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Old 20th June 2019, 19:48   #1
Sonic ZS
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Default Sills - What's inside yours...???

As our cars get older, the problem of rusty sills is becoming increasingly common in posts on this forum. With that in mind, I thought I'd get some pictures up of what is hidden inside your shiny outer skin

Chances are, the thought of chopping a whole sill off their beautiful pride and joy will fill many members with dread but realistically most cars will only ever need the rear 18" or so repaired. So hopefully, this'll help anyone that wants to fabricate and weld their own, or give some clues to garages or mechanics that are employed to repair them BEFORE they start attacking the corrosion.

To make life easier, these pictures are taken in the workshop and show a complete drivers sill/floor side section that I've very roughly cut from a scrap ZT-T (thank you Oxfordblue ), and is going to be used to repair the sill on S542AOX.

You could cut the actual outer sill straight from the car, but it's not the easiest job, so it's much simpler to just cut the whole lot off the scrap vehicle roughly using an angle grinder/plasma cutter and large chisel, then do the careful drilling out of approx 80 spot welds and panel preparation on the bench at a sensible height

This shows the whole sill section (inner, outer and floor edge) as cut from the donor car:
Complete sill section..jpg

And what it looks like from the other side....this is the inner sill and bottom few inches of the pillars:
Complete Inner Section..jpg

To split the whole section open, firstly use a heat gun to warm the stone chip and scrape it off. Each spot weld can then be dot-punched, drilled through and finally cut away with a spot weld drill. There's about 80 on each sill:
Removing Stonechip..jpg

And here I've cut a slot in the top (waste) section to reveal one of the foam noise diaphragms. There are two (one at each end, near the jacking mounts) and attached to the outer sill like the proverbial 'Poo to a blanket'... Once you have access, the heat gun will again make the foam go soft and they can be prised away, allowing you to remove the outer sill panel:
Foam Diaphragms..jpg
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Old 20th June 2019, 19:55   #2
Sonic ZS
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So once the outer sill skin is removed (takes a while !), this is what you'll see:
OS Inner Membrane..jpg

A close up of the front internal jacking bracket and surrounding steel (the front pillar is 4 skins thick):
Front OS Inner Mount..jpg

And the rear jacking mount - the one that normally rusts:
Rear OS Inner Mount..jpg

And an image to show the rear foam diaphragm - it's just ahead of the mount, so be careful welding ! :
Rear Mount and Foam..jpg
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Old 20th June 2019, 19:58   #3
trikey
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Good set of pics there They are a beggar to remove though.
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Old 20th June 2019, 20:05   #4
Sonic ZS
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And here's the front mount from underneath, showing the bracing layers:
Structure OSF.jpg

And the rear, again from lower down:
Structure OSR.jpg

For info, the two foam diaphragms are located as follows:
Rear one is just ahead of the rear jacking mount, approx 16" from the front edge of the rear wheelarch.
Front one is just behind the front jacking mount, approx 22" from the rear edge of the front wheelarch.

Hopefully, this'll also help members to rustproof their cars thoroughly, as the centre section of sill cannot be accessed from the jacking points, due to the diaphragms being in the way !
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Old 20th June 2019, 21:30   #5
oxfordblue75
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It's like a 75 autopsy
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Old 20th June 2019, 21:39   #6
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Would like to see those pics but clicking the link asks me to sign in again. This happens all the time with a particular type of link, about time it was sorted mefinks.
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Old 20th June 2019, 22:14   #7
Mike Trident
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Works ok for me, I didn't have to sign in.
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Old 20th June 2019, 23:24   #8
T16
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I tend to pack mine with bags of cocaine, that way they are protected from corrosion AND I make a load of cash too.

I love the sill autopsy pictures though, you rarely see them inside like that, much appreciated.
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Old 20th June 2019, 23:37   #9
Arctic
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Hi Paul.
Great idea to highlight the inside of the sills, as you say it will give every owner & welder a good idea of what they have to deal with.

That foam diaphragm in my opinion contributes to the corrosion in that area, why would they have put that there? it is surely going to hold water and or condensation.

What purpose does this sectional foam have

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Old 20th June 2019, 23:38   #10
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You can remove the sill kick plates and then spray rust-proofing cavity wax in through the fixing holes with a lance.
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