<VV> Advice: (Info about 4 factory holes at rear of LM rocker panels)

[Taruffi57 at aol.com]

I guess I should direct this one to the known Corvair encyclopedic  minds 
out there.  You know who you are.
 
There are 2 round holes at the vertical end of the rocker panels.   They 
have rubber plugs.  There is a rectangular hole with rubber "flap" on  the 
vertical inside rear of the rocker panels, and there is a small round hole  
under the rear of the rocker panels - obviously for water drainage.  I'm  not 
sure why the rectangular hole has a "flap" instead of a plug.
 
Small leafy debris and dirt collects toward the rear of the rocker panels  
and blocks up the smaller of these holes.  The one under the  bottom.  
Result?  an invitation to rust-out. I have managed to  laboriously drag most of 
the debris out.   What I don't understand is  the Chevrolet designers 
thinking in making the underside drainage hole the  smallest of the 4.  The 2 end 
holes are curious as to their purpose - since  it is difficult to reach 
through them with a thin tool to drag debris out and  once you get the debris all 
the way to the end, even more difficult to get it  out of the holes.
 
I forgot to add that I have already jacked the front of the car up, stuck a 
 water hose into the side, underdash air vent holes and ALSO blasted air 
down  through the rockers in the same way.  All that came out  
was.....air....and....water.......
 
What I would really like to end up with is completely clean rocker  
"insides" so that I can somehow primer and heavily paint in there.  At  least 
toward the rearmost areas of the rockers.  My drivers side rocker had  zero rust, 
but the passenger side had the rear, vertical end area badly rotted  out.  
This will not happen again as this car will be garaged and never  collect 
debris in the rockers.
 
So, what was Chevy's thinking in respect to the design purpose of these 4  
drain/access holes?
Why auto designers did certain things intrigues me.
 
Joe Dunlap
Florida
(doing one task at a time) --- (just 872 to go.....