Testdr

Anyone else have a panel gap like this ?
I have it on both sides of the car and its at the rear portion of the panel. The outboard tabs dont really hang on to the metal holes anymore and its sagging slightly. Time for a new rocker panel ?

jhg41977

Yup, mine look like that too. I'll try the epoxy fix.

BobbyT

Testdr:

That is exactly how mine looked. The epoxy fix is easy and inexpensive, holding up well so far.

Testdr

Pardon my ignorance, i havent actually removed the panel myself before. Can it be done without a jack/lift and removing the wheels ? The locating tabs are clearly visible (really hate that gap) and my mechanic tells me that i need new rocker covers to get them to fit without gaps. Strangely, the other side of the car has no tab gap and is solid as a rock.

BobbyT

Testdr:

You can take the rockers off without lifting the car or removing the wheels. Just lie down next to the car, and you can reach under to remove all the retaining screws and nuts. You need just a 10mm socket/driver and a Phillips screwdriver.

I think it is worth a try to do some repair with epoxy, see if you can get the gaps satisfactory, before buying new rockers.

Testdr

Took the cover off and found that the white inboard tabs are missing half its teeth. So i swapped the front ( they were fine) and rear tabs and it seemed to solve the problem. I had epoxy on hand but since the black tabs on the cover themselves are ok, did think i needed to epoxy the thing. Hope it holds.

Ordered new white tabs in any case (dont think the 18 yr old tabs are going to hold for much longer.)

Davies

Not strange at all. The right side rocker gets popped off (at least partially) during oil changes. The silly little plastic tabs weren't designed to be removed very often, however. Go figure.

k722070

I have these rocker panels off to jb weld the end clips and figured on sprucing up the worn out color by painting them.
I bought some flexible bumper coating paint in satin black and gave it a shot.
the end result is pretty nice, greyish to smooth black, certainly worth the 7 bucks.
while the rocker panels aren't very visible, the cleaned up black trim will look better against the pastel yellow.
first pic is before, next two are after painting 1st coat then 2nd.

couple years ago I used the 3m version of this flexible bumper paint to clean up the bumperettes, this time I used duplicolor.
while the paint looks the same, the 3m spray tip is much better so if you try this find the 3m version.

Cowhorn

Couple of questions:

1. Are there four Phillips head screws and two 10mm nuts holding the rocker on?

2. If you epoxy the white plastic piece to the rocker, then how do you bolt it back to the body of the car?

k722070

I don't know exactly how many screws, but the rocker ties into the wheel well liner with 2 front and 2 rear.
4 or 5 10mm on each rocker.

the white plastic part has a stud front and rear that passes through a body panel hole and is fixed with a 10mm nut.
the rear is easy to tighten before installing the wheel well liner.
the front is accessed by the mini cover in the wheel well.

paint and jb holding up nicely after 1 year.

_snowbird_

Thanks. I've been bothered by this too. Will have to remove mine to investigate...

Cowhorn

Got it. Thanks.

pp000830

Could using a soldering iron to fuse the plastic loop back together work?
If additional plastic is needed to fuse the plastic it could be shaved off some inconspicuous part of the rocker cover. I suspect even with a broken loop the clip should hold on adequately in most cases. In any event the clip is not subjected to high forces so most any of the attachment methods described above should work just fine.

vancouver z

Has anyone had the metal studs to which the plastic rocker cover attaches (with the plastic nuts) break off? I'm missing a a stud mid way on both the right and left side (a peril with the PSS10 lowered ride height) and i dont know how to replace them. the plastic rocker cover still sits fine though. thanks

JPS

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