Sill Repairs

[robcall]

This is how I spent part of the Easter weekend
Both sills had a bulge adjacent to the rear wheel arch.The original owner had the car resprayed.There is a crack running underneath the sill.I think incomplete bonding of the bodyshell was the original cause.this was filled with filler which cracked in the original defect.
On top of this there is a tidemark on the hardboard infill strip to which the carpet is glued.
structurally the latticework is sound.Fair enough-lets cut out the bulge and remove the filler

Corrosion has swelled the metal distorting the thin glass layer.The lattice is unsupported

[robcall]

Halfway down the sill length.
On the left is where there is a metal tag to secure the hardboard sill cover.On the right where the lattice diagonal is welded to its base.The metal tag has rusted away.The lattice appears sound.
Externally I opened a couple of windows.Left side is sound-metal bonded to glass.Right side rusted/unsupported.
I intend to extend these windows until sound metal is located.I want to keep some sill structure if possible as reference for dimensional glass repairs.
The metal is treated with phosphoric acid.This needs to be wiped down thoroughly with water as the residue inhibits resin cure.An acetone wipe will help dispersion and dry the surfaces.
Internally I intend glassing over those moisture traps where the lattice is inserted into the sill

[alexblack13]

Hi,
Sorry to see your rust problems. Not unusual. I had the same and poss' slightly worse. Have a look thro' my 'new car arriving' post to see what I did to repair it but briefly.

Cut out the existing rusted steelwork carefully from inside the car. Then make or have made a new steel trellis frame. You should only need the bottom runner and the 1/4'' dia struts. Cut off the existing rusted ones above the damage which should leave plenty to weld the new onto.

You then need to weld the new ones in and have them re glassfibered into place.

The only way to repair it right. I used 12mm dia 'rebar' for the main 'longerons'

Will you be at Donington?

I can e mail you pics of the job if you give me your e addy.. [email protected]

Dont worry it is fixable ok. just a job like the rest

Alex B....

[robcall]

Hi Alex,
in this instance I don't intend replacing the lattice structure.Its corroded on the surface only.The sill needs opening up to treat the metal.Sill repair to remove the filler and repair the cracked seam,followed by internal reinforcement should prevent this happening again.

ps-the car now lives in an Australian evironment

[alexblack13]

OK.. But remember its a structural part of the car. Make sure it is strong

Good luck with it.

Alex B....

[garyeanderson]

elan-f14/elan-door-surround-latice-yours-rotten-too-t15161.html

I try to do as much of the repairs from the inside and from underneath where it doesn't show on the Elan, its so much easier to fiberglass on the inside where you don't need to sand and make it look pretty and prepair it for paint. I don't beleive that the factory ever used any fiberglass along the bottom where the sills joins the floor, Just two lawers of 2 ounce matt on the inside. The bottom seams were just smoothed with filler.The later Elan's, my old S4 45/8221 had galvanized latice and seemed to hold up better than the S2, mostly a matter of how wet the interior was most of it life?

Gary

[robcall]

Hi Gary,
that is an excellent thread.
In replacing the lattice I can see you are able to keep the sill contour intact.The clean metal can be bonded internally
With keeping the lattice I have to sacrifice some of the glass to gain access to the corroded metal and treat prior to rebonding.
Only access and distorted glass was removed
As you say,there is very little glass beneath the lower lattice member-and filler present in this area makes restoration/reinforcement that little bit trickier.

[robcall]

A footnote on the galvanised lattice-I note that Alex Black and my own cars are '73 models and have still suffered corrosion.
I had a small hole at the front of the drivers footwell and the propshaft plug was absent!
The otherwise original carpeting only had the drivers footwell mat replaced-suggesting water ingress.

All the more remarkable-the chassis is original-I have taken a powerjet cleaner and given it a thorough exam-patchy black paint,but the underlying red lead is intact!

