DoctorBoostalot's Mk1 Fabia VRS Sill Repair - Rust Corrosion Part One

[DoctorBoostaLot]

After doing most of the mechanical jobs on my Mk1 VRS Fabia I thought I'd have a look at the sills. Now I knew the front edge of the sills were the worst area on the car for corrosion, I just wasn't sure how bad it was going to be.

 

I started off with cleaning off all the road tar, dirt and grime that gets missed being that low down the car. So it's supposed to be that colour, right?

 

 

Er, no. That's a stack of crud mate... Some TFR squirted on here and left for 5 mins started moving this lot.

 

 

 

Some of it was a bit more stubbon than you'd think too....

With a rinse it looked a bit better! Why didn't I do this years ago?

 

 

So, how bad is the rust?

 

 

Well, it's not very nice... gawd how bad it is it I wonder?

With an angle grinder and linishing disc it was time to start investigating.

 

 

In some ways it wasn't too bad, the majority of the sill was OK, it was just the front and that was worse than I thought it would be!

 

Front edge was really heavily pitted with some bad edges where the spot welds are on the lower join.

 

I scribed a line around the area to be removed. As close as I could keeping the patch as small as possible but there's no point in leaving anything bad in.

(To be continued!)

[DoctorBoostaLot]

That rubbery underseal made quite a mess / cloud of smoke being removed by the way! (cough, cough). Note the peppering of rust at the bottom of the wing. You wouldn't have even known that was there as it corroded from inside.... 😕

 

 

Let's start chopping it out then! Angle grinder and cutting disc at the ready!

 

 

If you are making your own panel try to take the template out in 1 piece if you can.

 

 

Lower returns are fine, just some surface rust to clean up, the inside of the sill was good, just mucky due to factory waxoil type stuff....

 

 

I've had repair panels of varying quality over the years and I didn't need a complete sill so with some 20 gauge (0.9-1.0mm) mild steel I started making a replacement up.

(I didn't photograph all of this sorry, I was busy making!) The templace was made from the old one with some overlap to allow for the width of the cutting disc.

Also I started forming the 1st swage line that runs from front to back...

 

 

Yeah, that doesn't look too bad.

 

 

You can see on the right where I had to drill out some spot welds where it attached to the inner sill. Don't miss those. Also marked where the access rubber plug was too.

 

 

With a bit of Racing tape, OK it's blue Scotch tape really, let's see how it fits.

 

Marked a centre, drilled and filed out the hole for the plug / bung.

 

 

Also the 2nd swage line has been added so it looks a little more factory.

 

 

Offered up. Slightly notched around the raised / water drain area below the plug. Next up will be to weld a return to the panel and start welding it back in.

 

Stay tuned Furby fans! 😛

 

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

Interested to see what this'll look like once welded, and then tidied up again.

[DoctorBoostaLot]

Part 2 of the sill welding

 

With the patch almost ready I added the lower lip to the repair piece.

 

 

Holes for the spot welds drilled along the bottom edge and where it touches the inner sill section.

Sprayed the inside with a weld-thru zinc primer and offered into place with some Molegrips.

 

 

...and that's all I can show you as I'm out of storage space! 😕

But it's all welded in nicely and welds ground back. Went in pretty nicely really.

[KenONeill]

23 minutes ago, DoctorBoostaLot said:

that's all I can show you as I'm out of storage space!

We normally use a photo-hosting account, and link them to the posting here.

[DoctorBoostaLot]

29 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

We normally use a photo-hosting account, and link them to the posting here.

Ah, OK. I'll upload and link the rest of the pics here. Thanks Ken.

[DoctorBoostaLot]

 

Clamped into place, it's almost in the right position, just needs a tap with a hammer here and there.

 

 

Started tack welding it in, using a broken seam / pulse welding so the weld runs around the complete repair.

 

 

Hopefully your repair will as good as this, if not better. Mindful to keep the horizontal line on the sill as straight as possible.

