Reply to "Rocker Panel Rust"

The rocker panels can suggest further problems. The structural door pillars at the front and back of the door opening terminate down inside the rockers.

I had some fairly minor rust bubbles begining at the front of the drivers side rocker. When we cut it out we found that there were no weep holes in the bottom of the front door pillar and it had filled with fine dust to a depth of 3". This dust served as a moisture trap. We cut out the rusted metal and made sure there were large weep holes at the bottom of the repaired pillar. Then, even though the remaining 3 pillar areas showed no signs of rust, we opened them up to look. Sure enough, they had gathered this dust and were deteriorating as well. So we fixed them all up nicely.

Remember, there was no sign of rust on the rocker in three out of four of these places.
I guess the point is...one thing will lead to another. No estimate will be able to anticipate what you might find. What appears as minor damage can lead to many thousands in repairs.

The car should be a "smokin deal" or you should just keep looking.

Mooos