New sills before body removal, or after?

[SimonH]

I removed mine with it up on axle stands and the door still in.

Not that there was much left compared to the new Spyder ones!

They opened and closed as well after as before.

[Sea Ranch]

Regarding the sag of the outer skin of fiberglass in the middle below the door . . .

This is factory. The floor pan is straight and flat. The outer sill (rocker here in North Amercia) is curved, front to back. It does not come down as low as the floorpan fiberglass, front or back.

First pic below shows the curve of the lower edge of sill, front to back, second pic shows the front end of the left sill and how the straight stainless sill peeks out below the lower edge of the fiberglass sill . . . note also that the lower edge of the door aperture is dead straight.

Hope that helps . . .

Randy

[NedK]

Hi

Thanks to all, as always. Definitely very reassuring! More questions though... sorry..

So far, I've only bolted up the inside plates temporarily, and put the car back on its wheels. I need to do some fibreglass repairs inside around the old holes to make good.

The net effect of a straight sill and 'sagging' outer sill is that the s/s sill is visibly protruding front and back, but disappears in the middle.

The door doesn't look any different throughout, in terms of shut lines. I'm no expert at this (or anything really), but I can live with the door if it looks like this and opens without scoring paint off the bodywork. About 1/3 of the way back from the front edge, the bottom of the door has a pronounced bow out beyond the edge of the outer skin. No idea how to fix this, if at all possible. (You can see it above the rearmost of the three white paint chips in the black paint under the door.)

When the bolts go in along the sill bottom, I think that the shape could be modified slightly, as at the moment the outer skin is slightly springing away (leaving about 5-10 mm gap).

Q: a guy at Spyder told me on the phone that he recommends glassing over the inner plates, on the grounds that you shouldn't ever have to remove them again and it offer some protection. Mine are stainless, so I'm not sure about this. Anyone done it? Pros and cons?

For the finish on the sill bottoms, I can't grind away the metal, as there spot welds along that bottom edge holding the sill together. I am considering - once everything fits and all lower bolts are in - bonding the outer and inner with fibreglass, across the join, and building up/filling any gaps.
Q:Has anyone done this? I've not seen it mentioned...

Also, it's clear that regardless of closing plates, the big holes around the jacking points were obvious places to let water in. The shape is a bit complex, but I think a rubber grommet should work to cover each one up. It would have to be a funny shape though. I'd quite like to keep all the crap out of the sill, regardless of my shiny new stainless sills!

Now onto the other side. It took several hours of patient grinding to get this one out. Hopefully the next will be quicker.

[SimonH]

My sills also are slightly lower at the ends. Minimised by jacking them up gently when fixing. I can't grind them as they are galvanized, bad enough drilling for bolts but plenty of sealant used there. I'm just going to paint them when doing the sills and not worry about it.

[KevJ+2]

Yep, same as Simon, (and Randy's by the look of them) so quite normal.
Surprised to read what Spyder's said. I wouldn't 't think any further glassing is necessary after everything is bolted up.
The door bow could be a poor repair to the door (or the sill).
Maybe a couple of small holes drilled at the very bottom would let any water out, but with stainless sills, I wouldn't worry.

[Sea Ranch]

Ned,

I ground off all protuding stainless from my SJ sills. They're thoroughly bolted together along the sill line.

I resisted the temptation to jack in the middle to straighten the bottom edge as it's not supposed to be straight. The lower door aperture is supposed to be straight. The lower edge of the sill is made with a curve; it's part of the car's body lines.

I personally would never glass over the three attachment plates inside. Totally unnecessary in my humble opinion. And I would never glass over the lower edge. Again, totally unnecessary. That's the beauty of the SJ stainless sill members. They're high quality (non-magnetic) stainless. I want water to flow out the bottom edge, if and when it gets in, so it doesn't damage the fiberglass. The factory left the jacking point holes open, and this exacerbated the rust problem. Now you can leave them open and not worry 'cause you have stainless sill members

I will thoroughly seal the closing plates in the wheel wells, because I want to keep dirt out. But bottom line is that when my car (and yours) are finally on the wrecking pile, the stainless sills will still be looking like new. No extra fiberglassing, no extra silicone sealant, etc. necessary. Nor desired, IMHO.

Just make sure you like how your doors fit before drilling those holes and bolting up.

[EPC 394J]

Also, it's clear that regardless of closing plates, the big holes around the jacking points were obvious places to let water in. The shape is a bit complex, but I think a rubber grommet should work to cover each one up. It would have to be a funny shape though. I'd quite like to keep all the crap out of the sill, regardless of my shiny new stainless sills!

I've used Rover P6 rubber jacking plugs in my Plus 2. They are available on eBay, and certainly tidy things up. I thought I read here they were used originally?