This is a post from about two years ago (I think)

The midwest finally took its toll on my rocker panels.  I tried to keep it from happening but the rust began eating them up. 

Out of curiosity, I took my truck to a body shop for a repair estimate.  The estimate was for $1,777 dollars with additional caveats.  That was over half of what my little truck was worth.  I decided to replace them myself, but not with those thin replacement panels.  I was going to use heavy steel tubing of some kind.

I had constantly been on the lookout for those industrial shelving beams every time I went to one of my favorite metal scrap yards.  I had looked for a couple years actually.  I never saw any.  Then one day a guy pulled up, while I was there, with a pick-up truck bed full of them.  I grabbed two.  I now wish I had grabbed four.  They were exactly what I had been looking for.

I took a chalk line and hooked it on my rear fender well opening then extended it to the front wheel well about a half inch below the curvature of the metal under the doors.  Flipped the line and this is where I would cut.  I did the same for the other side.

I took my 4 1/2" grinder with a metal cutting blade in it and carefully ran it down the chalk lines on both sides for a clean metal cut.  I couldn't believe HOW much rusted metal was in there when I opened it up!  I kept cutting and removing rusted metal.  I continued cutting through the rocker until I came out the back side of the rocker panel and the cut left a flat, level surface to mount the steel replacement rocker to.

Then I cleaned the remaining surface area under neath where I had cut and coated all of it with POR-15 I had bought for this purpose.  I coated this area with two coats.  A quart of POR-15 is about $45 dollars around here, as I recall.

Next I took a final measurement of the length and then cut the tubing to length.  I had to weld caps on each end to enclose them.

I added these rockers in late March and as luck would have it the rains came every day and it was on the cool side.  I had to pull my Tracker into my garage (partially) to work on each side.

After I had the steel shelving tubing cut to size and the end caps welded on, I used my floor jack to raise the tubing up and into position where it would be welded.  The lip of the tubing hooked nicely into the curve of the rocker I had left for the intent of welding the tubing to.

DISCLAIMER:  I am not a "welder" by trade.  In fact, I am a complete novice at it.  I picked up a Hobart 125 handler off of Craigslist  that was virtually new about three years ago and my experience and training in welding is what I read on the internet and forums and actually welding on my own to obtain some level of proficiency. 

Anyway, I knew from my reading that welding this paper thin sheet metal to essentially 12 guage steel would be tricky and that i would have to make a series of tac welds lest I warp the thin sheet metal of the body.  So I turned my welder down to its lowest wetting, kept my welding tip close to the metal and focused the heat on the 12 guage metal and tried to push the "puddle" towards the thinner sheet metal.  Long story short:  it was a slow process.  Tac weld... move forward two inches and another tac weld, and on and on.  After I had ran the length of the rocker, I came back and began more tact welds.  After i ran the length of the rocker I came back and started tying the tac welds together.  On the inside, I tied the tubing to the floor of the body.  After the third pass and tying it to the body on the inside... I removed the floor jack.  It didn't move!  I took my 1 1/2# hand sledge and beat on it along the length of the tubing.  It didn't even move!  I was amped.

To reattach the front fenders... I decided to cut off an inch or so off the bottom of the fenders.  This removed the one bolt in the lower fender that attached it firmly to the lower body.  So I decided I would use the first plastic mount hole up to run a bolt into the end of the new metal tubing rocker.  I think it was Brdhnter who I got this idea off of.  I drilled a hole in the end of the rocker tubing and then threaded the rocker and ran a bolt into it.  Perfect!  This secured the fender and it didn't move.

I then coated the new rockers with POR-15.

I went to the automotive paint store and bought some black body filler.  This comes in a tube and you apply it the same way you would silicone in your bathroom or around the windows of your house... except it is made specifically for automotive use.  I applied it all along the welds of the rocker tubing then worked it into any remaining holes in my welds to seal the welded seam and make it smoother.

Then I sprayed the rockers with... Rustoleum semi-gloss black (of course!).

Body shop repair estimate:  $1,777. 

Doing this work myself:  I have about $130 in materials and five days of my labor.  I'm totally good with the result.  In fact, for me this is "more better" than paying someone that much money and having it rust within a couple years... again.  Besides, these rockers are a lot tougher than the factory. 

Removing about 3" of the lower rocker also provided me a virtual 3" body lift as well.

This is yet another area where I think the Trackers should have come with straight from the factory.  Kinda like the Rubicon jeeps.  Purpose built vehicles.  But then I'm one of those Suzuki owners with this sickness.

I think it has now been two years since I did this mod to my Tracker.  The new rockers are still solid and the rust hasn't come calling again... yet.  The tubing I used will last longer than my truck will.

The last thing I need to do before I take him near a rock environment is to tie the rocker into the frame in at least a couple points.  After I do that, I think they will provide pretty good protection to the bottom of my doors UNLESS I absolutely turtle my truck on a huge rock.  That is another mod for the future.

Thanks for the tip on those rails.  They are much cheaper than 2x4 steel tubing, and that notched section is a great offset.
I haven't tied my sliders into the frame, and with some large drops onto them you can eventually warp the body above.  On Drone637's sliders, we just beat the already bent up rock panels up into the rock panel cavity and welded the 2x4 tubing on that.  We only had to make cuts on the ends to allow it to fold up.  The thought was that this might help stiffen the area a little.