Re: Rust in Sills

[Richard Webb]

I really could have done with this email about 3 days ago =). I was frantically searching for what was holding the guard on.... very frustraiting.... I had a fair few bolts snap off probably about 7 or so... the ones in the sills were totally rusted out, I undid it by hand though, it just droped into my hand (not a good sign). Which is why I took the guards off. I think I'm definatly going to have to replace part of the sills. I rang up the Datsun 1600 Workshop (melbourne) and he said he had some replacement pannels for the sills. How do these work? do you sit them over the top, or do you cut the old one out and replace them with a new one? And how do you weld the new one on? do you spot weld then bog up the crack? or do you weld all along? I was just thinking about pannels around the area which could get warped.   Also can you live without that bolt between the gaurd and the sill? I'm guessing you can as I had enough trouble getting the guard off when all the nuts were undone. Of course I did the usual things like forgetting to undo the blinker and the crome bit round my lights =)   I also have some cracks/rust over the rear wheel arches. Possibly from the cut suspension (which had been replaced now) and the bump stop banging (maybe?) How do I go about reparing this? Stop welding maybe....   anyway sorry about all the questions, I'm not too good with pannel beating, but I want my 1600 to be as good as I can make it before it goes in the spray booth!   Thanx   Richard     ----- Original Message ----- From: Richard Clough To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 9:29 PM Subject: Re: Rust in Sills 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.   --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/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------