or is the middle/inner rocker only used on the slider door (aka passenger) side? and that's why I'm confused?

I know these are foolish questions, but I'm confused here :oops: and want to do this right/once. Any help or clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

Thu Oct 29, 2009 5:13 am

Insulation is a fairly common backyard bodywork hack, newspaper is popular too, just be thankful they didn't fill it with spray foam :shock:
For the cargo door side you do need the middle (intermediate) rocker, it's what supports the door track. Sounds like you'll need the assembly that includes the track. The slip on inners are useless IMO, they have a large cut out where each crossmember meets the rocker and unless you just have a few holes in the original at the bottom only there is nothing to weld them to, either way scabbing new stuff over old stuff is asking for trouble later. From the sound of yours everything has to come off clean for a fresh start.

Thu Oct 29, 2009 5:20 am

This is for the non sliding door side and I would be cutting/welding new panels on (or most likely paying someone to do that) as this probably isn't the place I want to "learn" how to weld.

So, no problem cutting old off and replacing with new. What about that inner (panel) is it still used on the non sliding door side? Hard to describe in words, but am I buying two repair pieces or three. Inner & Outer rockers verses Inner/Middle/Outer rockers?

And Thank you Busdaddy for the reply!!! :P

Fri Oct 30, 2009 2:23 am

Bump..

Busdaddy I kind of screwed you up by mistakenly indicating "passenger side" in original question. Sorry :oops: And your answer was spot on (as usual), but does it still hold true for driver's/non slider side? Meaning is there a middle or inner rocker there. Or worded differently are there three rockers total that need to be purchased for that side? Anyone :-k

Fri Oct 30, 2009 2:45 am

I hate it when I see a repaired rocker and that seam is gone.

I would take that small piece you have in your hand in the last pic to metal fabrication shop and see if they can re-create that bend. Gerson could do it!