Sill tin worm

[c.morewood]

Having succumbed to the infamous tin worm in the rear sill area .. the MOT tester was extremely thorough and must have used a crowbar or similar to poke holes in the sill .. I'd like to ask the members who have had their sills repaired and have done it themselves if there's anything I should do before welding the new sill in place. Leaving drain holes, treating with waxoil etc.

[Timmo]

I'd certainly waxoil the inside prior to fitting to help prevent future issue's, if your patching then a thorough Spray of waxoil in through the hole would be what I would doo,

[qprdude]

Not sure on this one, but I'd tend to do any welding before putting wax oil in the sill. Drill holes, spray in the oil then fit grommets would be my method.

[Old-Guy]

Not sure on this one, but I'd tend to do any welding before putting wax oil in the sill. Drill holes, spray in the oil then fit grommets would be my method.

Definitely! Otherwise welding will at best be a nasty smelly job and at worst the car will go up in flames as the remaining solvent flashes off!

[citronut]

i third the wax oiling after welding,

if done before the heat from the welding will cause the wax oil to melt and run down into the area you are trying to weld, thus you will just get popping, banging and spluttering instead of a good clean weld,

also as mentioned above wax oil will catch light

[Timmo]

Best not do it before then!

[c.morewood]

Thanks for the advice.. I'll be drilling a hole in the repaired sill and spraying waxoil into the void and then fill the hole with a rubber bung.. might even do the same in the front sills.

[qprdude]

Chris, make sure you get the oil into the weld area, because that will be the first bit to oxidize again. Presume you'll be dressing off the weld and priming. A decent anti-rust primer would help as again, the weld area on the outside will be the first to get attacked.

[c.morewood]

Yes Rick, There's a guy round the corner going to do the welding next week. He removed one of the rear towing brackets last year and made a splendid job of it .. so I'm going to trust him to do the sills. He'll grind down the excess weld and prime it for me. Don't know if i'll find the matching paint .. I'm hacked off that the plastic, or whatever cover underneath the paint and covering the sill, was broken.. I'd have preferred to peel it back from the rear and then re glue it back into place after the welding... it'll look a right mess now the tester has poked his way through with a crowbar.. I believe he's not allowed to do that , talking to people in the know, testers are only alowed to use a very small hammer to tap the area. He's lost a lot of business this year since the garage was taken over.
I believe it was AllanMc who said the when he did his sills, he filled them with old engine oil and let it slosh about for a bit before removing the excess.. I always thought that was a good idea and only needed one hole to put the oil in and drain the excess through. Maybe I'll try the council testing station in Inverurie next year.

[qprdude]

Hope you get it sorted Chris. I fell out with the local garage that I have used for years. Last time the MOT was due on the wife's Renault Clio, I took it to Diack's garage, up the back of the Thainstone Mart.
Seemed OK . No problem with the test , they didn't try to add anything, and no advisories.

[c.morewood]

Welding all done and painted (in stonechip black for now).. tomorrow is the lower ball joint the cv gaiter.. although I'm thinking of just patching it as it's a very small hole.. and the inner and outer tie rods
Having never attempted any of these before, except the outer tie rod end, I'd appreciate any shortcuts.

[c.morewood]

What a pain the inner tie rod was ..couldn't get it loose for love nor money..just no access at all and no flat areas to put a spanner if there was access....as a last resort i too the grinder to it and cut off the rod at the ball joint which allowed me to cut a channel into the ball and surrounding metal leaving me a slot to put a chisel it to. I put a huge pair of vice grips on the flat sides of the chisel and eventually it loosened.. Don't want to do that again in a hurry. But at least I know there is a shortcut. Should have taken an hour or so.. it took almost 3 hrs.. I was having kittens about cutting with the grinder as I need the car for work this afternoon.. and I knew there was no going back once I started cutting. Phew!!!

[addo]

Have you ever seen the slip-over tools? The cheap version uses pointed grubscrews to grab on the ball socket, while the dearer type has self-biting cams that grab on soundly. See the Laser 4765 for an idea. I'm sure you could use it once and re-sell for $30.

[c.morewood]

I had thought about making up a similar tool addo, with a piece of tubing and stuffing a wedge of wood or similar to give it grip, but time was not on my side and I had to have the car ready for the afternoon shift..
Interestingly enough, looking at the MOT failure sheet, almost all the failures are for the offside.. but the offside CV gaiter is perfect, its the nearside which has a tiny hole in it..
I wonder if he's confused the ofside and nearside? So I'm going to leave the offside gaiter alone and repair the nick in the nearside one.
Now for the retest, surely he's only allowed to look at the offside parts that failed, not the nearside and can't fail me on the nearside can he?

[qprdude]

Chris, I think it's just a check of the failed items if you are within 10 days of the fail date, otherwise it can be a full re test. Be interested to know where you got it tested mate.