2001 Ford Expedition Rebuild
We bought this truck new when we saw it come into the Ford dealer. After 230,000 miles the bine water they use here has turned this truck in to rust bucket in the last two years.
For the last year I've been looking for rocker panels to fix the rust. Last summer I found a set at one of the local yards. At a cost of 100 dollars for both and the guys cut from the wheel well to wheel to include 8 to 9 inches of the floor. They cut the running boards off. I drilled off the part I needed seen in the upper left. The rust you see on the one is only surface. Cutting of the old rocker starts with pulling off the doors and front fender. If you doing this, front inner fender, front fender, Drivers door, back door. When I do the other side I'll get some photos/vids. Most of the old rocker was cut off using a plasma cutter. If you have not used a plasma cutter, head down to your local welding shop and try one out, you'll take it home. The cutter I have has a gouging system on it. It works great for welds, not so well for spot welds. Out came the DeWalt grinder. I found each spot weld and grind it down till you see the metal around it turn blue. This means the metal is thin. Next I just pulled it off. Grind down the rest and its ready. I used SEM 28104 to coat all the rusted parts. This is like POR 15 but it doesn't come with the cost. Welding is done through the holes to the side of the hole and use compressed air to cool each weld. I also found out the Ford put foam in the pillars. I found this out a it melted and dropped out. At this point put down your coffee. It was dropping out the bottom of the pillar. Dumb ass me had to look up there to see what was dripping. About this time a burning piece burning foam dripped out and hit in the corner of my eye. By the way cool the welds works great, not so much for my eye. I used filler but most of this will not be seen by anyone but me. Normally I spray epoxy primer first then filler. Paint used was Shop Line, it is PPG cheap line that replace Omni. I used epoxy primer over the old paint after hitting it with some 220 sand paper. The basecoat/clear coat was quick. Thanks Dave, I have two coats of base and two of clear. Both times I had extra paint and didn't do the third coat. No runs! Almost did it but heard your words Dave in the back of my head, "Don't do it". When I pulled off the trim around the rear wheel I found some rust. Next weekend I'll cut that out and replace it too. This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of Cookies |