Lower body lip/flange

[martinbrowning]

Hi there,

I am currently stripping the bodywork of my S130 and have come across a PO bodge on the flange/lip below the passenger side door-I mean the vertical lip about 1-1.5 inches in width which the small bolts go through to fix the side of the body to the floor section.

It appears as if the car has been grounded at some point or the lower edge of the lip seems to have been attacked by a large rodent-what would/should have been a nice straight edge is no more. Aforementioned PO stuck tape along the lip and covered it in filler to recreate the line.

Question is, any thoughts on how to repair it? Do I make up a small section and set it in?I might also add that the lipabove the bottom of the floor pan is fine.

Anybody come across suitable embellishers etc to neaten up the lip?I agree that once painted in satin black/body colour the eye is not readily drawn to it but a nasty edge spoils the car(even by early Lotus standards)

Regards

Martin B

[72elan1304]

I'm tempted to try a chrome strip on mine. Something similar to this perhaps;

[mikealdren]

Martin,
I've carried out fibreglass repairs in this area to smarten my car up. I unfastened the bolts holding the fibreglass to the sill strengtheners and then rebuilt the fibreglass. I also replaced the bolts with stainless items.

I'm slightly puzzled by your description of the damage, the metal flange goes right into the lip of the fibreglass, was it damaged too? If so, you need to have a good look to make sure it wasn't damaged/bent too.

Mike

[JJDraper]

I had similar damage as the result of efforts to get the old sill bolts off (angle grinder) and a jack collapse, causing the front of the sill to crunch onto a brick (always use axle stands....). This was six years ago and the repairs held up well. Unfortunately, I only have pics of the work in progress not the finished job, but it looked good, honest. Note the steel lip of the sill bar sandwiched in the shell - it doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the fibreglass, hence the damage. The technique was to open up the sill, prepare the fibreglass and sandwich a piece of Polythene (from a square gallon container) to act as a backing piece for the new glass matt. Glass up, allow to set, open up and remove the polythene and cut to shape.

Jeremy
PS I can't claim credit for the work as I didn't do the repair myself, but was interested to see how it was done and documented it.