Vitesse Sill (iness)

[SixasStandard]

Hello All,

Took the Vitesse for its MOT this morning, and came away with a pass with no advisories, plus the praises of the garage owner. Whilst he had the car up on the 4 post lift the examiner let me have a shufty underneath the old girl with an inspection lamp (not strictly allowed........but he was a classic car fan himself.......so no names no pack drill). There were the usual collection of oil leaks that I keep promising myself I'll sort out one day (you can quote that back to me in 5 years time).........but other than a totally solid chassis and floor pan (phew!) the only other thing of note were the sill fixings, or should I say LACK of them. The N/S sill has tabs spaced along its lower edge that are obviously meant to be screwed into the outer perimeter rail, but instead were simply bent up out of the way. On the O/S sill there weren't ant tabs at all.

So my question is this.......are these tabs necessary or not?  

Any help/advice appreciated.

Ian

P.S. ALWAYS take a camera with you to the MOT garage........I forgot mine and missed out on an ideal opportunity to photograph the underside of the car whilst it was on the lift!!

 

[Martin1945]

Photos

Did you not have your phone

[Colin Lindsay]

1 hour ago, SixasStandard said:

Hello All,

So my question is this.......are these tabs necessary or not?  

Yes and no! They were on original sills as additional fittings to the chassis rail; just bend them straight and, keeping the sill as straight along the lines of the car as possible, self-tap them to the bottom of  the long outer chassis side rail.

Now: having said that, I've seen replacement sills which had none and which seemed to stay in place pretty well. If they're missing it's not the end of the world, the sills will do fine without, but they're a belt-and-braces approach. You can always make brackets to replace them; bond them (saves having to weld them) to the inside face of the sill in the same place as the originals on the other side and then screw to the rails.

[SixasStandard]

1 hour ago, Martin1945 said:

Photos

Did you not have your phone

Nope!!........I'm one of those 'old school' types that aren't married to their mobile!! (although would have come in handy on this occasion). 

[SixasStandard]

1 hour ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Yes and no! They were on original sills as additional fittings to the chassis rail; just bend them straight and, keeping the sill as straight along the lines of the car as possible, self-tap them to the bottom of  the long outer chassis side rail.

Now: having said that, I've seen replacement sills which had none and which seemed to stay in place pretty well. If they're missing it's not the end of the world, the sills will do fine without, but they're a belt-and-braces approach. You can always make brackets to replace them; bond them (saves having to weld them) to the inside face of the sill in the same place as the originals on the other side and then screw to the rails.

Thanks Colin, as you suggest I'll bend the tabs down and attach on the N/S with self tappers, and probably epoxy some on the O/S and again use self tappers.

Ian 

[Pete Lewis]

think if you dont have the stays the sill does tend to flap a bit on bad road surfaces

 dont forget the rear two screws into the rear wing flange  can be a sod to get on 

pete

 

[SixasStandard]

3 hours ago, Pete Lewis said:

think if you dont have the stays the sill does tend to flap a bit on bad road surfaces

 dont forget the rear two screws into the rear wing flange  can be a sod to get on 

pete

 

I expect you're right Pete, as I don't think Triumph would have bothered if they weren't serving a purpose, not in the face of the infamous BL bean counters! 

[Pete Lewis]

it is just a steady , doesnt do much in its support role 

im sure i followed one some years back and you could see it flap about and with todays pot holes    !!!!!  who knows