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MG MGA - Sill fit up

Hey Folks, this question is for body guru's. I have replaced the inner sill "back" with new metal and have the new inner sills clamped into place. When I hold the outer sills in place it is plain to see that lip on the bottom of the outer sill rests on top of the lip on the inner sill.

This would create a three layer stack, simelar to the three layers on top. Should this "stack" be avoided? If so, how can it e corrected? Thanks again, Tom
Thomas McNamara

Hi Thomas
My understanding is that the back plate should be deeper than the inner sill by about 1/2 inch and the outer sill should sit directly on the back plate. (if you could see me waving my arms around you'de understand). I have attached a pic of my new back plate welded to the inner sill. You can see the extra length in that.
Matthew

M S Randell

Hey Matthew, thanks for the picture. Could you measure the inner sill from the top edge to the bottom edge? It appears that my ne sills are too wide! Thanks, Tom
Thomas McNamara

Thomas
I can, but I'm not home at the moment. Have you checked Barney's site? He has heaps of wnderful info on there about sill reconstruction.
Matthew
M S Randell

Thomas, this photo from the Eclectic site shows the prep area for the inner sills and backing before the outer sill or rocker panel is welded on. The areas not covered by the black anti rust treatment are where the rocker welds. As you can see at the bottom this area is just below the edge of the inner sill box. The three layer area is at the top where the inner plate, rocker panel and frame cover panel all join.

Bill Young

Thomas,
I found that my inner sills(Sports Car Metalworks) were too wide and it is an absolute pain to reduce the width. I had to remove all the gussets on the inside of the sill and make new ones. I also rebent the sill. There's a lot of welding to do.

You also have to be careful because there is not much lateral clearance between the inner and outer sills. Barney was a great help in supplying some measurements. I'll get some measurements later if noone else beats me to it............Mike
m.j. moore

Thomas, The parallel portion of the closing panel should be 5.5" wide and, of course, the edges of the outer sill will also be this width maybe after a bit of squeezing. As the sill flange width is about a half inch there is 4.5" of space in which to fit the inner sill. I aimed for an overall inner sill width of 4 to 4.25" and the flanges turned out to be around 3/8".
I can't remember what the original inner sill width was on mine but it was wide enough for the flanges to get in between the closing panel and the outer sill flanges.

I remember cutting out paper patterns for the five new gussets and having great fun cutting and bending these to shape not to mention the welding back in!! If you bought the inner sills recently I would be inclined to return them and find some new ones but this is easier said than done................mike
m.j. moore

See proper assembly dimensions in the attached drawing. Tip to tip height across the box panel flanges is just 4-inches. The box panel welds to the inner panel with 2-layers only, nothing else to be multi-layered here. The outer rocker panel flanges straddle the flanges of the inner box panel, not flange on flange. The only place to have 3-layers is where the inboard L-flange welds to top edge of the inner flat panel and outer rocker panel. Find this in the range of pages here:
mgaguru.com/mgtech/restore/rt614.htm
mgaguru.com/mgtech/restore/rt616.htm


Barney Gaylord

HOLY COW!!!!!!! You guys are so good! WHOW! THANK YOU ALL. Barny, your dimentioned drawing is what I am shooting for. The stuff I bought is a mis-match. No wonder I am having such a time of it. Now, my guns are loaded. More to follow, Tom
Thomas McNamara

This thread was discussed between 02/03/2010 and 04/03/2010

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