Being silly

Time for a new sill! Sill replacement is the thing which scares most people. This was to be my first sill, and I was making things hard for myself. I was replacing the floor-to-door step sill, which most people leave well alone. Not only that, I had replaced the panels which the step sill attached to…. The opportunity for the whole thing to become distorted was huge. Fortunately, it was all locked into shape by the 1-inch steel tube, and securely held in the same position.
The rear chassis leg required a fair bit of work to allow the step sill to be fitted to it. It had corroded, and it had the remains of previous sills attached to it, so I decided to replace a fair bit of it from heavy gauge steel. Cardboard templates to the rescue, a full day’s work gave a chassis leg as good as new.
Thankfully, the step sill slotted into place perfectly. Nothing had moved, and no distortion had occurred. Good-oh. The door was in place throughout the sill job, so I could check the door gap remained the same, and that the door close with a click of exactly the same pitch each time. So I welded in the step sill, because all was well.

The step sill gets bare-metalled ready for welding in place.

Then the Newcasle rail. Good old Mark Evans. Once the paint was removed, it was clamped precisely into position, and checked with an engineers square. When it was at precisely the right angle, it was tacked into place. All was still well alignment-wise, so I seam welded it in place, an inch at a time, taking things very slowly and alternating the position of the welds to ensure the metal did not heat up too much. Eventually, the Newcasle rail was in place, with a lovely long seam weld which made a nice fierce crackling noise as it took place. Yay!

Lots of fitting and checking was done before the Newcasle rail was welded in place. Including these very accurate (no honestly!) spacers, to keep the Newcasle rail in alignment.

The seam weld is getting longer, piece by piece

Some structural strength going back into the car at last!

Then nothing happened for a week. The local roads flooded, cue being driven through three feet of flood water for half a mile by father in the Land Rover. Satisfaction is growling slowly (pre-turbo-diesel) past a stranded bmw Chelsea tractor, no we’re not getting out in 3 feet of water to give you a tow! (No tow rope!) Then the welder broke, and I had to wait several days for the Christmas post to deliver me the bits so my groovy welder of welderness could work again.
So I drilled all the holes in the inner membrane so it could be plug welded in place. Then I painted the inside side of it, and the castle rail and step sill, so the would be nicely protected inside. Most of each panel was covered in two decent coats of Bilt-Hamber insanely high zinc primer. I wanted to try this out, and the fact that it left brush marks was not important inside closed box sections! The anti-stonechip nature of this product is also an unknown quantity, but it will by fine in Valleri’s sills! The edges, where welding would take place, had a couple of coats of weld-through primer, which will resist burning off. I hope this plan will be a good one, time will tell!

Lots and lots of high zinc primer, with particular attention payed to welded seams and any joins. The primer goes on thinly, despite having so much zinc it's difficult to push the brush along!




Drilling out the holes for plug welding. A lot more holes than usual, but there's good reason for this. Why is there a soundproofing mat covering the mill? Well on such a boring job, I was listening to a Richard Thompson as usal, and the motor was drowning it out...

Weld through primer on the edge. The first coat of high zinc in the middle. When it's dry, it will be followed by another coat of weld through, then another of high zinc in the middle. I'm not cutting any corners here, this sill is built to last!

With the welder back in action, I plug welded the membrane in place. I did this very carefully, one weld in one place, one at the other end of the panel, then a wait for everything to cool down. This was 1. To avoid heat distortion, and 2. To stop too much heat getting into the panel and burning off my lovely paint. Patience paid off, peering through the castle rail drain holes with a torch and mirror shows the paint is intact, so my sills should last a fair few years! Then ground down all the plug welds, to leave a flush fitting panel ready for the outer sill.

Huzzah! The inner membrane has been plug welded in place, after an infuriating wait. And the welds have been ground back, rady for the outer sill.

The outside of the inner membrane and the inside of the outer sill got the same paint treatment. A lot of high zinc primer, then a lot of weld-through etch primer on the flanges, where and near welding will occur. I’m confident the sill will last, especially once it’s full of oil, or wax, or whatever will go in the cavities….! And the outer sill has been lined up with the door, and tacked in place, for welding tomorrow. And no distortion, no movement, everything is perfectly aligned!

The inside of the outer sill gets the same treatment, after the holes have been drilled...

Oh yes! Oh yes!!!