Well, I FINALLY was able to get to replacing the rockers on the 2001 GP SE. Bought the Sherman 844-04s direct from Sherman, they arrived in a few days, several days ahead of the quoted date.Originally Posted by SomeDudeAtHome
The 8440-04s sent were universals, same straight sections for both left and right sides. They are slip on, and fit very nicely over whatever you might have left of your original ones. They are just the outer rocker sections, which are what rots out the worst. The ones supplied are a about a foot longer than what you need to replace the straight runs of the outer rockers on the 4 door GP SE. The metal gauge of the Shermans appears to be 2 to 3 times thicker than the factory original outer rocker material, which appeared to be not much thicker than aluminum roofing flashing.
On my GP SE, both sides' outer rockers were badly rotted on the bottom from the inside out, even in areas that seemed OK from the outside, but crumbled as I was taking out all the bad stuff. The vertical structural sections of the rocker box on both sides were still very solid overall. I was amazed that the rest of the underbody of the car was in very good condition, most of it appeared to have been given some sort of gray powder coating treatment at the factory and had no rust whatsoever. Almost all of the thin vertical internal stiffener plates between the sills and the bottom of the outer rockers on both sides were completely gone below their midpoint, but solid above the midpoint, indicating that they must have been sitting in standing water inside the boxes for extended periods. Most of the vertical pinch weld where the lower side of the outer rocker meets the inner rocker was gone on the passenger side. About 75 percent of it was still solid on the driver side. On both sides, there was plenty of solid material on the upper part of the original outer rocker at the sill to support the new slip on. I added 1"x1" L sections of aluminum stock to either replace the missing sections of pinch weld, or back up what was still left, to give the new rockers lower inner edge something to meet up with. I do not (yet) weld, so I attached the L brackets to the nominal 1" lip flats inboard of the pinch weld, all of which was very solid, with #10 stainless sheet metal screw spaced about every 6 inches. The new rockers were attached with stainless sheet metal screws into the solid material of the original rockers at the door sills on the top, and into the L bracket on the bottom. The screws on top end up directly below the lower edges of the doors. There was no problem with clearance between the new slip on rocker material or screws (I used pan heads) on the doors.
I was lucky that the dog leg sections of the rockers just past the front wheel wells was solid on both sides, so it was a straight butt edge fit up to them with the new rockers. The dog legs that run for a few inches forward of the rear wheel well to rear end of the new slip ons required some new sheet metal and filler to fair into the butt end of the rockers.
I heavily coated the remaining existing solid material of the inner rockers with Rust-Oleum rust stabilizing primer, and painted the insides of the new outer rockers prior to installing them. I gave the outer surfaces of the new rockers and the repairs at the rear dog legs several coats of Rust-Oleum one-step primer-topcoat dark metallic bronze paint. It looked like it would be a pretty close match to the factory dark bronze mist metallic, but its not. My main goal at this point was to get everything sealed up before another winter's attack of salt and slush, which might have taken what was left of the original material past the point of no return. In the spring, I plan to weld everything up, and repaint the rockers and lower portions of the doors below their break line with a low luster black, and carry the black on the lower edges of the bumpers below their associated break lines. I think the black below the belt will go well with the black trim treatment on the rest of the car. I always liked the black rocker treatment, I had it on my 72 Capri 2600 under dark green metallic, and see it is still done on several current production cars, like the Subaru Outback.
Sorry no pictures, but hope my write up might be useful to others who might want to try repairs without welding.