The patch is also attached through the plug welds to the inner sill, don't forget that one.

 

 

Still got the lower edge of the wing to repair of course but that's a simple enough one. It stil needs more grinding at this point but I'm waiting on a finger grinder (power file) to get into the corners.

Near impossible with round discs!

 

 

And this one gives you an idea of how much the patch went in, I really couldn't leave the corrosion in. Once the wing is repaired I'll add the smallest amount of filler, prime and reseal the lower sill edge to keep the rust out. So that update with paint to come at some point but this is awkward job really, the rest is pretty straight forward really.

 

Hopefully these pics give others an idea of what to expect and how I went about with the repair.

 

Rich

[AnnoyingPentium]

I'm taking notes here, not for welding the Fab I have (it's remarkably sound for now), but the rusty heap of ****e I seem to have ended up with and am welding with a more competent supervisor.

[DoctorBoostaLot]

I ended up replacing the lower edges of both wings are they too were really rough. Like a Tea-bag! (See above pictures). Not like you'd know it from the exterior though.

A dab of filler, seam sealer and primer after this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[J.R.]

How did you form the swage lines?

 

The rest was once my daily bread and butter in a previous life so brought back lots of memories and was very familiar, the swage line would have been beyond me though.

 

I have a hand held joddler and also a V bender for the hydraulic press but neither would do a swage line away from the edge of a panel.

[Titanium_Man]

Nice to see something different on this forum as we don’t get many threads like this 😞 
 

Not done anything like this until now, but got this job to do on mine this year, so subscribed

Great work so far! 

 

[DoctorBoostaLot]

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

How did you form the swage lines?

 

The rest was once my daily bread and butter in a previous life so brought back lots of memories and was very familiar, the swage line would have been beyond me though.

 

I have a hand held joddler and also a V bender for the hydraulic press but neither would do a swage line away from the edge of a panel.

Simpler than you'd think! The steel was placed in a vice, mark a line with a marker, small narrow cold chisel and beat small dings tight to each other to stretch the steel. Right up close to the jaws of the vice about 1mm away.Just work that chisel bashing left and right.

 

If anyone needs me to take some photos to help clarify it I can do.

That's all there is to it, I think I saw something done like it on youtube and it turned out OK!

I'm a hack but there is some inspiring stuff of metal restoration and forming on youtube like this channel.

 

 

 

 

 

[DoctorBoostaLot]

35 minutes ago, Titanium_Man said:

Nice to see something different on this forum as we don’t get many threads like this 😞 
 

Not done anything like this until now, but got this job to do on mine this year, so subscribed

Great work so far! 

 

I searched thinking there would be a thread like mine but as there wasn't I thought I'd upload some pictures incase it helps someone else out.

Hopefully you can see what's involved and what to expect. You "may" get a replacement panel off eBay but I've no idea what it would be like. It wasn't too hard to form a replacement piece out of 20g mild steel.

Don't get galvanized, zinc coated or without, as long as you use a Weldthru paint for joins and can squirt some paint into the area once done. Sprayable wax after paintwork too but that really should come after a bodyshop, for obvious reasons.

 

If you've access to a steel folder and guillotine all the better. I didn't but it would have made my job a little cleaner. I haven't welded anything on a car in years! Also don't be surprised to find the bottom of the front wings shot too.... 😕

[Titanium_Man]

4 hours ago, DoctorBoostaLot said:

I searched thinking there would be a thread like mine but as there wasn't I thought I'd upload some pictures incase it helps someone else out.

Hopefully you can see what's involved and what to expect. You "may" get a replacement panel off eBay but I've no idea what it would be like. It wasn't too hard to form a replacement piece out of 20g mild steel.

Don't get galvanized, zinc coated or without, as long as you use a Weldthru paint for joins and can squirt some paint into the area once done. Sprayable wax after paintwork too but that really should come after a bodyshop, for obvious reasons.

