Went for a walk through my Nieghborhood last night. A guy has a 1800 sitting at the curb with a 4 Sale sign on it.
I have zero experience with this Model . I think they are pretty cool looking cars. The Door Rockers are really bad on both sides.
Is there aftermarket stuff for this car in the way of sheetmetal?

Just pondering a father/ son project.
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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me

The original rockers were composed of inner, center stiffener and outer rocker skins(20 guage). Don Thibault in MA & Wolf Steel in VT sells the 3 piece system. Used to be $150 per side. Other aftermarket panels are 16 guage and desined to eliminate center stiffner ie. Foreign Autotech $36. I went with the $36 ones. They are one piece preformed 4' long and very strong. We tacked one with 4 spot welds and wanted to raise it slightly with a jack but the rocker lifted the whole car. They need a lot of cutting on the ends to fit and you don't get a front and rear vertical seams under the doors like the originals.

I gave my 1970 to my son on his 16th birthday. We started cutting out rust when he got out of school in June. We've used 1 1/2 tanks of Argon and 3 2lb spools of MIG wire. Patch panels are available for most common rust out areas. Not the best fit. We fabricated many ourselves. We hope to have it ready for the painter by next Monday. I have photos on CD if you are interested and I can figure out how to post them.

Watch out for frame rail rustout behind the steering box. Its a very difficult area to repair. We spliced frame rails from a donor car. My son Chris and I had no MIG welding experience. I had a little prior experience with a gas torch. After this project we have developed great MIG welding skills.

Craig R.
Monson, MA

Frame rail behind the steering box. I make a mental note, in case we get serious.

I've Stick welded and Mig welded for a lot of years.
Glad to here that the Rockers are available in the heavier gauge and in one piece that's got to make it a bit easier. the 'fooling' around for fit on the ends doesn't scare me. Stock seams, I'm not worried about authentic resto. Just to clean it up.

Good luck at the painters.
If I persue this car, I'll bug you for some pics. thanks
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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me

It'd be a project all right... worthwhile if you've got a welder and plenty of time to pick away at it, but keep in mind that unless your repairs are really seamlessly integrated into the existing sheet metal, the resale value won't be much. It's a collectible car, for sure, but there are enough that don't have patched-up rockers to keep the value of the rusty ones down. I've just finished a 6-week marathon of welding with my girlfriend's '84 240 - and that started off as just a couple of holes in the wheelwells. Was it worth it? Not a chance... but once I got into it, I couldn't just walk away from it.
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Chris, Dartmouth NS Canada 70 M-B 280SE, 83 245DL, 84 244 turbo, 90 780 turbo, 92 VW Golf, 90 740 Rex/Regina

OH...I can weld, that's not the issue.

Resale: I never worry about resale. If I like something, I have it a long time.

also, if I buy a project, it's not to restore it, I usually 'Tool Time' it into something unique. I know that may be Blasphamis on this site. sorry but a Turbo V6 might be in order.

just look at my Profile.

If my sons eye's don't light up I'm not going to pursue it.

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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me

Rockers and some other sheet metal sections are available from a number of source. However, if the rockers are gone, it's likely that there is extensive further rust damage, much of which may not be obvious.

I would be very careful of this one...

Thanks Phil, as I said, I have no experience with the typical issues associated with these cars. The rest of the body looked pretty good along with the Chrome work. I was just walking past it and didn't really critique it.

I'll have to see if my son has any interest.
At 15 he is falling into the Mitsbishie Eclipse mode, I have to smack that thought right out of his head. I was thinking nice car like the 1800 all the way up to a '68 chevelle with some major ponies under the hood.
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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me