Removed the rocker cover trim for repaint. They are aluminum and had the paint sanded off. They will need a finish sanding prior to prime and paint. I’ll be doing them over in VW reflex silver and clear coat. I’ll also add a black pin pin stripe in the upper groove.
The rocker panels are for the most part good. The side frame is now exposed. It only has light surface rusting. I’ll clean them up a bit and coat them with heavy Rust Check.
A little hard to make out, but the front end of the right rocker panel has been broken off where the rocker panel front bolt is located. I’ll need to do a repair here before re-installing the rocker.
Most of the rocker bolts came out OK. I used a dental pick to clean out the screw head grooves and then used a philips head socket and a 3/8″ drive to snap them loose. Only a couple needed to have the nuts held in place on the back for removal. Only one had to be drilled out. They are specially formed machine screws with small heads. I’ll pick up a new set for the re-install. They come in black and will blend in nicely with the black pin striping.
There are three screw fittings on each side in the centre of the panels. Fortunately they area all in good shape. It would be a real problem if they are damaged as it would be very hard to get a nut in back to secure the screw. The two front and one rear screws are accessible from the back to use nuts.
Next I’ll need to remove the rear window aluminum trim. It also needs to be sanded, primed painted and clear coated. Hopefully all the clips are in good shape as I believe the window has to be removed to install new clips.