Pretty bodged Rapid

[daverapid]

At the barn at the moment is a Rapid that has been recently restored at considerable expense. It then came to me for a few small jobs and an MOT test. To my horror [and obviously the customers even bigger horror] I had to issue a fail certificate for excessive corrosion. It's a proper eye opener as the Rapid looks rather nice, the paint is shiny, the seats retrimmed ect.

 

Just one example of the extremely poor quality, bodged "repairs" is the fact that the new sills have been fitted over the top of the rotten originals, see photos below:

 

 

I don't claim to be perfect, but this really is terrible!

[RedSparrow]

[stuboy]

back to the restorer

[M'coli]

Just how is that supposed to be restored? Charlatans!

[Morgan84]

Cutting off the bad sills is the correct method agreed,but if suitable anti-corrosion treatment had been injected into the vehicle,and the cover sills welded properly with a continuos seam weld,and lower seam spot welded as to original speciforcation,surely the cars not going to drop to pieces ? I know its still carrying a load of rot inside,and they should have been removed,but if that car had sill skirts fitted,without close examination,many would never have twigged.

 

Just goes to show what tripe there is on the roads

[AeroNautiCal]

Looks to have been 'fitted' with the row of self tapping screws visible along the sill.

[messerschmitt owner]

Looks to have been 'fitted' with the row of self tapping screws visible along the sill.

that's for the trim that goes along there, hence the black watermark all the way along

[nigel bickle]

Standard Practice back in the 80's. Looks a bit more 'recent' that that -though.

 

Hope it wasnt an 'expensive' restoration?

[triumph1300]

Looks just like my triumph did. Not nice, I feel for the guy whose Skoda that is...

[jonny69]

Standard Practice back in the 80's. Looks a bit more 'recent' that that -though.

 

Hope it wasnt an 'expensive' restoration?

I'd say standard practice up until quite recently. In my opinion, it's only really the internet that has educated people not to do it this way. The only other thing with the pictures above is I can't see anything holding the bottom of the sill on. There's no visible evidence suggesting that bottom seam is welded on in any way.

[HillmanImp]

In my experience that it standard practice. Nearly every car I have seen that has had replacement sills has simply had them stuck over the old ones.

 

Okay, you would not be happy but suppose its how much you paid for it. If there is still some strength in the old sills, by simply covering over the old ones you are saving a lot of work potentially bracing the door etc whislt you cut out the old ones etc. If you went for the cheapest option then this is what you will get.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

When i worked at a garage back in the day I got a mild bollocking for chopping the old sills off someones shit old Mk2 fiesta before glueing new ones on, they just wanted it MOT'd not a fuggin restoration and as far as my boss was concerned i had wasted loads of time (he was right).

[daverapid]

The owner paid a lot of money restoring the car...he won't tell me the amount as I think he's embarrassed, but I know it's well into 4 figures. I didn't fail the car on the sills, but I failed a lot of the underneath for corrosion. There had been patches "welded" on underneath...some of which I pulled off with only my fingers!

[Morgan84]

Sounds like it was a pretty rough old motor then;maybe it wasn't really worth repairing,and was more of a donor vehicle

[Albert Ross]

The major reason for removing the old panel is this. If you spot weld the new replacement (permitted under certain circumstances to be revealed) sill to the sill return (Bottom flange) without first removing the offending corroded panel, i.e. leave it in a sandwich, then you run the risk of it dropping off due to lack of penetration. The correct method is to remove the complete old panel, spot weld the whole perimeter, and then go round seam welding every mating point, where it would originally been one panel. (Such as the tops of sills) Spot welds are perfectly ok, as long as the original construction method is replicated, obviously removing the rot first. Just don't do what the "nugget/flange" did above....

[M'coli]

Sounds like it was a pretty rough old motor then;maybe it wasn't really worth repairing,and was more of a donor vehicle

Perhaps it wasn't a "rough old motor", but the welded patches weren't welded on sufficiently? Sounds like poor workmanship more than the car being an absolute dog.

[daverapid]

[daverapid]

[Morgan84]

Are the Estelle and Rapid prone to much corrosion in general ?

[Des]

Back in the (pre seam welding MOT requirement) day, pattern sills were shaped to fit over existing, in fact, for an exotic motor such as a Datsun Bluebird where pattern sills were unavailable, an original part would give the welder a hard time in getting it to fit over the original. In those dark ages of tack welded patches, 99.9% of welding wasn't a repair as such, more a means of preventing the tester from witnessing the rot. There used to be a guy locally who earned a cash in hand living just patching old chod, he drove an old Lada with oxy acetaline in the back. I once watched him tack on a sill using a spoon from the cafe, and before smearing with the cheap gritty underseal he watered down with petrol from the customers car, he tidied up the join with filler mixed in his bare hands.

[Morgan84]

We bought a car which had about 6 layers of sill panels !! Chopped the lot off and started again

[HBR]

Yeah when I started 20 years ago that's how it was done, removing the old sill just wasn't heard of for run of the mill cars & it was a regular thing to do for the MOT. For long enough I really didn't know it would be done any other way! The welding a seam right round thing I think was to account for poor welding, if you're welding is good then 50-50 stitching would be as strong as the original.

Now I cant remember the last time I welded a car for the MOT!