 

If you've access to a steel folder and guillotine all the better. I didn't but it would have made my job a little cleaner. I haven't welded anything on a car in years! Also don't be surprised to find the bottom of the front wings shot too.... 😕

I did come across a replacement sill piece for £80 on EBay but the blerb suggested it was made in China, so decided against it in the end. 
 

Got access to a body shop, so I would hope they have some tools to help with making the weld-in panel. Will check tomorrow whilst I’m on site. 
 

For the sake of clarity …. You said don’t get galvanised, instead get Zinc coated or    Not zinc coated metal? 

[DoctorBoostaLot]

42 minutes ago, Titanium_Man said:

I did come across a replacement sill piece for £80 on EBay but the blerb suggested it was made in China, so decided against it in the end. 
 

Got access to a body shop, so I would hope they have some tools to help with making the weld-in panel. Will check tomorrow whilst I’m on site. 
 

For the sake of clarity …. You said don’t get galvanised, instead get Zinc coated or    Not zinc coated metal? 

Well you could if you want. You'll need to linish off the zinc before welding and galvanised is even worse for you. You don't want anymore impurities in the weld than you can avoid.

I measured the steel as 20g, about .9mm and it's a bit easier to bend than 18g. I did use a little 18g as well. I bought the steel off eBay.

 

Cardboard, marker pen, scissors. Make your template, make sure you're happy with it then cut that out in steel. A compressed line to blow cool air onto the weld is also a good idea to keep the chance of distortion down. Also I'd a die grinder and carbide cutting tools to help get into the corners when cleaning up your welds. These about 6mm or 1/4" shank. Don't confuse these with Dremel size which is about 3mm.

 

 

If you decide to put a bit more strength into the sills, when jacking up with them you could also do this. (This is right by the front access rubber bung)

You can see in the corners where the tool has been chewing out the weld to leave it smoother.

(See pic below)

 

 

Rich

[J.R.]

6 hours ago, DoctorBoostaLot said:

I'm a hack but there is some inspiring stuff of metal restoration and forming on youtube like this channel.

 

A very good view, so unlike many of the other Youtubers who like the sound of their own voice and drag out 2 minutes of usefull info into 40 minutes.

 

I have subscribed to his channel and look forward to seeing some of the others.

[DoctorBoostaLot]

12 minutes ago, J.R. said:

 

A very good view, so unlike many of the other Youtubers who like the sound of their own voice and drag out 2 minutes of usefull info into 40 minutes.

 

I have subscribed to his channel and look forward to seeing some of the others.

Yeah, he's got a great channel. Another one I like is this guy,

 

,

[Lofty]

You've done a cracking job on that. The only correct way to repair as well. 

 

It'll look lovely when finished and painted. Any remedial work needed on the inside of the folded sill lip? I've found that they can hide nasties under the factory underseal especially when you remove it.

[DoctorBoostaLot]

Thanks dude! You're only about 15 mins from me then in Halesowen!

The inside of the lip (facing the inside of the car) is fine actually. Which is welcome news! I did have a quick dig there, but it's all good.

All the steel is back to shiny and I'll put a touch of rust converter on the odd pitted bit, which there isn't much of.

 

 

Be time for a dab of filler, seam sealer, stonechip and paint soon. Be nice to see the sill in primer at least.

[Stuyyo]

Hi not sure how to contact you on the site as I’m new here . Is the car still for sale ?

[Stuyyo]

Hi is the car still for sale ? Many thanks

[VanhireBoys]

I have to go down this road myself so this tread is invaluable to me ! I have it on both sills along with the back quarters where the back bumper meets 😐

[DoctorBoostaLot]

I'm not sure if you can get replacement sills but if yours is like mine was I couldn't justify a panel for the amount I was putting in. Shifting all that factory rubber stonechip was a messy mission, clouds of burnt rubber!

 

Still, it was OK once done. A lot less rusty than an E46 coupe... 😕