Sill welding.....

[Philthyanimal]

Hi, I need to weld my sills on both sides replacing all that is there. Does anyone know if there is a site that shows you where to cut, where to weld etc etc?
Cheers,
Philthy

 

[Harlequin]

Really good "how to" on this guys site.....
http://www.specialpatrolgroup.co.uk/spooky/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Philthyanimal]

Brilliant...Thanks very much...

 

[james_stan]

Depending on how bad your sills are you could consider cutting back the rotten parts
of the existing ones and use the new metal to graft sections back on.

The full 3-sill replacement program is not for the faint-hearted I would suggest, especially
if you consider the poor fit of many of the replacement parts (straight bends instead of curves etc..)

Of course if you are undertaking a full resto and have oodles of time, no kids or a nagging wife then go ahead..

Just my four penneth.

James

 

[mjknight71]

.... no kids or a nagging wife then go ahead..

surely if you had kids and a ngging wife a full sill replacement would be a good idea :? ....obviously if you have neither then quick and simple is best

 

[Philthyanimal]

Well i have kids, and a Mrs, but she dont nag much considering how much time and money i spend on the bus.
I was looking at it and it does seem quite daunting welding the whole sills in. Is it OK just to patch them? What about MOT's etc?
Cheers,
Philthy

 

[james_stan]

Sure it is.

Th outers can be cut off at the top so you can inspect the middle sill bit. On the slide door side
if this is mostly solid then I would leave it and patch-up with some 1mm steel - this is mainly because
the replacemenst are poor and I have read several threads on significant fettling required to make the door
shut smoothly.

On the other (off-)side you can get an outer sill that includes approx four inches of metal above the join crease.
using this part you can cut away more of teh outer skin to gain access to the inner piece once again.
I cut mine so it was just below the floor level meaning I didn't have to mess too much with that part.
If your floor is rotten here though you may have to act differently.

For the inner sills I cut back to 'solid-ish' metal (approx halfway -up) then cut my replacement bits so they overlapped by an inch or so.

A purist might frown at this as conceiveably there could be a moisture trap in the overlap - but, how long do want this to last ?

Forever ? (a bit pointless IMHO) or for the next ten/fifteen years of infrequent summer excursions without salty
roads to begger things up ?

If the latter then a decent patch, underseal and some waxoil injections should see you through fine. You will though
I think have to seam weld the joins to keep the MOT man happy.

Cheers

james