Removing sills 1986 350i
Discussion
Mine are riveted on. You gotta be careful drilling the rivets out so as not to heat up the GRP , which will make the fixing holes too big for new rivets to work. Had to do this on the old FHC to replace the seatbelt anchor bolts.
Oh, and Waxoil is incompatible with hammerite, incase you were thiking of using that combination, says so on the tin sir...
My 1986 sills seem to be filled with foam around the outriggers, so you may have fun chipping this off too. Not sure if was 'standard' foam though.
Oh, and Waxoil is incompatible with hammerite, incase you were thiking of using that combination, says so on the tin sir...
My 1986 sills seem to be filled with foam around the outriggers, so you may have fun chipping this off too. Not sure if was 'standard' foam though.
A variety of methods were used for securing the sills; it partly depends on what model, what the guys had to hand and how much of a hurry they were in 
Generally, there is a row of pop rivets just below the door opening. These are sometimes replaced with short self-tappers, usually you find the sharp ends when rummaging down the side of the seat for lost coins etc.
There are sometimes a few moe pops underneath the car, retaining the sill to the floorpan. The sill may be rivetted directly to the floor, or there may be bent bits of alloy - sorry, locating brackets - tieing the sill in place.
On my Series 1, there were several long self-tappers that were driven through the shell and into the sill from INSIDE the car: you had to peel back the carpet along the inside of the footwell, forward of the door, to find them. They were rusted to hell. Also there were a couple more behind the seats, near the selbelt reels - needing the trim panels removing.
By the time my '87 car was built, they were using short lengths of studding, tack-welded to a plate that was pop-rivetted to the sill top (so with the sill off the car, it would have two lengths of thread sticking out the top, one near the front wheelarch and the other just in front of the rear wheelarch). The studs passed through holes in the shell; large washers and nyloc nuts held the sill to the shell. On my 390 these studs had rusted solid. I had to use a mini grinder to cut them, get the sill off and make some new studs up using stainless bolts cut down.
Finally: sealant. Usually the joint below the door (with the line of pop rivets) has a line of sealant between sill and shell. There's often a load at each end of the sill to complete the sill to wheelarch joint and stop crud travelling along the sill top.
On my Tasmin there were also two large dollops of some very tough, rubbery mastic, one in front and one behind the door. I had to slide a wallpaper scraper into the gap to slice through the mastic. No idea what it was, but it was a bu99er to remove!
Depending on whether/ how many times your sills have been off, you may have any of the above, plus whatever other devious means may have been applied, to overcome...
Generally, there is a row of pop rivets just below the door opening. These are sometimes replaced with short self-tappers, usually you find the sharp ends when rummaging down the side of the seat for lost coins etc.
There are sometimes a few moe pops underneath the car, retaining the sill to the floorpan. The sill may be rivetted directly to the floor, or there may be bent bits of alloy - sorry, locating brackets - tieing the sill in place.
On my Series 1, there were several long self-tappers that were driven through the shell and into the sill from INSIDE the car: you had to peel back the carpet along the inside of the footwell, forward of the door, to find them. They were rusted to hell. Also there were a couple more behind the seats, near the selbelt reels - needing the trim panels removing.
By the time my '87 car was built, they were using short lengths of studding, tack-welded to a plate that was pop-rivetted to the sill top (so with the sill off the car, it would have two lengths of thread sticking out the top, one near the front wheelarch and the other just in front of the rear wheelarch). The studs passed through holes in the shell; large washers and nyloc nuts held the sill to the shell. On my 390 these studs had rusted solid. I had to use a mini grinder to cut them, get the sill off and make some new studs up using stainless bolts cut down.
Finally: sealant. Usually the joint below the door (with the line of pop rivets) has a line of sealant between sill and shell. There's often a load at each end of the sill to complete the sill to wheelarch joint and stop crud travelling along the sill top.
On my Tasmin there were also two large dollops of some very tough, rubbery mastic, one in front and one behind the door. I had to slide a wallpaper scraper into the gap to slice through the mastic. No idea what it was, but it was a bu99er to remove!
Depending on whether/ how many times your sills have been off, you may have any of the above, plus whatever other devious means may have been applied, to overcome...
dukeenfield said:
Thanks for help,it sounds a horrible job,I had a quick look and carpet seems to be stuck to floor,so thought I would leave it to after I took it for MOT,thanks Ken.
When people wonder why I have a workshop full of equipment not found in the average garage, I just tell them I own a TVR...
Yes, the carpet probably is glued down.
You'll probably find it's not as bad as I've made it sound: both my TVRs have been high mileage examples so probably more exposure to road crud etc.
After pulling up the carpets to undo the bolts as described in the bible, I discovered that my sills were only held by the pop rivets as described by Wedgie under the rubber door seals and underneath into the folded "fixing brackets". I also had one self tapping screw that went in through the wheelarch just behind the front wheel and stopped the front end flapping about.
Overall not a bad job to do.
Overall not a bad job to do.
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