sills with pics, uncover the bodge

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midiadventure
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sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by midiadventure »

Hey all, Finally got abit of time to take the sill finisher and kick plate off to take a look inside the sill. I think there has been alot of bodge as what is there does not line up with the replacement panels i have and can see that new panels are covering older ones. Cant see bottom of box section or outer sill from underneath the car but now can through the remains of what was covering them. I assume this was not standard.

The box section looks remarkably good and the outer sill looks ok too. Worrying amount of seam sealer on the bottom of A post and obviously the inner bottom sill is completely gone. The floor is fine as is the inner top sill but the floor is higher than i was expecting compared to the bottom of the box section. My plan is cut out the rotten stuff and go from there. I've got an inner sill to floor repair panel which hopefully spans the gap.
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mogbob
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by mogbob »

Hi ?? ,
Welcome to the Forum.
Looks like you have the odd hour or two of welding to do. At least the weather should be warming up for you soon.
Usual advice , one side at a time so you have the other side to reference. Brace everything before cutting out , so the door aperture remains unaltered during the A pillar repair.
My then " novice " mate laughed when I braced the A and B post on his Minor. The drivers door dropped 2 " when the door was opened !! Later in the Resto he commented
" The door shuts like a Rolls Royce now. I see why you braced the door opening all those weeks ago. I take back all the naughty words I said at the time "
Keep digging until you find clean solid metal to weld to , you're only going to do it once , so do it right.
Apologies if I'm teaching you to suck eggs but you'll find that the experienced guys and gals on the Forum " write " for everyone's benefit , not just the original poster.
Keep the questions and piccies coming , we'll do our best to put you on the right tracks. Good Luck.
Bob
Chipper
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by Chipper »

Funnily enough, I spotted a Traveller for sale on E-bay today that also had no jacking points on the ends of the crossmember, though the rest of the underside looked in reasonable condition:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1968-MORRIS- ... SwVKFgXySB
Maurice, E. Kent
(1970 Traveller)
ManyMinors
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by ManyMinors »

All the under sill panels have been covered over haven't they, so it impossible to see them :-?
Myrtles Man
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by Myrtles Man »

Extract from 2012 test result:-

Reason(s) for failure

Nearside Rear Body or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings (6.1.B.2)
Offside Rear Body or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings (6.1.B.2)

Interesting to see that it was then given a test certificate on the same day: repaired by the world's quickest welder/fabricator perhaps?
ManyMinors
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by ManyMinors »

Buyer beware. It doesn't look a good example to me :cry:
kennatt
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by kennatt »

The bodger has done the usual ,seen many times over the years,The complete inner and outer under sill section covered with a sheet of metal from inside of floor to inner undersill joint to outer undersill . Result yes it passes mot because the tester can't see that the whole structure and strength of the sill section is non existent. Once you remove that sheet you may(Hope not) find that the floor to inner sill needs repair or replacement. both the inner and outer under sills replacement,because you will find that to cut off the sheet you damage all of the surrounding metal that its welded to.From experience the only section I have ever been able to leave in place and be able to weld new sections to is the upper sill . However it looks like yours has had a bit of welding to it as well.
This sill section is critical to the structure ,since the main chassis only reaches to the cross section, basically it links the front of the car to the rear chassis section. You may be lucky,but be prepared to cut the whole under sill sections off,repair the outer edge of the floor,end of the cross member and replace new sill sections. If you intend keeping the car it will pay off in the long run,with new panels and loads of waxoil into the section it will still be sound in 20 years. but good luck with it.
kevin s
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by kevin s »

I deliberately left the jacking points off of ours, decided they were just a rust trap and would never really trust jacking it on these anyway, we carry a scissor jack which we use under the axle or front chassis leg.

Unfortunately it looks like as others have said someone has just plated over all the visible rust, to do the job properly and make is strong you will need to take the lower A post and bottom of the rear wing off to make sure the structure (particularly that the boxing panel is welded to the panels that effectively continue it inside these).
kennatt
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by kennatt »

if you do decide to cut out the sections and replace with new make sure you weld a good strong bar across the lower part of the a and b post, If you don't the gap at the bottom of the frame WILL distort.
midiadventure
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by midiadventure »

Hey all thanks for the tips. So i've cut out most of the cover panel and it went over the existing inner under sill which was partially gone and then connected to the middle of the outer undersill. what a pain to get the grinder under there. Just need to prepare the surface for the inner undersill to floor panel and it should be ready to weld.
Had to weld the Marina before i could start this so not as much work done as i would have liked.
So all my sills have these cover panels but this front drivers side was the only one with visible holes after attacking with a screwdriver. Hopefully they are all in good shape but as a daily car i wont go uncovering them to make sure. Ill update with pics soon i hope
midiadventure
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by midiadventure »

Of course i ran out of cutting discs. As you can see from the pics the repair panel comes out alot more than the existing metal as it goes up towards the floor. hmmm
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Chipper
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by Chipper »

Myrtles Man wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 6:27 pm Extract from 2012 test result:-

Reason(s) for failure

Nearside Rear Body or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings (6.1.B.2)
Offside Rear Body or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings (6.1.B.2)

Interesting to see that it was then given a test certificate on the same day: repaired by the world's quickest welder/fabricator perhaps?
Hehe, well spotted! :lol:
Maurice, E. Kent
(1970 Traveller)
midiadventure
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by midiadventure »

So I had to reshape the repair panel on the front end and cut down on the back end but all went well and now covered in seam sealer, just the waxoyl left to do now. i think ill drill some water escape holes in the other sills next.
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kennatt
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Re: sills with pics, uncover the bodge

Post by kennatt »

[quot all my sills have these cover panels but this front drivers side was the only one with visible holes after attacking with a screwdriver. Hopefully they are all in good shape but as a daily car i wont go uncovering them to make sure. /quote]

The sill inside this bodge MAY be in a worse condition than the one you uncovered may not even be contributing to the structure,not sure I would want to be driving the car, in fact I wouldn't.
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