one of these had rotted away on one on one of my cars so here's a quick post about how I replaced a 2 ft section. the bottom edge of the inner sills on my car are straight, so by claming a 1m length of 25mm square tubing against the original ends of the sills you have reference point that the new inner sill should meet. (I forgot to take a picture with the section of inner sill cut out.) so here is the same thing being done a few years ago on my other polo)
now back to the car I am working on
on my inner sills the bottom edge where the outer sill spot welds to are straight, but the rest of the panel isn't straight. so cardboard templates and later sheet metal repair sections can be clamped against the back of the tube and the fit adjusted.
these are the two repair sections that I ended making. they were held between a couple peices of angle iron to keep them straight with the top part of the repair section formed to suit the existing inner wing
and the edge of one of the repair sections. the repair section are made roughly 25mm too tall but the excess will be cut off after the outer sills have been welded in place.
then the repair sections are clamped in place and welded up. to try and minimise distortion the repair sections are tacked in place every inch and cooled with compressed air. the gaps between the tacks are then welded up (and then cooled with compressed air again).
once its all welded up and the clamps removed, you should have a nice straight inner sill ready to weld a new edge of the floorpan and outer sill to.
now back to the car I am working on
on my inner sills the bottom edge where the outer sill spot welds to are straight, but the rest of the panel isn't straight. so cardboard templates and later sheet metal repair sections can be clamped against the back of the tube and the fit adjusted.
these are the two repair sections that I ended making. they were held between a couple peices of angle iron to keep them straight with the top part of the repair section formed to suit the existing inner wing
and the edge of one of the repair sections. the repair section are made roughly 25mm too tall but the excess will be cut off after the outer sills have been welded in place.
then the repair sections are clamped in place and welded up. to try and minimise distortion the repair sections are tacked in place every inch and cooled with compressed air. the gaps between the tacks are then welded up (and then cooled with compressed air again).
once its all welded up and the clamps removed, you should have a nice straight inner sill ready to weld a new edge of the floorpan and outer sill to.