Mini HL Estate Restoration, 2006

Pictures 19 Nov 2006

Now the rear end was back together it was time to make a start on the sills. As you can see from this picture the old ones had been badly replaced and not properly welded on. They should be welded along the seam but instead they had been drilled below the seam and plug welded. Water had got into the seam rusting it as you can see below. Additionally they were 9 inch wide sills not the correct narrow sills. These are often fitted simply welded over the top of the old sills, they also cause a moisture trap with the floor.

The inner sill had been patched badly before, there was also a patch over the rust type repair on the sill closing area under the wheel arch. The rear section of the inner sills were ok.

Near side inner sill was original but badly rusted.

The inner sill was cut away to be repaired first, leaving the old outer sill in place to retain strength. This revealed that the fitter of this sill had actually removed most of the old sill (a rarity for a garage bodging a car through an MoT test) just leaving a few bits where they had welded this new sill to. The paint within the sill was still mostly fine and the sticker revealed that it was only a few years old. However water had collected at the bottom of the sill and done damage to the floor, as is common with these type of sills.


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