Welding?

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Bazboy
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Welding?

Post by Bazboy » 03 Jun 2008 11:03 pm

hey guys as some of you may know my car recently failed its mot and i have decided to try and fix a majority of the failings myself, the one thing im not sure ill be able to do is the welding, it requires welding of the sills and a small patch on the chassis, now i have done a little bit of reading on the tinterweb and am still confused about what to do lol, so i have a few questions about it:

1. What is the best method of combating the sills, buy new sills and weld them in or just get the current ones re welded.

2. Once i have had the sills welded will i find that every mot after this one i find ill need more and more welding done because the problem is likely to just come back.

3. Is there some sort of treatment i can have done to the car to prevent this from happening again, and if so how long does it last and how much does it cost.

4. How difficult is it to weld and is something id be able to have a go at or is it just better to leave it to a professional.

5. What prep work can i get done myself to help lower the overall costs of welding.

Cheers for any help u guys can give me.

Dan.
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petefarrell360
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Post by petefarrell360 » 04 Jun 2008 01:37 am

I won't go into the uber long answer now, as it's silly o'clock, but, there are a couple of options open to you. If you intend to keep the car and this isn't a bodge to squeeze another year or two out of it, then if they are bad enough, replace the sills with new. If it is only one small patch and the rest really is sound, the patching is acceptable, but it's normally a bodge and it ends up needing doing every year to pass the MOT and the sills look like a patch work quilt! Plus, normally, the patch is not protected on the back where the heat of the welding has damaged the paint protection, so it will rust quicker.

The sills are paper thin anyway to be honest, so it's not easy to work on, and for a sill replacement, leave it to the professionals. One thing to bear in mind is that the Hadrian repair panels do need some fabrication to fit, I think the bottom lip is missing or something like that.

Often, you'll find that the one area that has shown through as rust isn't the only area, there is probably more lurking, ready to appear later on, so if you get the sills replaced, you may find more, we did with my grandmothers car, some of the floor was repaired too. That's worst case scenario, but it's not always just one patch.

One of the most important things afterwards is to protect the hardwork and money injected into the car, use Waxoyl or Dinitrol to stop it rusting and the bare metal or weld affected areas to rust quickly. There are plastic caps in the door shuts above the sill to inject the rust prevention protection into.

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Bazboy
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Post by Bazboy » 04 Jun 2008 02:27 am

ok, basically i am looking to keep the car going for as long as possible and will hopefully make it a project when i have a garage to store it in, How much am i looking at cost wise for some new sill and having them fitted? also where am i able to get the sills from? Im currently on a students salary which isnt much so would it be cheaper to get the sills welded just to last me untill i can afford to get a real decent job done or could this allow the problem to get worse?

Cheers Dan
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SteveP
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Post by SteveP » 04 Jun 2008 09:16 am

A sill panel can be had from your local motor factors for around £20... I bought one about 3 weeks ago. As Pete said they don't come with the bottom lip and drain holes (neither did the Volvo replacement sills, anyway) so if these are rusty these will need fabricating.

My welder last year charged me £200 to fit a sill and rear arch and do a small repair to the inner sill at the back - it was a pretty good job, only buggered up by the bodyshop it then went to :lol: You'd obviously have spraying ontop of that.

I wouldn't recommend patching as it's just wasted money if you end up putting a full sill on it in the future and it'll create more work for when that time comes.

I know exactly how you feel, as I was at this dilemma a couple of years ago. In hindsight (with my sensible head on) I probably should've scrapped the car and bought another, but it's still going fine now and over 2 years it's not really that significant a cost anymore.
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Bazboy
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Post by Bazboy » 04 Jun 2008 02:34 pm

yea i hate big decisions, i find it so hard to get rid of things, its been in the family all its life and apart from the rust and the faded paint is in fine condition just needs a little love.
I guess ill go down the new sills route but it looks pricy does anyone know of a good place in southampton to go?
Also is there a difference between inner and outer sills, cause i believe its the inner sills (on both sides in same place) which are rusty as from the outside it all looks gravy. just when you put your finger up behind u can feel the rot. Would new sills come with inside sills or is this a whole new ball game.??

Cheers Dan
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srtames
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welding

Post by srtames » 06 Jun 2008 08:17 pm

you may need my template on volvo300.blogspot.com (at top of google search engine!

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morgan105
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Post by morgan105 » 07 Jun 2008 03:11 am

If it's the inner sills that need repair your cheapest option is to have them plated because if you want a whole new inner sill put in then the welder is going to have to remove the outer sill to do the job properly.

The price of £20 would seem like it was just an outer sill skin and not a full sill, skins are a lot cheaper then a proper full sill and tend to need a bit of modding unless you get very lucky. I replaced part of the outer sill on my other car by buying a full sill skin and cut it to size for the repair, cost was £18 and only my time, had the other outer sill patched in from a welder as I didn't have time to do it and that only cost £35. If I would have had a full proper sill put in I was looking at 5 times that because of all the extra work involved and extra price of a complete sill.

I've had repairs done to inner sills for prices ranging between £20 - £45 per patch, depended on the size, and seemed well worth the money and saved time not having to clean the area up myself and drag out the welder to do it while lying on the floor. Most places that do welding on cars have lifts so they can work more comfortably and easily and will get the job done in a fraction of the time and they will normally throw a underseal back over the weld to protect it but always recoat it yourself to bring it back to a reasonable coating.

morgan105 8)

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Bazboy
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Post by Bazboy » 07 Jun 2008 09:35 am

Cheers for all the info guys, ill get set on with that as soon as im back in southampton, Hopefully before the summer is up the old gal will be back on the road.

Cheers Dan
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