Replacing rockerpanels and floor could use some advice.

[1Fast340]

My 73 Duster will hopefully finaly get the new floor and rockerpanels so badly needed.

I have a new full floorpan and all four rockerpanel pieces from AMD.

Here is my plan that i have thougt alot about regarding the order to do things in,those rockerpanels sure seems alitle complicated to cut out, without giving myself a bunch more problems than i already have.
the plan so far is:

1 make subframeconnectors.
2 cut out the outer 10 or so inches of the floorboard.
3 break inside of rocker loose by cutting and drilling out spowelds while trying to keep as much of outer rocker intact to have as a reference.
4install inside rocker.
5 cut out ouside rocker and screw up as little as possible of the quarterpanel infront of the wheelhous as possible(yeah i believe im goint to need to cut the lower part of the quarterpanel out to get to the spotwelds and will have to fab up some kind of replacement for that panel later since i could not afford that piece of reprometal at this time.)
6 install new outside rockerpanel.
7 repeat step 2-6 on the other side.
8 cut out rest of passanger compartment floorboard.
9 install new floorboard.
10 create new outside floorpanels over the leafspringmounts(i believe i will have to cut thouse out to get to the rockerpanels and thats fine,they are rusted out and have some hideus repairs done anyway.)

writing it like this makes it seem easy,i bet it will get worse when the plan crash headon into reality,therefore i hope i can get some advice from those of you who are alitle smarter and see if there is anything more i need to think about or if my plan needs to be revised somehow before i do something realy dumb or harder than necessary.
Thanks in advance and sorry for my not so great english.

 

[Frodee]

My 73 Duster will hopefully finaly get the new floor and rockerpanels so badly needed.

I have a new full floorpan and all four rockerpanel pieces from AMD.

Here is my plan that i have thougt alot about regarding the order to do things in,those rockerpanels sure seems alitle complicated to cut out, without giving myself a bunch more problems than i already have.
the plan so far is:

1 make subframeconnectors.
2 cut out the outer 10 or so inches of the floorboard.
3 break inside of rocker loose by cutting and drilling out spowelds while trying to keep as much of outer rocker intact to have as a reference.
4install inside rocker.
5 cut out ouside rocker and screw up as little as possible of the quarterpanel infront of the wheelhous as possible(yeah i believe im goint to need to cut the lower part of the quarterpanel out to get to the spotwelds and will have to fab up some kind of replacement for that panel later since i could not afford that piece of reprometal at this time.)
6 install new outside rockerpanel.
7 repeat step 2-6 on the other side.
8 cut out rest of passanger compartment floorboard.
9 install new floorboard.
10 create new outside floorpanels over the leafspringmounts(i believe i will have to cut thouse out to get to the rockerpanels and thats fine,they are rusted out and have some hideus repairs done anyway.)

writing it like this makes it seem easy,i bet it will get worse when the plan crash headon into reality,therefore i hope i can get some advice from those of you who are alitle smarter and see if there is anything more i need to think about or if my plan needs to be revised somehow before i do something realy dumb or harder than necessary.
Thanks in advance and sorry for my not so great english.

Well 1fast340 Even being a body man for 40 years I learn new things all the time.
Your plan sounds good, If I were you I would not over weld on the frame because it is made from a higher strength steel and over heating it will make it week. And you should use a weld through primer on all your overlaps so it won't rust later on it comes in a spray can and not real expensive.
Would love to come to Sweden I bet it's nice there, and your English is just fine.

 

[1Fast340]

Well 1fast340 Even being a body man for 40 years I learn new things all the time.
Your plan sounds good, If I were you I would not over weld on the frame because it is made from a higher strength steel and over heating it will make it week. And you should use a weld through primer on all your overlaps so it won't rust later on it comes in a spray can and not real expensive.
Would love to come to Sweden I bet it's nice there, and your English is just fine.

Thank you Fred for your advice i read it on my phone without logging in and just never got around to answer your post until now.
Have started on this now,made the subframeconnectors and welded them in last weekend and will start on the new rockers tomorow after going to the hardware store again, have put some more thought into this and i think im going to buy some smaller 1"x1" or 3/4"x3/4"square tubing to add as reinforcement to make sure nothing especiealy near the dooropening start moving and to help using as reference to make sure i get everything back right again when i start cutting and welding,im alitle nervous about this.

Hope you find some time to go here,its not the cheapest place to visit but quite nice in the summer and if you do some reseach beforehand you can go see some carshow aswell,there is plenty of very fine american iron over here

 

[Frodee]

Thank you Fred for your advice i read it on my phone without logging in and just never got around to answer your post until now.
Have started on this now,made the subframeconnectors and welded them in last weekend and will start on the new rockers tomorow after going to the hardware store again, have put some more thought into this and i think im going to buy some smaller 1"x1" or 3/4"x3/4"square tubing to add as reinforcement to make sure nothing especiealy near the dooropening start moving and to help using as reference to make sure i get everything back right again when i start cutting and welding,im alitle nervous about this.

Hope you find some time to go here,its not the cheapest place to visit but quite nice in the summer and if you do some reseach beforehand you can go see some carshow aswell,there is plenty of very fine american iron over here

As your doing the rockers you need to hang the door to make sure your gap stays in the right place.
Not trying to tell you what to do just giving you some ideas.
If I could come over there I would like to see some good old German or Italian cars, and I love the old Volvo's. Swiss are good car makers as well.

 

[1Fast340]

As your doing the rockers you need to hang the door to make sure your gap stays in the right place.
Not trying to tell you what to do just giving you some ideas.
If I could come over there I would like to see some good old German or Italian cars, and I love the old Volvo's. Swiss are good car makers as well.

Thanks,i do appreciate the advice,this is new grounds to me

Not sure about older German or italian cars outside of Wolkswagens that are still popular,but i can see Volvo PV from time to time but not to often,however Volvo Amazon are still quite comon i see those atleast a couple times a week,those are my favorite old volvo since the design remind me a whole lot about the design of the 55 chrysler, vould love to own one of those one day with a V8 swap,i believe an aluminum Olds/buick/rover215 would be a good match also cool to hear old twostroke Saab cars a few times a year,even if im not a fan of Saab at all.