Sill repair?
 

Has anyone here had their sills repaired?
I am in the process of having mine done :-(

I got a call from the garage who are doing the repair saying that they couldn't get anything else than genuine Mazda panels costing the same as Greece's national debt...

After a bit of searching I sourced a pair of repair sections on Ebay for less than £90 posted.
They are on their way and should be with me before the weekend.
I'll let you all know how they are and if they are a good supplier.

Repair sections have been dropped off at the garage, lets see how it turns out...

Don't forget to ask them to waxoil inside after they have welded, as you will still have water going in there at some time in the future.

See you at the weekend :becky:

Looking forward to it :-D

After wasting 2 weeks waiting for the garage to do something I brought the car back home and bought all the gear I was going to need to do the job.

Here's a few pics of my sills before I start to work on them.

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...915_184941.jpg

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...915_184906.jpg

As you can see the drivers side is far worse than the passenger side.

I'll be posting more pics as I go but please be patient as I'm working out of town 5 days a week :-(

It'll be very interesting and informative to show the before & after pictures as well as a step-by-step guide (including pics) if you've got the time & patience.

I'll do my best. Time at home is in short supply for me at the moment...

I finally made a start on the sills...
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...005_151108.jpg

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...005_152253.jpg

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...005_152516.jpg

I took a flapper wheel to the sill to reveal a heap of filler and a few rust holes.
It looks worse than it is to be honest...

I have since cut out all the rusty material and prepped the area ready to take the new repair section.
I'll do a few before and after pics to show the progress.

Good to see the work you've got to do on this & how you're going to go about it. I'm a total newbie at this so all advice & guidance is invaluable. Carry on the good work!

Just to clarify, the section I've removed from the car's sill is actually around 18" x 5"

It is just the 'skin' of the car and nothing structural, all the inner chassis members are fine apart from a bit of surface rust. The repair section I bought from Ebay more than covers this so no worries there. If you are canny and pay attention to what attaches to what on the car you will see that most of the welds you willneed to do are actually spot welds (or plug welds if you are using a MIG like me) and will be quick and easy to do.
A quick word of advice to any newbies going at their cars with a hand grinder - Don't go deep with the blade, the chassis sections are not far below the surface and can easily be cut if you are not careful. I know this now...:frusty:
As a result of being over enthusiastic with the grinder I have a small section to do a repair on :pout:

The other side will be a breeze (I hope)

It could be worse, this is our "workshop" MX5 that we do development/kit fitting demo's on:

http://i1046.photobucket.com/albums/...ve/mxcill2.jpg

http://i1046.photobucket.com/albums/...ve/mxcill1.jpg

The poor old thing lives outside with no side windows, but it starts every single time :love: . I think a replacement will be needed in the Spring....

Bloody hell!!!
The rust worms have been busy :icon_rolleyes:

Well, I've done one side totally (filled and painted) and I'm oosing with confidence.
I am now working on the other side (the worst).
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_183904.jpg
Lots of photos coming so be warned!!!

Here we go...

This is what I started with.
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_183429.jpg

Offer up the new repair section
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_183514.jpg

Scratch the a line with a screwdriver at the top of the repair section.
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_183601.jpg

Carefully grind half an inch from the line being careful not to go too deep - especially at the arch and the front most end as there is metal you need under there!!!
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_184916.jpg

I was able to 'peel' the old metal away due to the amount of corrosion.
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_185019.jpg

This reveals the inner chassis member (and all the rust that has been gathering).
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_185001.jpg

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_185730.jpg

I now carefully run my cutting disk along the under side of the sill to allow me to remove the lower section of the area I am repairing.
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_185242.jpg

Look out for the old spot welds, grinding them away will make the final removal of the old metal easier.
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_185846.jpg
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_190327.jpg

Most of the old metal removed.
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_191534.jpg

Now it's time to clean up the surface rust with the flapper wheel!!!
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_192140.jpg

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...013_192151.jpg

More to come next week...

Very informative & helpful Tytek. Is that rusty lump behind the sill skin structural? And how did it get so bad in the first place? Is there any way to stop it happening again?

