Advice Needed On Sill Rust!

[KRISKARRERA 2 1 Cars]

Right so give me the good news!!

I guess I'll get an electronic slap if I mention filler.

Can a patch be welded over or is it a complete new sill that's needed?

 

Pictures speak louder than words so here we go:

 

 

(Bigger piccy here: http://forum.405mi16.com/index.php?act=Att...ype=post&id=125 )

[Adnic69 0]

Lots of welding is needed there.

You would have to cut it back and not just patch whats there, looks too far gone.

[TEKNOPUG 3]

Reshell it (in a 205)

[Alastairh 47]

DONOR

[KRISKARRERA 2 1 Cars]

Oh ok, gonna look for a nice 205 later on.

Edited July 6, 2006 by KRISKARRERA

[jim21070 2]

Kris,

 

What year is your 405?

 

I ask as as I recall my old '88 GRD had been repaired in this area but later ones never seem to go there. Is it the case that early ones were not galvanised in the same way that early 205s wern't. My '95 GLX is as solid as can be in this area.

[KRISKARRERA 2 1 Cars]

Indeed my Jan '88 405 had this same problem and this car is April 1990. My old June 92 Mi16 didn't have this, as doesn't my dads '96 GTX.

 

Anyway it looks like Miles is helping me out with this.

[KRISKARRERA 2 1 Cars]

[Batfink 201]

just cut it out, sandblast and plate up. Nothing too hard really

[jim21070 2]

A 405 MI is a rare car Kris. You must repair and preserve it. As Batfink says, it's not much really.

[KRISKARRERA 2 1 Cars]

I will. Flew through last 3 MOTs so I'm trying to be philosophical about this latest expense.

[inferno 1]

weld it mate... if you dont know how to weld, nows your chance to learn. cut it right back though to get rid of all the rot, seam sealer will cover most or the weld and prevent rusting again, and then maybe run the whole underside of the sill both sides with black/red underseal/hammerite, unless you get a pro to make a pukka job of it and paint it properly.

 

well worth doing though if theres no other problems

 

ive been asked to weld up 5times worse on a ford last week for mot time :S

[KRISKARRERA 2 1 Cars]

Good, that's encouraging.

[Beastie 1]

Good, that's encouraging.

 

As already said - it's not too much of a problem to sort that out if you really like the car. But..... it's still a bit of work so you will have to like the car for it to be worth it. And if you like the car that much then you will be very glad in the long run if you put a lot of thought into how you carry out your welded repairs. If you manage to repair this so that it is literally as good as new then you can be sure that it will rust again - after all the orginal did just that and it *was* new once The best way to ensure the long term future of a car is to replicate the original construction exactly - reconstruct all the original spot welded seams exactly how they were and never overlap any repair. The saying in the trade is that restoring a vaguely tidy but previously repaired car takes about twice as long as restoring an original rusty heap dragged out of a field. That's how much time it takes to overcome non - standard body repairs once they start to rust away! If you keep the construction absolutely original then it will be easy to repair in future years also.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

I;ve got a very good welder to get the problem sorted, I would once done get some waxoil or something like that in the sill's to stop them rusting, You can;t paint inside the sill once done

[pug_ham 242 3 Cars]

I will. Flew through last 3 MOTs so I'm trying to be philosophical about this latest expense.

When was the last MOT? I can't believe its rusted that much since then, do you use a quality garage for your MOT then?

 

I've only just got rid of (scrapped) a 1992 red 405 shell that would've been fine for a donor to keep an Mi on the road Kris.

 

Graham.

[KRISKARRERA 2 1 Cars]

Ahh well nice thought Graham but chances are I would have turned you down anyway because I've not really got the facilities, expertise or money to bring everything over to another shell. Plus Miles did the suspension and rear beam and god knows what else to this car a few years ago so it'd be alot of hassle converting it all over. The bodywork isn't perfect, there's a few scratches and dents from overzealous old biddies in car parks but for a 16 year old cherry red the paint finish is excellent. And the aircon still works.

 

The MOTs. Hmm well I don't know the tester or anything dodgy but he's obviously fairly relaxed about test standards. But see I painted the sills a while back so there was no way of telling there was rust deep inside. And of course the Mi16 sideskirts hide rusty sills nicely. I only discovered it when a scissor jack toppled and I tried to lift the car with yet another scissor jack too far towards the wheelarch and the sill crumbled to nothing. What you see in the pics is the result of me scraping like mad with a screwdriver

 

Beastie - good advice, though by the time this repair rusts through I'm unlikely to be in possesion of the car. The sill has been repaired before with filler but all that will be ripped out.

 

Maybe I should try to fill the sill with Waxoyl before if gets welded? There's several small holes along the sill where the side skirt clips go in - they could be used to introduce plenty of Waxoyl once the job's done.

[Super Josh 4]

I wouldn't put the Waxoyl in before you have it welded, it'll probaly catch fire or melt with the heat and run out. You should be fine putting it in afterwards, you can use the drain holes at either end of the sills with a longish lance.

 

And I would use Dinitrol instead of Waxoyl, it gets much better reviews. You can get it here

 

 

 

Josh

[pug309twin40s 1]

When was the last MOT? I can't believe its rusted that much since then, do you use a quality garage for your MOT then?

 

I've only just got rid of (scrapped) a 1992 red 405 shell that would've been fine for a donor to keep an Mi on the road Kris.

 

Graham.

 

 

the trouble is where 405 mi's have side skirts covering most of the sill, and with MOT's if theres covers over something there not to remove them. so you could have most of the sill missing and still pass an MOT if it has side skirts on and they cant see the rust.

 

 

 

 

Kris, just take the car to miles welded mate to get fixed.

[pug_ham 242 3 Cars]

But surely the tester went along the sills & underside with his testers hammer thing to see how solid the sills were?

 

If its that bad it shouldn't have passed IMO.

 

The shell I scrapped was solid but the dash was none existant, it needed a rear door & bonnet so there would've been a lot of work to swap it over to your car. Oh & the wiring was a mess.

 

Graham.