Rusting rocker panel

[denisb]

I have a 97 Taurus Wagon that has pretty well no rust (body wise). The other that while getting an oil change done, I decided it was a good time to get a good look at the underneath, make sure everything was still in it's right place and such. What I found scared me.

The Taurus has a plastic cover over the rocker panel (under the doors). This plastic cover on one side looked like it wasn't sitting right so I started poking around and discovered that a piece (aprox. 2 inces for the whole leght of the panel, wheel to wheel) was not just rotting, but was rusted out(missing).

I know Fords warranty is 60 months for rusting out (hole needs to be present) but has anyone heard of any recalls for such a problem and how much structural integrety is in this piece?

Denis