bmw 2002 sill's

[harrym2]

Hi

am new here join yesterday and i have been having a good look around this site mostly at the projects that members are doing . And i see that a lot of you are into cars

I wont to change the sills on my projrct car a bmw 2002 touring and i am worried that i may lose the shape of it when doing this . and this brings me on to a questions i have

what sort of brace bar should i use and is there one that i can use and also hang the door at the same time . this way i can line the outer sill up with the door. the last thing i wont is to have big gaps all over the place

thanks

 

[malcolm]

I've never actually bought a brace bar. I use a 1 inch square tube welded between the A and B pillars. Normally it's possible to place the weld where it will be covered by the seal once it's been ground off. I think the ones you buy are normally designed to allow doors to be fitted too.

It's important to be able to trial fit the doors to get alignment. Also do one side at a time so you don't weaken the car more than necessary and try to level the car on stands before you start to help reduce the chance of twisting. See http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/sills.htm for some other tips.

 

[harrym2]

Thanks for the advice . the only thing that that i do not wont to do is mess up the gap between the sill and the door
and if i did i know i would not be able to stop staring at it

Are you the person that does all the practical and tutorial blogs ?

 

[malcolm]

It's the door gaps that tend to be a fiddle - if you aren't careful the weld pulls the bottom of the A and B pillars together. Happens a bit even with a brace, and there's nothing worse than tapering door gaps. Top of the sill tends to stay where you put it.

Almost all of the tutorials and things are by my hand, though a lot of the info in them has come from the forum and been added through rewrites.

 

[harrym2]

Ok now i see why the brace gets put near to the bottom of the pillers . do you have any more pictures off how you brace ?
pictures spell a thousand words and all that .

tutorial and practical blogs have be a great help thanks

 

[Wozzaaah]

Saw a lovely MGB roadster a while back, chrome bumper one, looked absolutely stunning....til I saw the door, never seen anything like it, gaps were terrible and the door just didn't even fit properly. The trouble is, rectifying something like that would be very difficult .
You're fortunate that your 2002 has a roof Harry, you won't have to be quite so vigilant as you would with a convertible.

 

[harrym2]

I used to work in a garage a long time ago that restored classic mg . and the welder that i used to work with was mad about panel fit and body lines and thats where i get it from

as you say it can make a good car look like a mess

 

[malcolm]

I can't find any photos taken from inside any cars with the brace, but here's one that's better. The bar was welded for 1/2 inch top and bottom, also on this car it butted against another section so a short length of weld on that too.

 

[harrym2]

thanks that makes it easier to uderstand

 

[Chickenjohn]

I managed on the passenger side of the Morris Minor convertible project to tack weld the brace just inside the door opening so it kept the gap good with all the sills cut off but allowed the door to be fitted and closed to check fit. You will need to remove interior trim/dashboard to find some metal on the interior of the b post and the dash by the a pillar to weld to. This worked on the convertible and preserved the door gap.

 

[Chickenjohn]

Windscreen is covered with cardboard to prevent damage to the glass by weld splatter!

 

[irondarren]

Grind splatter is the real killer for glass, seems to etch its way into the dam stuff

 

[harrym2]

thanks for all the pictures and info all of it helps .

Irondarren i see you live quite close to me

 

[irondarren]

blimey Harry, indeed i do, about 6 miles ish at a guess