[John Larkin]

Hi Nigel,

I'm sorry that you have found so much rust in the sill lattices, particulary as I understand that your car was garaged all its life. I'm going to check my own sills very carefully as I have had a history of water leaks with my S3.

Regards,

John Larkin.

[garyeanderson]

Hi Gary,
that is an excellent thread.
In replacing the lattice I can see you are able to keep the sill contour intact.The clean metal can be bonded internally
With keeping the lattice I have to sacrifice some of the glass to gain access to the corroded metal and treat prior to rebonding.
Only access and distorted glass was removed
As you say,there is very little glass beneath the lower lattice member-and filler present in this area makes restoration/reinforcement that little bit trickier.

Hi Nigel
The photos at the link below are posted courtesy of Mike Ostrov on the Golden Gate Lotus Club web page. There are 11 photos of the type 26 shell being molded and gives you a fairly clear idea of how the lay up of the shell was done.

http://www.gglotus.org/ggtech/elan-body/elan-body.htm



As far as your repairs go, I would still do them from inside, remove the seats, lift the carpet and padding and cut away the 2 layers of 2 ounce cloth with a grinder for what ever distance the sills are swelled/bowed out from the expanded rust. Use an ice pick, wood chisel, or other implement of destruction and poke and prod at the expanded rust. Have a vacuum sucking up the dust and rust as you work your way along the dead steel. Access is quite good and fairly easy to get at the inside fiberglass sill/outer edge of the lattice. Once you have broken up and vacuumed out her rust you will have a small swollen area that needs to be "pushed back into place". With a long long pipe/bar clamp and a bit of wood (a 2 x 2 inch, 50 x 50 mm) a couple feet to a meter long pull both sides together until the "lump" is flush with the rest of the lower sill. Now fiberglass the inside. Slide some loose unsaturated mat under and around the cleaned steel and saturate with resin and continue with a 2 more layers of mat over the top of those areas. Carpets back down after the resin has hardened. This will take at least 90% of these swellings of the bottom edge of the sills. Trim black paint on the lower section will hide whatever doesn't return to its original shape. Its your call on how to do this repiar, I just don't like to make extra work repairing the gel coat side of things if I don't have to. If its not a flat area, repairs are more difficult to make look right.

Gary

[robcall]

I'll give that a try on the passenger sill Gary.
I don't mind the glasswork and generally do surface repairs with gelcoat rather than filler-but thats just me.
I dont like the idea of filler on the sills-so thats definately going.

John-I have to remind myself its a 36 year old car in quite remarkable condition!

[cabc26b]

Gents,

Has using one of those small media blasters been considered for rust removal( look like a watering can) ? I would think they would clean up existing wire quick and easy.

One other suggestion I would have is to use chopped strand along ( really more like a powder) with resin to make a slurry if flowing behind the wire is problematic or filling voids is a concern. It also may yield a stiffer repair.

George

[robcall]

Hi George,
I had a few (very large) air blows around some bobbins.
I made up a batch of resin,broke up some chopped strand and mixed this into the resin.
This is light enough to be picked up by a brush for placement,yet compactable and mouldable
for these difficult situations-pretty similar to your idea.

[cabc26b]

Hi Nigel,

The stuff I like is the milled 1/32" ( less than 1 mm) variety - finer by definition than chopped

I don't how much of this you do ( or are planning) but a 2lb ( little less than a kilo) box has lasted over 10 years. I consider it an essential piece of the kit if you are monkeying around with fiberglass. I first used it to repair the body work of a lotus 23C and then a Merlyn - its great for filling, bonding broken race car body work ( some times in one step)

[garyeanderson]

My friend that does the fiberglass GT40 bodies gets a 5 gallon pale of short fibers, basically they are a bundle (tow?) of fibers from woven roving chopped by a machine to about 1/2 inch lengths. There is a lot of binder in the short fibers and it takes a week or so to wet out in a tupper ware tub with resin. Its then ready to use Then you can catalyze and apply with a spreader.
There are also mill fibers, that sounds like what george is describing.