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Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 8:34 pm
by Martin Mc
Hello folks,

The 'small amount of rust' quoted by the seller of my new moneypit is, surprise surprise, quite a significant area of tin-rot extending well into the rear of the driver's side sill and part way up the wheel arch.

I'm nowhere near taking the beast for assessment at my local friendly garage yet, but was wondering what experience people had of either repairing rotten sills or replaing them. I'm not even sure if replacement panels are available??

Point me at pictures / how to guides if possible - until the rain stops I don't think I'll be doing anything on the metal side of things.

Thanks

Martin

Re: Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 8:30 am
by Swanny
Hi Martin,

I had my sills repaired and had rear arches replaced in August using Skandix panels. They don't do sills as far as I know but mine only had surface rust outside of the sill protector. I'll post pics of the extent of my rust and how it looks now, I was amazed at how well it turned out but yours may be significantly worse. Skandix link:-

http://www.skandix.de/en/spare-parts/bo ... arch/1077/

Keep fighting the good fight!

Swanny

Re: Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 2:03 pm
by brinkie
With little modification, the wheel arches of a 440 will fit also, and they are a lot cheaper.
This is a German supplier, but I guess they are available in the UK as well. https://www.atp-autoteile.de/products/g ... ist-1-20-0
(Please note that the Germans are on the Continent, "Beifahrerseite" = right hand side, "Fahrerseite" = left hand side :D )

Re: Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 9:53 pm
by Martin Mc
Many thanks for your posts - I see that Skansix also do 440 replacement arches at 29 Euro, which should allow for some metalworking instead of the 149 euro cost of the 480 parts.

On that front, I seem to remember another thread where someone had repaired arches using 440 parts, but I can't seem to find it.

Am hoping to get a good look at the underside of the car this weekend. Where should I be jacking the rear end, if the sills are suspect?

:eek:

Re: Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2015 1:25 pm
by doingitsideways
I jack on the rear axle.

Jack under the middle of the beam, then a stand toward either end.

Re: Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2015 3:52 pm
by Alan 480
doingitsideways wrote:I jack on the rear axle.

Jack under the middle of the beam,
I think that you would find a sticker that said originally 'DO NOT jack under here' !!!! (or a wee symbol with a jack crossed out, long since departed)

put jack near the springs then axle stands close by, the beam is NOT designed to take a load in the centre, not saying it won't take the load, just not advised, especially if tin-worm has attacked the rest of the car!!

why not run it up onto ramps if attacking the sill first , then do the arches

Re: Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2015 6:18 pm
by Ade
My drivers side sill and wheel arch were really bad. I used a mk3 golf arch (which I would like to replace at some point as its not the best match but looks ok) and I had to fabricate several pieces for the sill. It's all doable, don't be afraid to start cutting it up with an angle grinder! Finding the will to take a grinder to it is the biggest hurdle! After that its just a case of buying yourself some arches and a nice big piece of 1mm ish cold rolled sheet then get cutting, bending, hammering and welding!

Disconnect battery and ecu's before welding! Cannot stress this enough. In theory if you have a good enough earth for the welder close to where your welding then the current 'should' take the path of least resistance and not go near the ECU's and battery etc but its best to be safe than sorry.

Happy fabricating!

By the way, there is a company on the Heathcote industrial estate in Warwick (forget the name now, could well be heathcote panels but not sure) that will make repair panels for anything. They're not cheap and there is a waiting time but they are very very good. I'm sure they could do a sill section if you didn fancy it yourself.

Re: Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2015 6:19 pm
by doingitsideways
Ah, I always wandered what used to be there!! :rofl:

Re: Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 12:18 pm
by Martin Mc
Hello Ade,

Many thanks for your advice - I was thinking the old angle grinder treatment might be a good first step, but of course once in, goodness knows what I will find. I don't have any experience of welding, so may outsource that part of the project, once the main damage is assessed.

I'll post pictures of the project as it gets going, for posterity and in case anyone else was interested in the sill / arch rescue project that all of us 480 owners inevitably face at some point.

Cheers!

Martin

Re: Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:32 am
by Martin Mc
It looks like the wheel arch is only partially rotten, to about 10cm up from the bottom edge, with solid metal thereafter.

On the sill front, the hole just keeps getting bigger... :( I'm not sure how far to go before getting some outside help to weld and repair that section, ahead of tackling the smaller repair to the wheel arch lip.

Has anyone done anything similar, in terms of partial repair to wheel arches, as opposed to complete replacement?

;)

Swanny, you mentioned posting some pics of your sill repairs - are you still up for that?

Cheers!

Martin

Re: Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:48 am
by jamescarruthers
If it isn't to bad, you won't need new panels. A good bodyshop can make up simple shapes to weld into the sill.

I wouldn't cut into anything unless you have the means to immediately reprotect the new exposed bare metal.

Re: Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:32 pm
by Martin Mc
Some pics of my 'project car'

Image

Image

Image

More to come - inside and underside when the rain stops!

If you've owned this car previously, do get in touch with any info :)

Cheers!

Martin

Re: Sill Repair or Replacement?

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 12:30 pm
by Martin Mc
More Pics ;)

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