Rusty rocker panel

[mattyboydesigns]

Hello everyone, I'm working on a 1970 roadrunner with a friend (his car). It had a badly replaced quarter panel so we opted to get a replacement. Upon removal of the old panel we discovered some rust. My friend wants to use a rust converter and put the new panel on but I suggested sanding/sandblasting and then epoxy. What would you do in this situation?

 

[MP&C]

I would media blast to really see how structurally sound that inner rocker is. They are much cheaper to fix now while it is exposed, before the quarter goes on. If the media blasting opens up holes, weld in new metal. If it’s still sound, spray epoxy primer to seal things up.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

I agree and would add that you need to look to see how far that rust actually goes.
My '68 GTX was full of rust surprises.

 

[dhutton01]

 

[mattyboydesigns]

So I did some sanding and poking around lol. Still needs blasting to clean out the pits but I think It looks better than it seemed. This car had an insane amount of filler on it and I want to say it helped fuel most of this? Peeking through the holes it looks like most of the rust was external to the rocker.

 

[MP&C]

Most vintage cars that spent most of their time outside with widely varying temps between night and day were plagued with condensation collecting inside the roof skin and then gravity helps take this moisture to whatever lower cavity it makes its way to. Look at the connection between your B pillar and the wheel house. You can see where the water has been running, goes down to the wheelhouse/quarter seam and diverts either to the front or the back. I think if you follow the “signs” a little closer, much of that rust came from condensation.

 

[theastronaut]

View attachment 29639

Exactly how things went at the shop today.