DIY Sill Repair

[neds]

With the common problem of rust on the rear sills, my offside was welded up however I've noticed some rust flakes on the nearside. Now there is no rust holes so I was wondering if i can sand this down and apply some sort of paint over it to repair it?

I don't want this to fail an MOT thats why which is well overdue! keep meaning to do it.

 

[wilsonian]

On MOT's they normally give it a tap with a hammer to see if the metal is too thin. TBH i'd recommend getting it replaced.

Chances are it's rusting from the inside out so any external "patch job" wont really take care of the issue.

 

[Charlotte001]

Clean it down to see the damage if there isn't any holes then you could get away with wirebrushing the painting. If you want to see if it will fail the MoT get a small pin hammer and gently tap the area if it falls away it's gonna fail even if the area moves it fails. If you get one of the heavy thick black underbody seal and paint the area other than underneath it fails. A repair piece shouldn't cost that much and you can be happy there's no rust inside.

Charlotte

Charlotte

 

[neds]

Well I'm pretty sure it has no holes and just the top bit is rusty. And its only like about 2 inches of rust. I will sand it down and if i get to bare metal can i use some sort of rust treatment on it? Primer then paint?

 

[wilsonian]

you'll be wasting your time with any rust treatment as it's coming from the inside.

As mentioned, if you don't want to see this issue again take it to a body shop where they can cut the whole sill out, treat the inside then weld in a new sill. Only way to be 100% rid of the rust.

 

[neds]

Hmmm I was kinda hoping it didn't need to go that route as I was on a budget and the garage quoted me about £40 to get that all welded up. To be honest I only want it to pass the MOT and i think in its current state it may just about but wanted to make sure the rust wasn't bad enough for a failure.

 

[goldstar0011]

It's a nasty feeling when you think it's not so bad and it turns out to be really bad

Mine looked like this

But were actually this

A full sill replacement is well worth it, wilsonians looked 110% amazing when done

 

[Alienfish360]

K11's sills rust from inside out, so if you can see it outside, the chances are it's already rusted through