TR6 Pictures/lessons learned on TR6 sill replacement?

Anyone have some coaching / tips / how-to and pictures of replacing the front section of your sills? The area I need to replace is in front of the door (or under the front fender).

Thanks!

I'm just in the middle of that repair - and am about to post some questions on the restoration forum. My repair is replacing the lower half of the sill the full length of the sill.

I bought new sills from TRF. Using a contour gauge I marked a line on the old and on the new. The new does not have a sharp crease where the sill sticks the furthest out from the car, so I cut the line just underneath.

I then cut and butt-welded the new piece in. Looks fantastic, except...

When I grind down the weld to be flish with the metal, there is a crack in the joint. What did I do wrong? I'm thinking either I did not get sufficient penetration of the weld through the metal, or the welded joint is brittle and I have cracket it during grinding, or ...?

I have access to the back of the sill and will weld the joint from the back if needed. But then I will have a bunch of "pockets" along the welded joint for water to collect on... I'm open to suggestions.

(Sorry no pictures until I can figure out how to download them from my Krazor phone...)

I found a great article that actually made sense on the www.detroittriumph.org site - it's in a back issue of the Triumph Review...Feb 2004. While it pertains to a full replacement (which is my cross to bear!), it's likely helpful for partial work too (guy with a welder not included).

...if you can't locate it, PM me...I think I've got it saved as a PDF somewhere.

I have done this job twice now, or four times if you count both sided, anyway done two cars, a TR4A and a TR250. They are the same as the TR6 in the sill area. Couple things I can think of some maybe obvoius, it is easy to fit them so that they are off, too low mostly, but can be to far back or forward as well, would have to work at it to get it too high, of course you want it straight with the door gap as well, so fit the other panels and make sure all the gaps are good before you fit it.

The old ones are a bit of a bear to get out, along to top and bottom seems is mostly a lot of work, I just drilled out the spot welds, then welded the holes in the existing bodywork to the undrilled new sill suface to mimic to old spot welds pretty well.

The areas by the a and b posts take a little more finess to get out without mucking up the parts they attach to. I used a cold chisel air cutter, sawzall and dremel with a cut off wheel depending on where I was and what worked/fit/did the least damage.

I did not get the old rocker out where it is sandwiched at the top of the front inner fender, but merely cut it off a half inch out or so and welded the two, it just looked like an inordinant amount of work and cutting to get it out of there.

Both cars were done the same way, except I brazed the work of the 4A I did 20 years ago, although I don't have the car, I have seen it and the work has still held up with no rust through or popping of the brazed joints.

If there was any trace of brass from an old joint"weld" you can not get a good mig weld,cracks every time.Once you have the problem you have to grind out the effected metal(now an alloy of copper and iron with 0 strength)Once removed you can fill in the area and dress it back into shape.
MD(mad dog)

Thanks for the feedback/info guys. Glemon - I think I'm headed that way on where to make the joint.

MD, I wasn't aware of the old brazing issue. makes sense and I'll have to consider that when I get ready to weld.

CMacmillian - if you get a chance to dig up that PDF I'd love to see it but don't knock yourself out over it.

Thanks.

tdskip - found the pdf, but can't for the life of me sort out how to attach a file...anyways, I pulled the url and it's still active here:

https://www.detroittriumph.org/Review/Reviews-Archive/feb2004.pdf

...I haven't done it yet, so others who have may have something to say about the process, but from the descriptions I've found, this one makes the most sense (at least to this highly unskilled-in-over-my-head owner!).

cmacmillan said:

tdskip - found the pdf, but can't for the life of me sort out how to attach a file...

Click to expand...

I believe BCF only allows image files, not PDF.