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Non-availability of new sills

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stevejohnson

New member
My 89 944T has rusty sills - the rust come back after being repaired 3 yrs ago. Its been sat for 6 months in the body shop waiting for the new sills on order from Porsche to arrive. The drivers side arrived 6 weeks ago. The bodyshop phoned me to say they had been phoned by the supplier saying Porsche are no longer making any sills and have no plans to make any in the future and my passenger side sill won't be coming.
Presumably there are lots of 944's with rusty sills in a similar predicament. The bodyshop said they will attempt a repair but I've been down that road.......
Anyone know where I can get a passenger side sill from?

Thanks
 
I'd check with Porsche-shop, I can't see 944 outer sills listed but they do have 924 outer sills. despite what some may say about this supplier they do plan to keep suppling parts for our cars that are no longer available from OEM. If the originals are now no longer available then Porsche shop would be the best people to talk too. Of course you could get them fabricated or adapt the 924 sills which may even be identical , I'm not sure but someone here may know of any differences between the two models.

Pete
 
Yes I can get any Porsche steel panel made via a German associate company. All we need is an existing panel to scan (we can change handedness) so if you have the driver side sill we can scan it and manufacture the passenger side.

Once one has been scanned we can make just one, or any number of panels from the telemetry.

If you want take a view of their web site (the English one is a bit crap, but I'm trying to get it corrected), beauvary.com

If tell them I sent you you should get a discount.

Gerry
 
I have the same problem. I have a drivers side sill ready to go on my car but it could be scanned before I fit it. These sills are very complicated I asked our local specialist body shop if they could make one, they said it would be very very expensive to do so.

Please let me know if it makes sense to scan my sill.

David Douglas
 
I have emailed beauvary.com and asked for a qupte.

How many other people on here need a 944 sill?

Please let me know.

Dave
 
There will always be a demand for sills, so long as they are as good as original. The problem with the pattern parts that have been available until now is that the take so much fiddling with by the fitter that they end up costing more than the Porsche parts.

What there won't be is a one-off demand, for something like a group buy. People need them when the car is in the shop, not sitting in a garage on the offchance. I was talking to a specialist yesterday who's looking at making them, as they are pretty simple in his opinion. He makes them himself at the moment, and isn't sure that there's enough money in it as they are simple enough to fabricate, so would have to be sold pretty cheaply. I guess that's Porsche's attitude; if they need to sell them at a higher price to make money on them then it makes less sense for people to buy them.

I think that if someone can offer something as good as original for well under £200 per side there might be a market, but lower quality or a much higher price and they won't sell. If you look at the Clubautosport panels, £45 plus vat, it's really not a complicated part for the bodyshop to fabricate.
 
Jens at beauvary.com replied to my email asking for photos before he can quote.
I am on holiday right now so will do that next week.
 
Hi Paul,

I bought a pair of repair panels from a seller on ebay but returned them as they were no where near the right profile - not even close.

What I an talking about is a full sill not just a repair panel - this may be unnecessary in many cases.

I would be very surprised if any one described the replication of a full sill as simple.
 
The replacement OE sills were not much use, I never bothered with them as they had a foot missing from the rear. This was due to the out dated panel arrangement for the 944 shell. Today the sill, A-post, pillar, roof rail, Rear quarter - would all be one piece, laser welded from multi thickness blanks. Back then it was a jigsaw. (with 5mm panel gaps[8|])

Of course you could get a replacement rear quarter and remove the missing bit of sill, but at £600+ a side that works out pricey.

Gerry, can you get a full length sill, where the join is horizontally along the quarter? I would put a pair of those on the shelf.

George
944t
 
Just been looking on Tipec, apparently there is a par of genuine sills for sale on eBay.
Sorry can't post link as I am on holiday using iPad
 
What I an talking about is a full sill not just a repair panel - this may be unnecessary in many cases.

I would be very surprised if any one described the replication of a full sill as simple.
Click to expand...

I'm no expert, but there does seem to be a huge difference between the repair sills, as in the club autosport parts or the numerous ebay items, and the pics of the OEM parts I've linked to. I've not seen the OEM parts, just the repair-type versions I've always recommended avoiding. [8|]

The guy who may be dealing with mine is an old-school bodywork restorer. He seems to love either older cars that you can't get bits for, or the less-loved cars that aren't financially viable. His workshop has everything from an Aston V8 Vantage, to an Imp. A Mk5 Cortina, a Viva, all sorts of stuff. To him, they are all just cars made from metal, and he can find a way to repair them. I suppose that he's looking at mine needing less than a complete sill section on both sides, and he'd rather fabricate what's needed than cut out sound sections to fit a whole sill. He's done 944s before, he certainly knew exactly where to look on mine, and he considers them a pretty simple car to work on. Of course, that's based on me being prepared to pay for a proper job, not a £50 bodge to get it through the MOT. He's allowing a day per side for the sills, which I guess will work out near enough on a par with buying new ones and having them fitted.
 
ORIGINAL: George Elliott

The replacement OE sills were not much use, I never bothered with them as they had a foot missing from the rear. This was due to the out dated panel arrangement for the 944 shell. Today the sill, A-post, pillar, roof rail, Rear quarter - would all be one piece, laser welded from multi thickness blanks. Back then it was a jigsaw. (with 5mm panel gaps[8|])

Of course you could get a replacement rear quarter and remove the missing bit of sill, but at £600+ a side that works out pricey.

Gerry, can you get a full length sill, where the join is horizontally along the quarter? I would put a pair of those on the shelf.

George
944t
Click to expand...


Hi George,

Am I right in reading the original replacement sills are not complete 2 simply remove old and replace? And would still require some on site fabricating ?

Steve, did you rust protect the new sills when replaced 3 years ago? I'm assuming they rusted from the inside out? Is it just visual rust on the inside or has it came though? Mot fail e.c.t

Just wondering if it's worth having the sills made from a thicker or better grade off metal. In attemp 2 increase life?

 
check out the pics on the ebay link above they are proper full sills.

It's a bit of a pain to remove the whole sill as you really need to take the door off to do so. This involves removing the plugs to the door harness which Porsche buried deep in the footwell. Once you've done that the sill goes on in one piece. You may have to fix up the middle sill panel too.

The repair panels I have seen do not have the drain holes that Porsche put in the original sills so I guess they won't last long.
 
Surely its not hard to drill some drain holes and fill the sill with anti rust on fitting is it ?

If that's done why would they not last donkeys years

Mas
 
All the repair sills available are crap. They are like a cover sill as the return on the bottom of the sill that attaches to the stiffener and floor pan is not there so the part that does corrode is the part that you do not get. The original sills have a very slight radius that the copies don't have. I am sure the sills will be available again at somepoint soon, I am glad i have stashed a couple of sets! You also don't need to remove the sill to change them, ou need to take the front wing off though which is never a bad thing anyway.
Alasdair
 
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