Rusty Sills

[GLPoomobile 958]

Get a room you two!

[MerlinGTI 3]

may I add my 2p...

 

Forget trying to 'grind back' that rust hoping for a long term fix. Forget the dremmel. Even if you managed to grind that lot back to a shiny bare metal surphace there will still be tiny pits and pores with rust in them that will begin to spread like cancer

 

If chopping that sill section is out of the question, the only option I would consider would be:

 

Spray some POR15 metal ready on the now cleaned up area, leave it 20 mins, wire brush on a drill it, repeat. Metal ready actually disolves the rust, then zinc coats the surphace!. All it leaves is a watery residue that can be wiped off.

 

If you find any deep pits or holes drill them out.

 

Paint the area with Granville Rust Converter .

 

Topcoat/colour coat/hammerite/whatever

 

Cavity wax all your bits and bobs (doors, tailgate, sills, etc..)

[toddydal 1]

i think once you touch the outside with a grinder your looking at big hole,you can see that its been repaired many times before and it keeps coming back i cant see the point in wasting your time doing a quick bodge when its just going to come back,i think your just throwing money away mate for all your materials like fibre glass,filler,stopper,rubbing down paper,stone chip,primers and paint,is there no one on here who lives close to you who could help you because it wont be to hard to make a bottom 1/4 section and sill section and then the jobs right,infact itl probly be faster cutting it out than pissing about with a s*it load of fibre glass and filler

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

I have to agree. Anything you could do with a dremel on that is little more than a waste of time unfortunately. It needs cutting out and new metal welding in, then a small SKIM of filler just to regain the shape and cover the welding lines.

[Arahan 4]

I may have missed something, but why cant you just buy a new sill and replace the entire thing? They're not that dear are they? And the sill have a bit of metal at that bit (where yours ir rusted/come away) anmyway that goes up abit? If you get me? Can get a pic if you need it!

Edited August 9, 2008 by Arahan

[Ethos 0]

Arahan, I don't know- I'm a bodywork amatuer! Sills must be pretty expensive to buy?!

 

Alright buys, maybe i'll look into doing it the proper route. Someone come down to Cornwall please?

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

The actual sill panel itself it dirt cheap.

 

http://bap.dominohosting.biz/bap/bapdb01.n...ent&Ret=ALL

 

However it is the fitting part which is the costly part, simply because to do it well takes a lot of prep.

[GLPoomobile 958]

According to Servicebox, the outer sill is £50 per side (inc VAT). The inner sill (dunno if you need that) is £45 per side.

 

I'm inclined to agree that it's probably better to bite the bullet and cut it out. When I've removed rust and filled holes before it's never lasted any time (although I have to admit that I didn't know anything about what products were best to use), and you end up spending so much time prepping and doing the work. That quick and cheap repair ends up being a relatively expensive and time consuming bodge that doesn't last.

 

I'm in a similar situation with my inner wings. I'm tempted to grind it down and treat it, but know it won't last. So I may just try and protect it and stop it getting any worse over winter, and then get it cut out next year. May have to see if Dan Taylor wants to do it as the repairs he did on his silver one in the same places were of a good standard.

[Ethos 0]

LOL @ £20, I was expecting £100+

 

The majority of the rust IS on the sill as well... I had a friend who can weld. Do you think the prep work is something a novice could do Tom with a bit of time and patience?

 

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

To be honest, unless you know where you are going to be welding the new bit on, you are probably better off leaving it to the guy who is going to weld the new panel on to actually cut anything out. However what you can do is to get stuck in with a wire brush on an angle grinder and clean up all the lips and surrounding area etc thoroughly.

[Ethos 0]

Problem with my mate is, he doesn't do car repairs. He worked down at the docks for 6 years- i'm sure if I said "weld here" he'd do an excellent job but not sure if he'll know what's best for car repairs.

 

The plot thickens