Hi all
im about to go replacing the full sill on my series 3
it tucks up under the A B and C post and spot welded from factory
do I have to cut these posts open so I can get then lip of the new sill up behind them?
and also to be able to remove the old one.
any help / tips with this repair would be gratefully apprciated
thanks
Willie

 

Leave as much of the old sill in place as you can. Its common to cut out the sill and leave a 1/4 inch edge behind, then trim the new sill and lap weld it over the edge left behind. Drilling out all the spots and separating the sill as it was built is very destructive.

 

I replaced my S1 sills (virtually identical) by drilling out all spot welds, slipping the old sill out and slipping the new one under the three pillars. Use a spot weld drill so as to minimally damage (and not penetrate) metal to which the new sill will be welded (this doesn't apply to the pillar spot welds where drilling through only penetrates the old sill, but a proper spot weld cutter still makes the work easier).

To do the job right, I would suggest that you not cut into or modify the new sill. While apart, inspect the floor flange and inner sill, as these are often rusted too. Welding of the new sill consists of welding through holes already cut in the pillars, and punching 3/16 inch holes into the new sill as needed for welding through those into the inner sill/floor flange. Been a while; I might not have the details right.

 

I had a shop replace my sills in the early 90s with genuine Jaguar ones, and also the closing panels each end. The main difficulty is the B/C post where it's very difficult to remove the old sill. I think the outer pressing of the B/C post is put on after the inner and outer sills are welded together so you can't get to these welds. What most shops will do is cut around this area then seam weld. Apart from this it is all a doddle, but time consuming, hence costly.

 

Cheers fellas
thanks fir the advice especially the last two replies as I shall probably go that route rather than lap welding Over original sill left behind
been at the car today and was going to just cut around the A B and C posts and but weld upto them and spot weld everywhere else.
at the moment I have the car with two braces tack welded going across both doors. Hopefully will stop most of the distortion as the
floor pans are perfect except a small hole at the front nearer the closing panel and the inner sills look good and solids from what I can see looking into them
once again thanks for the advice
willie

 

Separate sill question: I have parts series I with good sills and would like to reuse them on a series II xjc. Is it possible to cut them out and reuse or is that impossible? I'm not sure how much corrosion etc there is under the XJC sills but I'm not expecting it to be pretty.

I'm assuming the procedure is similar to a series III which is why I'm reading this thread

Cheers

 

Do you have any pics of the rust damage? I think we would all be interested to see what can happen to our XJ's sills