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Triumph TR6 - Outer sill replacement

Hello all,
Just an update on the sills for the TR. When I bought the car it came with original Stanpart front fenders and inner & outer sills that were never mounted. I am currently working on the driver's side sill. The inner sill is perfect along with the floor pan with the exception of the lower lip from the re-inforcement forward.
http://static.flickr.com/33/55602827_c78f045973.jpg?v=0
You can see where that drain hose is aimed directly at the hole in the sill. There is a small hole in the side scuttle pannel which I intend to weld a small patch over.

http://static.flickr.com/38/106420523_33af841507.jpg?v=0
Here, I have cut away the sill. At first I did this in small pieces with a grinding wheel attached to my drill. Then I got creative and used my sawzall. Go slow with the saw, it will cut thru the sheet metal like butter and I nicked the side of my A pillar which will need to be welded up. I will make a pattern of the floor lip and cut out the rotten area. I intend to drive the car so I am not going to go through a complete floor pan replacement especially since there is only light surface rust on 10% of the top of the pan.

http://static.flickr.com/54/106420522_5012faa3e8.jpg?v=0
Now I drilled the spot welds out of the rear B pillar. It was in bad shape so I intend to replace it with a new one. The front B pillar is fine and I will paint the inside of it with POR15 before welding the new rear on.

http://static.flickr.com/35/106420524_aed8fcfd91.jpg?v=0
There must be a spot weld every 3/8" on the sill. I still need to remove the outer sill from underneath the A&B pillars but I am going to weld my door frame brace in first since I need to gently pull away the pillars to slip the new sill in behind them.
This is it so far until the temperature breaks 35 degrees. Short story: never buy a car from Buffalo NY unless you want to freeze your butt off in the garage all winter.
TC

Tom C


Tom,

I see you've gotten to the fun parts of the rocker.
I removed mine with a drill and chizel. Those pieces under the A&B pillars are a real bear to get out. I remember I had to use a loose hacksaw blade to get up under there and then chizel out. It left a hole in the top of the "foot" of the piallar which got welded shut and finished with filler.

I ended up leaving the bottom flange of the old outer rocker attached and just welded the new one to the top.

I'm sure you noticed that the front part of the outer rockers upper flange was welded underneath the kick panel at the factory. Only thing you can do there is leave the old flange underneath and weld the new flange on top of the kick panel.

Ahh...that sure was fun! Glad it's over for me.

Hurry up and get those pictures posted so we can see more.

Henry

HP Henry Patterson


By the way...I have a brand new right hand side A pillar (front pillar) that I never used. If you happen to need it you can have it.

Henry
HP Henry Patterson

Hi Henry,
Thank you for the tips. I have been using the chisel to split the spot welds after they have been drilled out but it is tricky because too much pressure really distorts the metal you are trying to keep. I was thinking about inverting the blade on the sawzall to get those spots under the A and B pillars. I want to get a full face shield first because I don't need metal flying in my face while I'm laying on back doing this. I learned my lesson 20 years ago when a piece of metal flew up in my eye and the doctor needed magnet to get it out. Thank God it wasn't aluminum.
Side kick panel, I have a small hole at the front so I was thinking about cutting the metal back to the A pillar and replacing it or just drilling out enough spot welds to enable me to peel the metal up and then get the sill in place.
I am concerned that if I weld over the top of kick panel that the tolerances will accumulate when I go to mount the fenders and make them buldge out.
Thanks for the pillar offer, the passenger side is worse than the driver's side so it will be interesting to see what I find.
Tom
tom c


I was concerned a little too about welding the rocker flange over the kick panel. Before welding everything in place I temporarily screwed the rocker in place and then hung the fenders and doors to check alignment. There is enough play in the mounting of the front fender to the rocker that it made no issue of alignment.

Henry
HP Henry Patterson

Hey Henry,
Thanks for the tips! I got the A&B pillars free and was able to remove the last bit of old sill. I put the new sill in place and it really makes a difference. I found the the top flange of the new sill is about 1/4" longer in the front but I can easily trim this off. I trimmed the kick pannel to just above the top flange. I will re-weld a new strip of metal to get it back to its normal length.
There is going to be at least a day of getting the pillars back in place with a hammer and dolly and then fitting fenders + doors to make sure they fit properly.
Pictures to follow....
Tom C

Henry- I'll take it off your hand.
dnk
DON KELLY

As promised here are the photos:

http://static.flickr.com/43/108727885_c349221c2c_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/55/108727883_c4b6a964c4_b.jpg

TC
Tom C


Don,

Are you talking about the A pillar I have? If so you're welcome to it.

If you are talking about my TR that I recently posted a photo of on Charlie's web site....How much? Naaa...I think I'll keep it.
HP Henry Patterson


Nice work Tom,

I didn't install the rocker (sill) end caps until I knew everything fit properly. I had to cut the end caps to get them to fit.

Keep the pic's coming.

Let me know if you don't want that A pillar for sure. I'll give it to Don if he wants it.

Henry
HP Henry Patterson

The TR4 for a cup of Seattle coffee,and the piller for what ever you want.
dnk
DON KELLY


Don,

The pillar is yours for just shipping. If you want you could throw in some of that fine Seattle coffee.

Email me. I'll send it to you and then you can send me a check or whatever when you get it. No big deal.

Let's just make sure Tom doesn't want it since I offered it to him first.

Henry

hbpatter83ATyahooDOTcom. You know the drill...remove the AT for @ and DOT for .

HP Henry Patterson

Henry,
I was just in the garage checking out the A pillar and it is in good shape so thank you for the offer but I will not need it.
This BBS is totally awesome and there are some very genuine and generous people here. Thanks for your support.
Tom C
Tom C

Tom C,

Great pictures. A local sheetmetal shop has manufactured some replacement panels for me, namely the bulkhead panel and inner/outer sills. So last night I was trying out a dry fit of the panels and was having a slightly difficult time with lineing the sills, however I checked out the BBS and saw your pictures and now it makes sense. A little tweaking of the metal and I should be fine.

Are you considering changing the inner sills?

Keep up the good work.

Les
lw gilholme

Tom
Like I said ...to heck with e-bay just come here and you only have to pay shipping.

Also Tom, thanks for the flickr thing. We now have our first instance where it was helpfull to someone else.
Rick C
Rick Crawford

Hi Les,
I am not planning on replacing the inner sills. I'll never understand how they survived other than there was alot of carpet adhesive and rubber goo on the outer surface. In a past life, someone shot rust proofing into the A+B pillars but none if it got to the sills, the underside is still in red primer.
I still have to get the floor lip welded in but I was excited to see the new outer sill in place - at least temporarly. The big challenge will be hanging the door back on because the rear "bump" in the sill has to match with the rear edge of the door.
TC
Tom C

Man, I feel for you, Tom C. I started to restore a 74 that was about as rusty as yours. After dismantling the car and cutting the rockers out I lost my nerve and bought an Arizona car. No interior, paint blasted crispy and the ugliest delaminated dash you ever saw, but no body work to do, YAY! Good luck, I'm glad to see people saving these cars.

Don
Don Ho

Don,
I have thought about the same thing for a dozen times. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll have a second chance with the wife in buying another car so I am committed on getting this done. This is what I get buying a car on Ebay which was described as "solid frame and floors, 90% complete"
TC
Tom C

This thread was discussed between 02/03/2006 and 10/03/2006

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