Sill Repair - 205 GTI

[M@tt]

I knew there was a bit of a soft spot on my passenger sill but i'd been putting off looking at it for a while and it has passed the last 2 MOT's ok so i thought it couldn't be too bad, but tonight i got it in the garage to do a few other jobs on it and decided to have a bit of a poke

oh well no going back now

most of it had pretty much rotted away! the inner chassis rail looks fine mind so whether this has been a replacement sill at some pont i'm not sure. The drivers side luckily appears to be solid though (phew!!)

i'll update as i go along fixing it

 

[Stereophoney]

good luck mate you look like your work is cut out for you !

 

[stucktoweld]

good luck mate you look like your work is cut out for you !

No I think it fell out
Nice little pratice for you-keep you out of trouble maybe

 

[pedrobedro]

Take it for the MOT now and see if it passes It looks like a new sill is the order of the day.

 

[spaffmonkey]

That picture brings back memorys of my brothers mrk3 golf vr6

He said to me i've noticed a small hole in the sill of the car and my mot's up next week can you patch it for me! i say ok then start work 3 days solid later
both sills we shot to bits the outer floor pan and part of the inner arch took some going but got it done and its still going strong.

Good luck

 

[eil]

How is the hole for the sinking of the car lift idea working ?.

 

[M@tt]

Fortunately 205 shells were galvanised as standard so you don't find many with really bad rot so I think this may have have been a replacement one by the looks of things.

Eil > I still haven't used the car lift yet as I missing one of the arms and I need to make up a new one. Scott off here has kindly got me some right sized box section and do I just need a short tube section to go on the end.

Also something I didn't think about was that the hole stops you getting a trolley jack under it which at the minute whilst I can't use the lift is a bit of a pain. However I might just make some thick wooden infills fir the gaps surrounding the lift

 

[eil]

That lift is handy for doing the sills, keep us informed as I haven't dug my hole as yet.

 

[Justme]

Fortunately 205 shells were galvanised as standard so you don't find many with really bad rot so I think this may have have been a replacement one by the looks of things.

But that still means that the original galv one rusted at some point.

Or crash damage of course.

 

[weldingscotty803]

not a problem matt, regarding the box section. what other size do you need. will have a rummage in the garage for ya. pm me as i lose track of where i post

 

[M@tt]

Well tonights progress involved removing the front passenger wing which will allow the new sill to be fitted. I had forgotten what a **** that bumper/wing mount is and what a bloody stupid design it is as well. It took longer than planned but everything came off with no incident

the next job was to run the knotted brush on the angle grinder down the sill lip to identify where all the spot welds were and then drill them out with a spot weld drill bit. So that pretty much took up the rest of the evening but i got all the bottom edge freed up.

AS mentioned previously the inner chassis rail looks fine albit a small amount of surface rust where the outer sill and it met and were spot welded together. The rear jacking point however may require a bit more attention but i can't be for sure until i get the rest of the sill off.

apologies for the crap iphone camera pics, i'm going to di out my old camera as the iphone is pants in low light

 

[pedrobedro]

Fortunately 205 shells were galvanised as standard so you don't find many with really bad rot so I think this may have have been a replacement one by the looks of things.

They were galvanised after 1988 when the dash was changed weren't they? Early ones rotted like nobody's business. Early ones were still being registered after the new ones went on sale so you might get a bad one on a later plate.

 

[Weldinator]

All 205's were galvanised, the later ones rotted more and were not galvanised as well as the late earlier ones.

 

[oz.]

Also something I didn't think about was that the hole stops you getting a trolley jack under it which at the minute whilst I can't use the lift is a bit of a pain. However I might just make some thick wooden infills fir the gaps surrounding the lift

I never use sills for jacking unless it's with the jack that comes with the car. The jack that comes with the car has a slot in it for the jacking point to slot into. Using a standard jack is likely to bend the jacking point flat and render it useless. Use the subframe or the rear beam to jack her up - much stronger

 

[M@tt]

yes i never jack on them anyway, its just i cant even get the jack under far enough to reach the subframe or beam due to the pit

 

[eil]

All 205's were galvanised, the later ones rotted more and were not galvanised as well as the late earlier ones.

That should make things perfectly clear

 

[M@tt]

tonight i managed to get most of the old sill off.

However i did unearth some more rot round the rear jacking point nothing that can't be sorted though the plan is to get some zintec sheet and make some replacement sections and butt weld them into place.

any way onwards and upwards

 

[M@tt]

well I've made a bit more progress.

On further investigation there was a bit more rot on the panel that goes up toward the bump stop however the rear beam is in the way so that needed dropping out the way. Fortunately I've finally managed to get my lift working so i could just undo the the 6 bolts holding the beam on, undo the handbrake cables and undo the brake lines and lift the car straight off it easy peasy!!!

However a slight issue was that because i have no sill or jacking point on one side i had to support the rear of the car on some wooden blocks under the rear foot wells. however as the rear beam wasn't on, there wasn't much weight on the back end so it hasn't caused any damage.

Along side the rusty sill i've been removing the other sections of rotten panels ready to make replacements and get them welded back in.

Heres a few pics

Rusty section up towards the rear bump stop

The bottom of this panel needs chopping off and replacing. It will mean dropping the fuel tank though, which is no biggie

Car lifted straight off beam

Rotten sections which need replacements making out of zintec sheet

 

[james205gti13]

pictures deleted again?

 

[jpmillermatic]

you have a good start on it!

I like the careful (logical) approach...nice work

JP