Rotten Wood

[Offshore]

Hi Guys

The passenger side sill rail has come completely off my 1970 Traveller this afternoon whilst I was doing some maintenance.

I know I can get a replacement piece.

Two questions:

How is the new wood sill rail attached - the old one has the remains of long thin rusty nails in it. Surrounding timber appears sound.

Is the car driveable or do I wait till she's fixed?

Cheers.

[simmitc]

Originally there would have been screws from the bottom of the B-post wooden upright going backwards into the rail. You can get to them only by removing the whole frame as the heads will be facing the metal B-post. Same arrangement in reverse from the bottom of the front of the wheel arch into the rail; the only thing is that you can at least reach those screws when the wing is off.

It might be worth asking Woodies for advice on replacing that component in-situ. As to whether you can drive safely without the rail will depend upon how sound the surrounding metal and the rest of the wood is.

[bmcecosse]

That's a very important structural part of the Traveller body - from your 'nails' description it seems it has been bodged on there sometime in the past. Hard to imagine if it is that bad, that there won't be other problems in that area. Take it down to your Minor 'expert' garage owner - but the real repair will involve a lot of work and removal of that side, and as above - probably some welding.