I just took a closer look at the sill after getting the car back tonight
and the rust is not quite as bad as I had first feared.
It is more the rear wing at the bottom of the b post that is the very
rusty bit. One one side the sill does not appear to have any bad rust
and on the other side it is only the last inch around the drain hole that
is a bit rusty. The really bad bit is the rear wing bottom, it is really
crumbly here on both sides and there can't be much good metal left in the
bottom inch.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that the rear wing bottom has
much to with structural rigidity of the car. It seems that if a bit down
there was going to go rusty that it is better the rear wing went and not
the sill.
Would I be better buying a wing bottom repair panel and getting the
garage to fit that or letting them make up their own repair panel? It
seems like a fairly simple panel to make up so I'm thinking I'll let them
go with the original plan of making up their own repair panel.
Thanks to all those who replied to my original e-mail, you've all been a
great help. I have also decided not to sell Saskia. I think that was a
fit of pens-flying-across-the-office anger. In the time that I have
owned Saskia I have now replaced all the front suspension, steering rack,
engine, rear suspension and diff. The body is very solid except for the
afore-mentioned rust (will need a rhs rear wing lower repair panel at
some point in the future tho). I figure that there is not too much left
that I haven't already attended to that could go wrong! I am waiting for
the half-shafts and propshaft to break tho seeing that these are the only
major components I have not yet touched! The gearbox is going to get an
overhaul in the summer with a friend who'll do it for free.
cheers all,
John
http://www.spit1500.co.uk/
--- John Hobson <goalie_john@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> I just had my car MOTed and she failed :-(
>
> This time it was both the sills that have started rusting from the
> back,
> I was expecting this as I had noticed they were looking quite flakey.
> The garage has quoted me #80 to put repair panels at the back and MIG
> weld them in, but that there would be a slight bumb where the repair
> panel had gone on. They reckon that about a foot of metal would have
> to
> be ground off and the price does not include painting. This sounds
> like
> a good price but they did say that it would be better for me to get
> complete sills, and get a body shop to replace the whole lot, but this
> would obviously cost a lot more. The front of the sills look to be in
> good condition.
>
> Could anyone give me some advice as to what I should do, I have little
> experience in bodywork things.
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