RyosukeFC3C

Well i was bored and started pulling my car apart today, pulled the right side skirt off and damn, i found this:



it looked like the skirt hadn't been removed in years, there's a bit of rust there, not too bad, and it looks like it was titoring on a gutter or something.

what do you think? repairable?

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

That's not horrid. Should be easy to pull out if you can work a slide hammer. The metal is a bit thick in that area. You can sort of access it from behind if you remove the seat and carpet to get access to the inner sill.

classicauto

iTrader: (3)

By the looks of that you'd be better off cuting it out and welding in a new piece, by the time you hammer, pull, hammer-dollythat thing you may as well put on a new piece. Not to mention if its got any rust in there, you're going to accentuate it by beating the **** out the old section.

Seeing as its UBER simple to bend a new section, just trim that one off in the door sill and join it at the pinch weld under the rocker. You can literally take a length of new steel with a 90 degree bend in it, weld the 90 to the pinch weld, and fold it up to the door sill then tack it in place, the natural roll of the rocker will form when you fold the new piece upwards.

RyosukeFC3C

so you could cut it out? and that wouldn't be a problem, i thought with it being one peice running all the way around the hatch and not just a fender or something simple...

hmm, i don't know much about this, so a repair shop should be able to do it without much hassle and have it looking like new?

classicauto

iTrader: (3)

yeah, a body shop can whip that off like nothing.......the price might be a little more than nothing though, we've got to eat too.

As far as not cutting the rocker because its "one piece"....its actually not. The factory rocker section is brazed to the quarter panel 8" infront of the rear wheel. (approx. directly under the front edge of the door handle)

You could join it there since your's is un-damaged at that point. No strength would be lost what-so-ever.

Carzy Driver

cut it out and replace it with a piece of rolled sheet metal. you can only attempt to fix it from the outside, it's not accessible to get to it from the inside, sorry Aaron but its true.

rbyrd

iTrader: (3)

I had this replaced on my car. My body shop located an S4 and we cut a entire section of the rocker panel and welded this section to my car. you can not tell the difference. Locate a donor car and call you best body shop guy and get to work. I may even have a picture of the work I had. I will post it if I can find it.

RXXXED

RyosukeFC3C

well i got quoted max $750 to fix, with me finding a new sill panel

RyosukeFC3C

expensive or not?

classicauto

iTrader: (3)

Just for the rocker? **** that noise - I could repair/paint that and make thepanel myself for 750.

Although if its a max figure, he's probably just covering his ***....I'd ask if they can make it for the 750 too, then its a nice deal. Plus you'll never find one in really good shape.

2RICE4U

750?? ouch they better be making the rocked panel too, i could get that fixed where i live for 300 bucks. I would just slap the sideskirt on and forget about it for 750 :P LoL

Terrh

iTrader: (7)

I paid $140 to repair similar damage to my car at a bodyshop when I provided a "new" rocker panel out of a parts car for them.

but really
if you have the turbo skirts
why not just leave well enough alone, you never knew the damage was there before you pulled the panel, noone else will either.

RyosukeFC3C

what do you mean by rocker panel? i don't understand what that means? is that the same as a sill panel?

basically what he said (as the damage goes in deep past the door line and up to some of the door hinge) is he'd replace all this area:

classicauto

iTrader: (3)

OK the outer section of that is a rocker panel. The door sill is where the rocker goes inside the door (the bottom section of the door jamb)

If the damage goes up to the hinge pillar then perhaps there is a little more involved then meets the eye, however if your door is still opening and closing with no gap issues/binding issues or play in the pins/bushings, then any damage to the pillar is purely comsetic.

I would say if he is going to make a new section out of body metal (don't let him tell you its super involved, bu if he honestly thinks it is, he isn't much of a body man) and paint below the mouldings and in the jamb for 750 then you're not getting ripped off. He'll probably do a real nice job and you'll have a brand new rocker when you're done.

But if you don't want to spend to the bucks then it can be done with a little knowledge of welding and body work.

Beep777

Put the damn skirt back on and fuhgetabout. Why do you think cars have side skirts? Mine is covering a few big rust spots that I thought would be cheaper to fix by just buying side skirts. Yeah, I know it is cancer that will eat away at my car in a few years...but who the hell keeps their cars that long?

Brian

E Dogg

iTrader: (1)

if your worried about looking rice there is a stock S5 set of skirts that are out there, i think theyre kinda rare but you keep your stock look

RyosukeFC3C

I'm more worried about the value of my car over time, if i leave the rust there and somebody spots it when it comes time to sell i'll be in trouble.

Gen IIs over here are worth $10000-$12500 US dollars.

RyosukeFC3C

the door is closing, but the damage goes in deep past the rocker and into the sill, its hard to see in the photo, so basically what he wanted to do was replace the sill and rocker.

the door hinges are fine yeah, it is cosmetic, but i figure if i'm going to get it fixed i'll get it done right i suppose