Replacing BMW E30 Cills

[catceefer]

The cills on my son's BMW E30 have a few holes in them. Rather than patching the holes, he has bought some new cills. Is there any reason not to just cut out the rotten areas and then weld the new cills over the top of the orignals? This is what I did back in the 80s with my old Austin A40, but am not sure whether it still acceptable for the MOT.

I would rather not have to chop off the old cills altogether if possible.

Regards,

James.

 

[marlinspike]

If he intends keeping the car it would be much better to remove the sills. There is a site called tonybmw.co.uk by a guy who does great car restorations and metalwork. There are some good photos that might help with sorting out the sills.

 

[catceefer]

Thank you for the link. I shall have a look.

Regards,

JAmes.

 

[jimmyspeed]

definetly don't just weld over the top, it just creates a void which you can't paint well and will trap water, overlapping areas that were spot welded at the factory harbour enough rust on the e30 as it is.

Im restoring an e30 and for rust removal i started by using the deox gels (bolt hammer) which work okay, but i can't recommend highly enough a sandblaster to do the job properly.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

^^ Deox is by Bilt Hamber, just in case anyone tries to Google it for suppliers. Great products they produce too.

 

[jimmyspeed]

lol, the spell check got me !

 

[catceefer]

Thank you for the replies. He does intend to keep the car some time, and I do agree that there are enough in-built rust traps in the car as it is, without adding any more. I will get the old cills off and use an off-set tool so that I can out a step on the old cill and place the new one onto a ledge on the old one, rather than trying to line up and butt weld the two. I can then grind the welds flat and use a smear of filler to ensure that there are no pin holes for water to find.

I have looked at that deox rust treatment and it looks most impressive. Thank you for the suggestion.

Regards,

James.

 

[BrokenBiker]

i cut the rot out as neatly and as squarely as possible then cut the new panel to fit with a half mm gap around each edge, hold it in with a few magnets and get a lot if tacks on it, start with the corners then get a tack every inch or so. Then just join the dots, leaving good time to cool every now and then, backstep welding is also a good method

 

[lshigham]

If it's just a couple of holes I'd cut them out square and use the sills to make a repair panel, no point in removing good metal

 

[seanc]

Personally id take the time to do the whole sill. If you have holes aleady you can guarantee that more rust has set in behind the panel. You could end up having to patch more holes up in 6 months time

 

[catceefer]

I do intend to remove the old cills. So much rust has appeared behind things elsewhere on the car that I cannot imagine that the inside of the cill will be any different, especially as the inner cills have rotted out from the inside as well.

The new cills arrived yesterday and they turned out to be full cills, not covers, making the job easier as the join will be covered by the door seal rubber.

Regards,

James.

 

[catceefer]

I do intend to remove the old cills. So much rust has appeared behind things elsewhere on the car that I cannot imagine that the inside of the cill will be any different, especially as the inner cills have rotted out from the inside as well.

The new cills arrived yesterday and they turned out to be full cills, not covers, making the job easier as the join will be covered by the door seal rubber.

Regards,

James.

 

[Cobbler]

I have an E30 tow bar sat in the garage, brand new from Towsure. You don't say where your from, but if your in the south somewhere PM me if your interested. It belongs to my son & I know he wants to get rid of it, the E30 is long gone.