Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

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rob

Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by rob »

£600 was for one side. It was quite expensive and you can get them done reasonably well for about £400 - £450 but I wanted to be safe in the knowledge mine would last another 20 years (hopefully it will).

The problem with welding together 3 centre sill sections is that you won't have the upturned sill end which is the bit that always goes.


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JBB

Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by JBB »

The sills on my rev 4 T-bar are showing signs of rust so this needs to be deal with sooner rather than later and I thought I would take the opportunity to get my car re-spayed as part of the overall job. Hopefully this should keep the car in good condition for the next 10 years or so. This morning I removed the foam blocks from the sills and gave the car a decent check over just to make sure that there are no other problems that need fixing before the re-spray. When I removed the boot liner I found some signs of rust down in the wheel arches behind the rear wheels. This seems to be where any water that has got into the boot collects. At the moment it is nothing serious and I'm confident that a good dose of a spay rust inhibitor like Waxoyl will stop any further corrosion. Maybe worth checking this out
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Protok
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Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by Protok »

If you put waxoyl over rust, it just rusts worse.
You need to cut out the rust, get fresh good metal welded in and then waxoyl over it.
Red "Iron Guts" Protok
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gerz

Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by gerz »

i used dynax s50 it says it addresses exsisting corrosion and prevents any further corrosion i just done my sills and and the structural shelves and the wheel arch bits in the boot in dynax s50
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Alex687

Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by Alex687 »

Both my sills appear to have been repaired cheaply in the past and rust is coming through again. I have looked down into the 'foam cavities' and removed the foam but the rust in there is so bad that shelf that separates this cavity to the sill cavity pretty much completely disintegrated on both sides when i had a poke around and i had to hoover out a bucket load of rusty metal. I am a bit worried what full extent of damage may be revealed if/when i cut away the cheaply welded, and now rusting plates on the outer sills.

Does anyone know of any reputable specialists in the Leeds/Bradford area that I could take it to??
And what can I do myself with basic tools to cut the costs as much as poss before taking it for a quote
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jam35

Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by jam35 »

^^^ im in the middle of doing this myself going to cut out bot sills and weld in some mk1 astra sills that has been done on here :) will be a job well done for sub £100 if you were closer i could have sorted it for you :(
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Alex687

Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by Alex687 »

jam35 wrote:^^^ im in the middle of doing this myself going to cut out bot sills and weld in some mk1 astra sills that has been done on here :) will be a job well done for sub £100 if you were closer i could have sorted it for you :(
Sub 100 per side? Well where abouts are you cos at that price it may be worth travelling. Iguess that wouldn't include painting?

Where can you get astra sills from and for how much?
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jam35

Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by jam35 »

what i meant was it will cost me sub £100 quid in materials :) they usually float around on ebay for around £25 a side + gas wire cutting discs etc zinc primer paint and stuff :)
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Alex687

Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by Alex687 »

just got quoted £750 to rebuild and paint both sills. need to shop around a bit more does anyone know of any reputable body shops in the leeds and bradford area??????
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IanC

Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by IanC »

is there no one in a position to manufacture repair sills as there seems to be quite a demand for them lol

this guy seems to make mk1 sills - http://www.mr2mk1club.com/showthread.ph ... UK-postage may be worth emailing him

on a side note, how hard is it to fabricate the rear bit which seems to be the part that goes first? surely cant be too difficult?

eringobragh
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Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by eringobragh »

...another problem area on the MR2 I believe..

Took out the boot liner to check for rust, etc after reading (and seeing) the rear arches can become chocolate on some of the UK cars

- The initial boot looks good.

Image

....I topped up the factory proofing witj some BiltHamber Dynax S50 Cavity wax

Image


Check the arches - there is some rust there alright as suspected but thankfully it's only surface:

Image

Image

I tried to sand the rush but its very tight so I had a B&Q dremmel with an extension chuck so managed to grind most it off and then used the bilthamber sulfex degreaser.


Image

While the carpet was out it could do with a good clean with FAB interior cleaner (from cleancar.ie) - there was stains and rust spots here and there

BEFORE:


Image


AFTER:

Image

....pcitures dont do this justice but, it's night and day the carpet is now spotless and colour is back & ut's like new , I'm waiting for the Kurust to harden in the arches before I dynax that as well, tomorrow at this stage!


......................prevention is better than cure ;)
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ElvisRockVinyl

Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by ElvisRockVinyl »

Some top quality work there mate well done :th: , can I ask what rust inhibitor you used?

I've done sill work and it's a bloody nightmare when it's bad, the last car I did that level of work on was my dads 1986 ford sierra XR4i and both sills inner and outer were rotten as a pair what started off as a few small rust patches soon turned into major work verging on a cut and shut car by the time id finished with the angle grinder :facepalm: I ended up chopping huge sections out and some of it was so bad it was spread into the floor pans, I found a doner car out the scrapy with mint inner sills and so I welded / transplanted them into me dad's car and replaced the outer sills with new ones, we were luckly ford were still selling the out sills at the time lol cost £10 for the pair :laughing , it was the biggest body job id ever done...never again. :crybaby: ..though looking back now if it wasn't for that car I wouldn't of become a mechanic and professional welder :th:

Now when buying a car I'm all over it like a hawk looking rust, I was damn lucky with my 2, it spent it's life in a garage and never used, the day I bought the car it was piping hot so I bought 5 tins of waxoil hooked it it up to my compressor and blasted the tit$ off the underside of the car lol shot it in through the sills, wheel arches, inside the doors, boot...lock stock the f...ing lot even took the bumpers off and sprayed the crap out of all the places where water could gather.

eringobragh
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Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by eringobragh »

Using Bilthamber Dynax S50 ;) ...Cheers for the insight - I defo dont want to get to that stage!

eringobragh
Posts: 78
Joined: 27/08/11 18:44
Years of MR2 Ownership: 6
MR2's Owned: 1
Location: Dublin, Ireland

Re: Save your Mk2 - my sill restoration experience

Post by eringobragh »

eringobragh wrote:Using Bilthamber Dynax S50 (and Hammerite Kururst for treatment) ;) ...Cheers for the insight - I defo dont want to get to that stage!
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