In my opinion it's all down to the drain holes getting blocked.
All the rust is due to water sitting in the sill and having nowhere to go. I am convinced it's down to people actually trying to solve the problem of the sills rusting by Waxoyling or similar and blocking the drain ways.
The chassis is made of thicker steel than the skin so they seem to have survived the process.

Where does the water come from? Spray up from below?

Worse than that - from above!!!
There are drain ways that pass from the gutter around the hood (soft top) down through the sills.

So do you know where the water comes from? Spray up from below or draining down from above somewhere? Would making the drain holes bigger help do you think?

On the sills there are raised marks at the bottom which are indicators for the drain points.
If they are clear there shouldn't be a problem, water will drain out.

Hi
Tytek sorry to correct you but those marks indicate the reinforced
parts of the siderail.
There is one set just behind the front wheels and another just in front
of the rear wheels.
Jack stands and jacks should be placed between them.
THERE SHOULD NEVER BE WATER in THE SILLS.
When You have, your drainage from the Roof (top)
is blocked,causing the water to get over the edge of the catchtank
behind the B-pillar in the sill, and the sill starts to rust.
Check the catchtank and the piping running down for rubbish,leafs etc.
(I even found a pair of sunglasses in there).
Do this regular to prefent your sills to rust.

grtz mx5teo

Theo knows a thing or two about the MX5 :biggrin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw-_n...4&feature=plcp

How's your knee Theo?

Thanks for the correction, more info the better!!!

Tytek, your welcome.
Thanks Chris, I 've trouble with both knees now,but it's getting better
(slowly).Do you have you plans for a mk2 convertiblekit?

regards theo

Great youtube link, thanks Chris. About your sills, all the above is correct, behind the seat belt mount under the hood is a small plastic resepticle with a drain hole about the size of a little finger, this has a tube that comes out under the car inside of the sill, clear this and drill two 8mm holes in your sill front and back but away from the jacking points, any water should now drain out, leave to dry out then buy a waxoyl pump and long extention tube (Halfords sell this). Pump the wax into the sill, I did the inside of the doors as well as there was loads left. Treat the outside rust as normal and you should be ok.

Hey Tonyt
Thanks for the translation.
That is exacly what I mean.

regards mx5teo

Hey Tytek
Well done for tackling the sills yourself . will give you loads of confidence with rest of build. Also for those who know little of MX5"s it shows their worst feature, they rust badly.

I'm looking forward to finally finishing off these sills as the car has been sat for what seems ages. The final cutting and welding the repair section is just a formality. I only have the Saturday to work on the car as I'm off to see the Hairy Bikers on Friday :-D
I promise to finish off the photos in the series too.

Here we go again...

Final clean up of inner sill surface
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...020_120617.jpg

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...020_120639.jpg

Dummy fit of new section
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...020_122503.jpg

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...020_122512.jpg

Cut down repair section to match the old section
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...020_122905.jpg

Zinc paint inner sill
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...020_123145.jpg

Drill holes in repair section ready for plug welds
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...020_124247.jpg

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...020_124308.jpg

BEFORE YOU START WELDING, DON'T FORGET TO DISCONNECT YOUR EARTH LEAD ON YOUR BATTERY OR YOU MIGHT FRY YOUR CDI!!!

What a plug weld should look like
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...020_131215.jpg

Don't forget the arch!!!
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...020_131601.jpg

Smooth down welds ready for final filling/paint
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...020_133736.jpg

First layer of filler
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/p...020_135251.jpg

Then it's up to you how far you go. As the section is not going to be seen you can leave it as it is.

I've just given the sill a basic fill and sand with a coat of paint to match the colour of the car.

Well done that man! :biggrin: A very tidy job. You will be needing your kit now then.....:biggrin:

I'd love to order it right now but due to numpties at and on ebay my BMW hasn't been sold yet :-(
I'm after £1400 for it so if you want to do a deal I'm up for it :-D

After months of looking, I've eventually nabbed myself a '97 1.8 donor car. All looks pretty solid from above (sills previously repaired) but I'm yet to lift it up to check out the underside & see what work lies ahead.