GT6 MK3 sills advice

[Alex Lowe]

Hi all I have a few questions on fitting the new sills to the GT6

Firstly do I need the bonnet in place to help line the sills up?

and secondly a very novice question do I need to remove the black primer paint the panels come with and paint inside of the sills again if so what products do people recommend? 

[jmh]

Yes. And no. Don't remove the paint, if its e-coat, it will be a very good protection. 

Remember outer sill needs to be further down than floor pan/inner sill - see drawing:

[NonMember]

The black "paint" may or may not be a good base. Quite often it's not, definitely not, really not, as in liable to flake off and take your real paint with it. I think, if you give it a wipe with a soft cloth soaked in thinners, the good stuff stays in place and the not good wipes off. However, don't quote me on that, wait for an expert to answer.

[Ian Faulds]

hi, ive already done my sills and floorpans but on fitting the doors I think the sills are bit to high, I intend to take them off again when I put the body back on the chasis, with this experience I wouldn't fit the sills without the doors and bonnet on for gap ref. when you've clamped the sills up and are happy, then remove doors and bonnet if nec

[Brooky]

I was starting to replace my offside sill etc, when I bought them I mentioned to Chic Doig I was then going to fix up my door bottom and reskin it. His advice was to do the door first then build the car round it, lots of time and swearing spent lol it looks good, the rear gap I had to slit and weld all the way down to get a nice uniform gap as the rear wings had been changed before I got the car. Sometimes thats the only way. Just going to start the nearside in the next few weeks

[Badwolf]

There are 2 threads running about sills/panel replacements. It may be worthwhile reading the 2 together... see '1976 Spitfire 1500'

[Nick Jones]

Sills should be done with the body fully fitted to the chassis and doors + bonnet in place for alignment and gapping.

The Heritage sills come with decent paint and are also a better fit than the other offerings, though not perfect.  Tend to sit too far inboard at the rear and make the bottom corner of the door stand proud unless steps are taken.

Nick

[Badwolf]

Yes, I wish this forum and the knowledge it contains had been around in the 1980s.

[johny]

Hey that's when all this knowledge was being accumulated😂

[Badwolf]

Tell me about it. Unfortunately certain parts of my Spit got the wrong knowledge. That is what I am very slowly rectifying. Even the professionals have screwed up recently. That took ages to sort out too.

[Unkel Kunkel]

 

Sill  replacement , for an basic amateur like me, was a very difficult and an  extraordinarily time consuming and frustrating job!

The sills had been replaced sometime in the past which probably didn’t help,  but I ended up with a large “ step out “of the lower edge of one door, despite bracing and doing it “on chassis“ etc.

I resorted to taking  that sill off again,  scrapping it  and simply  just  starting all over again after drilling out and realigning much of  the middle sill- and using a new Heritage sill.(lesson 1)

This was a better, but far from ideal fit.

lesson 2 .- The fundamental answer  = make everything fit around the door(  as also mentioned by Brooky here from advice from Chic Doug)

Lesson 3.- This might make  you wince, ..but to get a better fit, I had to  cut along the top edge of the  brand new outer sill and insert a fillet of metal, butt welded in - varying from about 8 mm wide at the front to  nearly  10 mm towards the rear of the sill under the door area, so that the “step-out” of the lower door edge was eliminated.

This really seemed the only  way to make everything fit.

To get a an even better  fit :

Lesson 4. ...the rear wing  also needed slight adjustment too - it  too was cut along the crease line ( the one that  runs horizontally after the door opening to the wheel arch) and a small amount of metal removed  to  get a good fit,  the lower edge where it attached to the middle sill and floor were “un done”,realigned  and shaped and the join butt welded  and filled.

Good fettling!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Badwolf]

Just what needs doing on mine. But, can I be bothered expending all that time and expense for a 1cm gap at the bottom of the door. I can see why, and those of you who have read my other comments will know that I have explored the possibilities of sorting out my door fitting problems, but, in the great scheme of things, the car is only worth about £2,000 to sell and to get the job done 'properly' this time would cost more than it is truely worth. Yes, sadly a negative view, but then I can use the money to run the car and enjoy it. Full marks Van23 for taking this on. You have my fullest admiration but I will now leave my problems to my successors

[Colin Lindsay]

On 03/07/2020 at 10:35, Badwolf said:

Tell me about it. Unfortunately certain parts of my Spit got the wrong knowledge. 

Lol mine too... when I bought my first Spitfire I was told that the doors were tight and the windows would not wind up fully but this could be fixed with a 'door gap adjusting tool'... just fit it to the door and wind out. They never said that this was BEFORE the sills were welded, not after. The photo shows how the 'restorer' had fitted the new sills at the A post...

[ludwig113]

1 hour ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Lol mine too... when I bought my first Spitfire I was told that the doors were tight and the windows would not wind up fully but this could be fixed with a 'door gap adjusting tool'... just fit it to the door and wind out. They never said that this was BEFORE the sills were welded, not after. The photo shows how the 'restorer' had fitted the new sills at the A post...

jesus !

[Badwolf]

And they say..... leave it to the professionals... Bodie or Doyle??