Welding BX Cills

djc1960 · Unread post by **djc1960** » 20 Aug 2005, 13:17

I have a BX 19TD which failed MOT due to a couple of rust holes in the cills (near to the mid and rear seatbelt anchors) and was going to scrap it but I've done a reasonable amount of welding in the past (but never on cars) and wondered if it was worth having a go at it.
When plating over rust holes do I just cut away the worst of the rust, bash the edges down and weld on a patch? Body panels appear to be a lot thinner than I've welded before, am I likely to blow holes in it with the welder? Any suggestions on how to coat the inside of the patches to stop them rusting out again?
Should I just stick to my original plan and scrap it?
Any advice appreciated

Unread post by **Peter.N.** » 20 Aug 2005, 13:43

I have never seen holes in BX sills before, yours must be almost unique! I have seen a couple where the front door hinges have become detached, but, to your question. Yes, the metal is very thin and I find great difficulty in welding it without burning holes in it, but then I am not a skilled mechanic. If you can find a friendly garage with a good quality welder that might be the best option, because not only the skill of the operator but the type of machine. The output voltage of cheap home welders is to low to maintain an arc at very low currents. I have watched the chap in my local garage do it with great admiration. If you can get it repaired the best way to stop it rusting again is to flood the inside of the sills with oil or some proprietry anti rust fluid.

tomsheppard · Unread post by **tomsheppard** » 20 Aug 2005, 13:44

Welding cars is a matter of cutting all the old rust out and letting in new metal. If you can't do it yourself then pay somebody else. If you are using a MIG, I'd advise .8mm wire. If you want to scrap it, talk to the BX club who can recycle it instead. Protecting the new metal is done by spraying cavity wax ("Waxoyl") into the repaired section. Normally, I would counsel you to get it fixed but with BXs being cheap and plentiful at the moment, it may not seem worthwhile

dnsey · Unread post by **dnsey** » 20 Aug 2005, 16:26

I had a sill patched up by a local specialist a couple of years ago, and it only cost £20.00. He made a nice tidy job of it too! Phone around[:)]

bxbodger · Unread post by **bxbodger** » 21 Aug 2005, 04:05

Needing to do welded repairs to sills used to be common many years ago, but are rare now!!!
Its VERY unusual for a BX sill to need repair, and what you do depends on how much the car is worth to you!! A seam welded patch repair is perfectly acceptable for the MOT-all you need to do is bring the panel back to its original strength, but a patch will be quite hard to do, as it always has been.............
To avoid blowing holes,pick a wind-free day, go back to VERY clean metal, preferably using an angle grinder mounted wire brush,set your mig to medium power, pretty quick wire feed speed, and move your torch as quickly as you can, while getting a good weld: its easier said than done!!!
I can do it pretty well now, but then I had a few Marina's, and consequently lots of practice......
Afterwards you can pull out the plastic plugs at the end of the sill inside the arch, and use a long probe to spray waxoyl or similar inside.
You may need to do a bit of research to find out why it rusted, though, to prevent it happening again-has there been previous accident damage there??

vanny · Unread post by **vanny** » 21 Aug 2005, 16:13

am i right in thinking that you'll need to be pretty close with the nozzle while moxing quickly to get that little gas bubble to stay as big as possible and stop it blobing?
Went on a welding cause at the begining of summer but as i dont have a welder, the info is all falling out of my ears!

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 22 Aug 2005, 00:46

if you can weld a 2cv you can weld anything,BX metal is at least twice as thick as 2cv,if you can weld properly you should be able to weld anything if you have got a resonable mig welder
regards malcolm

bxbodger · Unread post by **bxbodger** » 22 Aug 2005, 01:04

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">am i right in thinking that you'll need to be pretty close with the nozzle while moxing quickly to get that little gas bubble to stay as big as possible and stop it blobing?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Correct Vanny- migs are not the best of things for dealing with thin car steel, oxy is better as its more controlable, but migs are good all rounders and all most of us can afford!!!
For them to be used sucsesfully on a car body they need to be kept moving pretty quickly because as soon as you slow down they start to blow holes in the panel,,,[:(]
To have any chance of a good clean weld the steel has to be really clean and shiny, but of course in the real world its always the bits that are hardest to get to that need welding[:(!]
On a domestic mig the gas is not particularly high pressure and the wind can blow it clear of the weld, so you need to keep the shroud about 1cm from the weld at most.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">BX metal is at least twice as thick as 2cv<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Are 2CV's made out of bacofoil, then???[:D]

djc1960 · Unread post by **djc1960** » 22 Aug 2005, 01:38

Many thanks for all the info guys but I've decided to retire it in favour of something newer. Just don't have the time for fixing cars right now.
It was a great car though, had it five years with very little trouble and apart from a couple of holes in the cill and a rear wheel bearing it's probably got a lot of life in it. No problems anywhere else that I can see.
Just brought a V plate Xsara 2.0HDI as a replacement, was looking for another TD Xantia as I have one of those as well but the Xsara seemed like a good deal.

Stinkwheel · Unread post by **Stinkwheel** » 22 Aug 2005, 01:52

Does that mean the BX TD is for sale?
Where abouts are you? What age is it?
Thanks

djc1960 · Unread post by **djc1960** » 22 Aug 2005, 03:55

BX is indeed for sale in the for sale forum. Price is probably a bit flexible as it'll probably have to go to the breakers otherwise and I'd sooner see it go to a good home
Details as follows:-
Citroen bx 1.8td Hurricane, J reg 1992, 146,000 miles. Clean and reliable, used daily around town. Recently re-plumbed. Needs a little welding on one cill and a new rear wheel bearing for MOT, otherwise great. Unfortunately I don't have the time or inclination to fix it and need to get something newer.
£200 ono
Located in southern Hampshire