Floor and Cills
I was expecting the usual here...step cill, outer and a bit of inner / floor repair. well, thats what I pretty much got. This is the N/S first.
First I brace the door gap. After once fitting cills on a Triumph spitfire to find the door gap had moved 5mm I now brace the doors if I'm ever in doubt (I fixed the 5mm gap on the spitfire by the way). You can use any scrap steel you can find, just weld it in. I cut the rotten part of the step (top) out first, then make the repair panel fit the gap. Note I don't always use all of the repair panels, just the bits I need in this case.
Once the step is out you can see the extent of the rot, note the outer cill has fell off in this picture also.
I always try to keep a reference point that ensures I don't go "wonky". Thats why I weld the step cill in straight away. After that I cut out the rot on the inner cill and the floor. If your not sure, just cut it out. It's false economy to patch up thin steel, it'll just rot through in 18-months.There was a small patch on the outer side of the floor from some previous work. I removed it and thats why you see the inner wing / bottom of the fitch panel has been renewed also (where your left foot toes would kick if you sat in the passenger seat).
Once the panels are made up, you obviously just weld them in. (ignore the pigeon shit weld on the pic below, I ran out of gas and just tacked it for the night.)
Thats pretty much it really. The other side is just the same, if a little better. Remember to remove the door brace, It'll just piss of the passengers otherwise....
Heres it done with the bitumen mats replaced and a bit of shults and primer.
Now for the O/S (Drivers side)
This is pretty much the same as the other side, except the floor is more rotten at the front. I could have used a replacement floor pan here, but the shop is shut, its a bank holiday, and I have plenty steel lying about so I made a repair patch. The strip down is the same, brace the door, cut out the rot with a cutting disc, hacksaw, drill and chisel.
The o/s rear front sub frame mount was shot. Yet rather bizzarly the actual mount was brand new. Some plank had replaced all the mounts but fitted one to a completely rotten shell.
Essentially, I had the car up on two wheels with the cills removed, so I didn't want to be leaving it for long with one sub frame mount attached...particuarly as the engine was still in, but the front panels were all removed. Thats why I welded in the repair plates with the rot still around the floor. I fixed the sub frame mount, bolted it back up, then cut out the rot in the floor so I still had a structure intact.
Now, I had to make a decision here...do I patch the inner wing on teh o/s or do I just buy a replacement panel? Not sure yet so I'll not weld the cills to the front. A patch was needed in the base of the rear pucket / bin, the seatbelt mount was fine, so I just cut out the rot and repaired the gaping holes I left, same with the front inner cill.
The outer was fitted without any grief. Once the paint is dry I can sound proof it.
Cills and floor done!