Re: Rust in Sills

[Richard Clough]

You should remove your front guards and check around the area that the guard covers.   Taking the guard off requires removal of two 12mm bolts, top and bottom at rear  (the top one requires the door to be open whilst removing it), plus a number of 10mm bolts along the top inside and down the front behind the light surround, plus two inside the wheel arch joining the guard to the front stone tray.  Almost invariably some of these bolts will be rusted solid and break when you try to extract them  If none break, you own a very well cared for car, and you have done a brilliant job of thread lubrication and careful extraction!   The 12mm bolted to a captive nut inside the sill panel is usually the worst, as the water in the sill rusts its thread.  If you can extract this bolt with out destroying part of the sill or breaking the bolt, its a good sign the sill is pretty good.  I removed one recently by hand, after initially loosening it by socket - I cant ever remember doing that previously.   When the guard is removed you can drill out and retap any broken bolts to enable refitting of the guard.   You are then able to evaluate how much rust you are looking at on the front footwell, inner guard (unusual, except where the rubber seal sits between it and the guard) and the sill panel.  This is when you talk to your panel fabricating friend about replacement surgery, including replacing the captive nut if necessary,  or bog it up, paint over with body deadener and put on the for sale sign.   The front of the sill is not a simple piece to mould but not impossible for a good panel fabricator.  If the rest of the car is OK, its worth repairing the sills.   ----- Original Message ----- From: Richard Webb To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, 13 March 2001 18:42 PM Subject: Rust in Sills I heard u guys talking about getting new sills, I have some bad rust in the front of both sides, like where the sill joins to the wheel, and water must have been going in here for ages, Someone has also just like bogged up over the rust. What should I do?   should I weld a piece over the hole so no more water gets inside the sill? or will the rust just come back? If the sills are only $70 a side maybe its worth angle grinding the old one out and welding the new one in... can u still jack up your car if you cut one out and put a new one in?   anyway thanx on advance.... All this rust finding is annoying me now, maybe I shoudln't look so hard = )   richard --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/membersozdat@datascribe.com.au/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/membersozdat@datascribe.com.au/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------