Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello all, I am new here. I am restoring a Minor for the first time. There was extensive badly-repaired rot to the side floor, sills and boxing plate. I have bought inner and outer sills and boxing plate but the inner sill step was substantially ok and I shrank from removing it. I intend to repair it to the new sill floor sections with angled sheet. Cutting and cleaning has been done and I am preparing to weld the new pieces. My problem is that when I clamp the sills in place with the outer sill aligned horizontally with the boxing plate, the outer sill rear edge comes below the level of the lower edge of the rear wing. See photograph(if it's here, I don't see it). Also there is a v-shaped gap between the inner rear sill and the outer sill. I can bridge this with an insert but the alignment is more of a problem. It may be relevant that I was unable to get all the parts from one supplier. Some bits are Hadrian, others not. I can force the outer sill into place but I suspect it should be flat. Is a step between it and the inner sills acceptable? Any thoughts would be welcome.

Welcome Luvvaminor, no photo. When you "browse" for the photo, click on the "preview" button and that will upload the picture, then go back to the non-preview pane to complete text input. You need to do this for every picture you wish to add.
George.

Many thanks...I'll try again...

And again...
When I click preview it appears that the pic is uploading. Then the "browse" box is empty when I submit. I apologise - I know it's me doing something wrong.[frame][/frame]

OK, it was too big!

It could be that the picture is too large - check the size 700 to 900 Kb should be OK. If larger than this, then try resizing.
George.

Additional: After posting the above reply, and the system returning me to the post, your picture has appeared - now to study it.

Well, what do you reckon, George? Is the car a corkscrew, beyond hope or am I worrying too much?
Regards, Colin

Hi Colin,
its kind of hard to tell, but there is a bit of a height difference between the 2 bits normally. The main strength comes from the boxing panel being welded to the inner sill, the outer sill is really just a bit to fill the gap and bolt the sill finisher to.

If you have a look at this resto on the second page it shows a view of the sill welded on from the rear of the car, this might help.
http://mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=47814&start=15

The 3rd page in on this one of mine shows a couple of sill shots as well

http://mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=37587&start=30

Thanks David. Your restorarion makes my job look trivial! The part I was concerned about was where the rear of the outer sill comes below the bottom of the rear wing which I left in place as a horizontal reference. At this point the sill edge does have to fit to the lower edge of the sde panel (cut away at present). I guess what you are saying is, if I can make that area look right, that's good enough, assuming all is ok with the boxing plate and step area?

I think I see what you mean now, the outer sill is too low and needs to line up with the 1/4 panel repair when you fit it. If your happy with the inner sill and boxing plate alignment weld it up and then line up your 1/4 panle repair bit as this is the outer visible bit, when your happy with it and you may need the door back on for that, adapt the edges of the outer sill panel to suit. You may just need to bend the edges out a bit along the edge of the inner sill to make the front bit lift up a little.

When your happy with the 1/4 panel fit, drill it and use a couple of self tappers to hold in place and it can also be easily removed if you want to get at the inside as this is the last bit you want to weld on fully.

Thanks very much for that. I'll post how it goes but don't hold your breath - I'm a slow worker, mainly due to inexperience. At least you have reduced my fear that "cross-beam were out o' skew wit' treadle".

Yes You are having the same trouble that many have ,now, All of the panels are a poor fit,you just have to cut and push them into the right place. Ie just make them fit.

kennatt wrote:Yes You are having the same trouble that many have ,now, All of the panels are a poor fit,you just have to cut and push them into the right place. Ie just make them fit.

Totally agree with that - almost everything seems to be an approximation as far as replacement panels are concerned but at least you know there will be no rust left.

I think that the new part that you are fitting needs to be bent up at the rear and the bend should go where there is a notch visible in the vertical part. It should then meet up with the front of the rear wing and the rest of the chassis. To confirm this you either need to look at the sill on the other side of the car (unless you have already cut it off) or look at another car.