MadaboutKitcars

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

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.





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...






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...
As a result of being over enthusiastic with the grinder I have a small section to do a repair on out:

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:





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

Bloody hell!!!
The rust worms have been busy

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).

Lots of photos coming so be warned!!!

Here we go...

This is what I started with.


Offer up the new repair section


Scratch the a line with a screwdriver at the top of the repair section.


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!!!

I was able to 'peel' the old metal away due to the amount of corrosion.


This reveals the inner chassis member (and all the rust that has been gathering).

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.


Look out for the old spot welds, grinding them away will make the final removal of the old metal easier.



Most of the old metal removed.

Now it's time to clean up the surface rust with the flapper wheel!!!




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