repairing sills damaged by car jacks

[MULLEY]

Are those portable car ramps anygood? Downside to using these is that you can't do any work on the wheels/brakes etc.

[Mothman]

When i was doing any welding etc on an old moggy minor, i used to roll her onto an old tractor tyre. Did the job a treat with no damage and easy to work on the underside.

Andy

[citronut]

Todd
the easyest ay to jack the rear end up, if you have a trolley jack, is at the centre of the rear sub frame cross tube,

also the it looks to me that the cause of the damage to the door sill in the photos in this topic, as caused by the car slipping of the original car jack which as supplied by the factory

regards malcolm

[Defender110]

Note to self;

At next auto jumble look out for logging tractor with big tyres pulling trailer of logs, prefferably with chainsaw option!

[Linegeist]

This is possibly a silly question but, looking at that sill, why not just Mig a piece of 22swg mild steel over the damaged area, gently planish the weld area level with the surrounding panel, and then use bodyfiller to skim everything level before repainting? It's single curvature (so easy to fabricate) and, at worst, would be a fraction of a millimetre proud ..... easily concealable over the sill's length.

You retain structural integrity, it can be done in less than an hour and saves drilling holes and yanking out dents...............

[citronut]

Bob wrote
"why not just Mig a piece of 22swg mild steel over the damaged area"

the only problem with this idea is it will caure rust between the two skins

regards malcolm

[Linegeist]

Bob wrote
"why not just Mig a piece of 22swg mild steel over the damaged area"

the only problem with this idea is it will caure rust between the two skins

regards malcolm

Now I'm puzzled ..... I thought rust only happened in the presence of moisture and air. Logically, the welding would drive out any moisture, and any air remaining in the void would be dry and heavily loaded with the by-products of the welding. I would have thought therefore that rust wouldn't be a problem. I can remember when 22SWG over-sills were a common repair method for MOT failures - and were frequently tack welded or brazed on. THAT I would agree is 'orrible ............ but creating an enclosed space?????

I've cut open 10-year-old box sections on chassis legs before now, and found them to be like time capsules. Complete stasis and as good as they they were welded shut - understandable in the absence of the very catalysts required to start (and maintain) the corrosion process.

So, assuming the Mig weld in question isn't porous, why should rusting occur inside a sill patch?

[citronut]

every time i have seen patches welded over existing metal it ha rustted away very quickly, compaired to if the original tin was cut away first, it seems to me the reaction of the two face's of tin against each other cause tne tin worm to go rampant,

regards malcolm

[Defender110]

Yes but the sills are not already rusted in this case just dented.

[DavidRutherford]

So, assuming the Mig weld in question isn't porous, why should rusting occur inside a sill patch?

And there's the reason.

Chances of achieving a completely sealed and rustproofed void?

Nil.

There will be something. A pin-hole, or a porous bit of weld, or a bit of moisture trapped, or water-based paint, or some other reason why it'll rot out in no time at all.

[citronut]

i kniw the car in question is not a rust issue,

but regarding tin welded over tin,
99% of rust on car' starts were there is more that one layer of tin against another,

regards malcolm

[TB2]

To resolve the story:
Standing under pressure of re-showing the BX within 14 days of the first check and with my friend who has a welder in Canada, I've let a tinner do the job and spent a whopping 500 CHF on the job. Not sure what exactly they did but it looks solid and as new. With this I'll hopefully slip through MOT tomorrow...

[MULLEY]

Wow, did they fit a brand new sill, mind you we are talking Swiss prices, so i guess they just fixed it. Hopefully even at that awful price the car won't have any future problems with that aspect again, good on you for spending that sort of money. Mind you, how much would a new car cost & that's without the dreaded depreciation, so still a cheap way to keep your bx on the road My hats off to you for the commitment

[TB2]

Well in the UK I guess you could buy another BX for that money. But the price on keeping a car in a condition worthy of the mighty swiss inspectors can quickly rise above what the car cost in the beginning. Next time, I'll simply need to start much earlier on fixing the problems so that I'll not be in a hurry. I also need to get some welding equipment!

They just fixed it. I popped in while they were working and I think they welded a piece of metal on. Though it's perfectly smooth and straight so I don't know how they did it. In any case, the whole sill is repainted as well.

I just love that damn car

[MULLEY]

You can't put a price on that