Quick question on rocker panels. Its not a camry buy need some advice.
I have a 1999 Ford Contour SVT that has rocker panels that a rusted out fully both sides and even difficult to jack due to rust. The Rocker panels provide support for the middle body and would be dangerous to drive and not worth fixing since there is rust in other places. Going to part it out. Does that make sense? I placed the jack in its jack spot and jack sunk into underside after a week.

 

After some research found out since this is a unit body and its part of the frame badly rusted out of rockers panels are unsafe. If in an accident the car could fold in the middle and the support of the middle of the car is in question. It would be different if this was my 2003 suburban since it has a frame support.

 

Rusted rocker panels (typically from road salt) are common. They can be repaired.

The chassis is basically stamped sheet metal spot welded together.

Rust can degrade the crash protection of the car. How much depends on the location and amount of rust of course.

 

Thanks, Its rusted through the rocker panels and then some plus there is a lot of underbody rust unlike my camry which has some rust but not structural at all. They really undercoated the camry well and has minimal rust overall.