Full length sill replacement: Need advice

[KatoKid]

Hi all.

 

Have been working away slowly on the rust repairs on my project and am determined to make my car as rust free as possible....do it properly and do it only once is the motto. Ive got rust in both the front ends of the sills as well as the typical dog leg area, dog legs are pretty bad but Ive nearly rebuilt the internal section of the right hand dog leg and its come up pretty well. Ive bought full length sills from Warren at All Z Parts and they look pretty good so I'm ready to tackle the removal of the originals but I need some advice before I start.....

 

The structural box section that the door hinges bolt to is spot welded where it meets the top of the sill panel. The sill panel runs right through under this section but I don't know if the top edge of the outer sill panel is spot welded to the inner sill panel underneath the hinge box section? It will be easy to unpick the spot welds where the box section meets the sill and remove the complete sill if its not spot welded underneath. If it is spot welded it makes things a lot harder and may mean I have to cut the sill panel around this area and butt weld as per my picture?

 

So has anyone removed a complete sill and know if the top edge of the outer sill is spot welded for the length it runs behind this box section?

 

Adam (Brown Hornet), how did Nat do yours?

 

Thanks.

 

David

[FLEXZED]

HEY DAVID

 

I did mine about 3 weeks ago and was worried about the same thing.

i drilled out all the spot welds i could see and gave the sill a good whack and found NO spot welds behind the box section, it just came out

 

hope this helps

 

Loui

 

 

[C.A.R.]

I highly doubt it will be Dave - how would the factory get the spot welders in there, themselves?

[KatoKid]

Thanks Loui, very happy to hear that! How was the fit for the new ones? Any tips?

 

Lurch, they could have depending on the order they assembled and welded the parts.

[FLEXZED]

Hey David

 

i havent got to that stage yet, i did a quick fit and found that the all z sills need to be trimmed a bit where the box section is

 

 

will put more info on my post when i do them

 

Loui

 

[gus]

hey, dave have you done much since i saw you?

 

 

can't wait to see this thing finished..

 

ps. still Z hunting hopefully find something soon... tell you when i do!

 

angus.