Rebuilding sills and wings for anybody interested - updated 23/07/09

[diabloam]

Been busy with work so its only now I am going to start putting two new sills onto my 86 Turbo. Couple of quick questions before I start hopefully somebody can help me.
a) Going to remove the front wings as they have a few blisters appearing, where are all the bolts holding it on (i.e the non obvious ones) and does the headlamps, bumper and front panel need to come off to get to any nad are they fairly easy to get off (have the cannell manual but they dont say much and i dont have a haynes for it)
b) I assume its safe just to cut the sill away with no worries about structure flexing or anything (door will be removed as well), given the strength of the sill is in the inner sill box section area. Am I right on this
c) can I just jack one side up and do that side with car sitting at angle (sitting on wheels on one side, or will this stress the shell to much when i have cut the sill out
d) whats everybodies recommendations for rust proofing inside once I am done

Really appreciate everybodies input on this, thanks all

 

[Frenchy]

Not too sure about most of the questions but D: Most people are singing the praises of Bilthammer products. C: I would feel more comfortable with the car on axle stands as opposed to jacking one side up at a time as they do flex and it may bugger alignment up when you drop it down on it's wheels £15 a set not worth the risk. HTH Jim

 

[944 man]

Personally Id jack and stand the car level. The tricky bolt will be found inside the trailing edge of the wheelarch.

 

[diabloam]

was looking down inside air vents on door pillar and can defo see some rot, so am worried i might have to some extra plating once sill is off. Will go for axle stands all round, although am still unsure where best to site them, whats best? Will take a squad of photos and post them up on a site or even on here. I know most people get body shops to do this type of stuff but am a decent welder (although its always been mini's and landys and MOT type plates on crappy cars, this be my first decent motor to do as it were, lol). Any further advice very welcome. Do I need to remove bumper, lights and light panel though, still unsure. Much obliged all, cheers

 

[edh]

The front bumper (PU) bolts in to the front wings - 2 (or 3) small bolts either side IIRC.

 

[944 man]

Three, through a reinforcing plate. The one that catches people out is in the wheelarch though.

 

[Neil Haughey]

Simon do you mean the one which is a bar between the wing and body of the car? you can see it at the back of the wheel arch when the liner is removed.

 

[944 man]

I do.

 

[diabloam]

well got wing off fairly easily, here is what I am facing

 

[diabloam]

wing off

 

[diabloam]

bottom of wing, worrying!

 

[diabloam]

supporting chassis at four points, axle stands on front chassis leg rear jack point and jack point in front of rear arch and have also got jack under the centre jacking point. Will this be ok, can I go ahead and cut? Advice very welcome cause dont want to screw things up

 

[diabloam]

inside of front wing before removal, hmmm! curious whats going to be waiting for me when I cut sill off

 

[944 man]

It wont bend, dont worry.

 

[diabloam]

sill rot, just hoping it aint to bad, looking in the door pillar vent its looking like I am going to just catch this in time before it is really bad, will be cutting and fishing the mig out the morrow (unless the weather is good, in which case I am going to be painting the house but given I stay in the scottish isles, be good chance it will be pissing down and I can get into the garage, lol).

 

[diabloam]

stuck camera in door pillar vent, round the back arch is just starting to go, hopefully it will be cool and I can get into it with sill off. This is drivers side, thankfully passenger side is much better and has only just started bubbling. Knew what I was getting when I bought car just over a year ago and managed to negotiate 2 grand off the asking price, so I cant moan. lol

 

[diabloam]

took pile of picture so might make up a crappy website for everybodies reference if they choose to tackle this themselves (any suggestion for a good host to put all this on). Will be back posting as I go along if anybody interested to see how I get on, this does seem to be something most 944's end up facing at some point. Mechanically the car is a gem with a great history and lowish mile (90k) and goes like a bomb. Any pointers from other users who have tackled this type of thing very welcome, thanks all!

 

[944 LIL]

Alex Search the forum for "photobucket" - set filter to 6 months and you'll find some excellent instructions on loading photos onto the forum. If you then kick off a thread - you can add new stuff to it as you go along. The pics and story will then be there for one and all - a couple of guys have done this to show how there re-builds / mods are coming along. It acts as a reference for everyone else. Good luck with the sills.

 

[Diver944]

Good work Alex [] Yes I would very much appreciate a photo diary of your work, it helps to highlight a potential problem that a lot of us will be facing, and to see how to approach it's removal. I also recommend [link=http://www.photobucket.com]www.photobucket.com[/link]

 

[tr7v8]

ORIGINAL: Frenchy Not too sure about most of the questions but D: Most people are singing the praises of Bilthammer products. C: I would feel more comfortable with the car on axle stands as opposed to jacking one side up at a time as they do flex and it may bugger alignment up when you drop it down on it's wheels £15 a set not worth the risk. HTH Jim

It's Bilt Hamber actually their products look very good & certainly win lots of tests. Website is http://www.bilthamber.com/ I've asked Peter Hamber to come to our TIPEC meet in Nov. to give us a talk.