Sill, Box section & Girder Section Replacement.

4th & 5th June 2005

This is the site that may greet you when looking at a Estelle or Rapid, To some it may look beyond any kind of economic repair

One of the major considerations people have to make is can i afford to do this? After all its a skoda? Well skoda prices are on the increase because of that way of thinking in the past! The cars are rare enough to spend the money and if the job is taken seriously enough and done properly the car will last a long time. The following pictures show the progress made to a 135 Ric that has serious emotional ties to Graham.

The Sills before making a start.

The sills consist of an outer covering,  a perforated plate, and then the inner sill. On this car the outer sill had to be removed as the perforated section was rotten.

The only logical thing to do was to remove as much rotten metal as possible. this led to just the inner sill remaining, The box section was also removed to be able to create a new one.

removal of the Girder section

(showing solid inner sill)

Fitting new Box section (complete from Jacking point to Rear wheel arch) The replacement box section repair parts are available from www.skofast.com

Fitting in new Girder Section to Inner sill sections

This basically involves drilling and spot welding at 1/2 to 1" intervals using high current from a mig welder.

Locating and fitting of Outer sill section onto Inner and Girder section

Note the use of S105/S120 Sills and plating over B post Base Rapid sills are not available but as the estelle sills are the same length there fine to use.

Drivers side outer sill section replaced. In some circumstances it not worth replacing whole sills but cutting out the infected metal and replacing with new metal to good rust free metal.

Once all the welding is complete all the welds are ground down and ETCH PRIMED skim filled and then etched once again before seam sealed or painted.

Some useful things to remember:

As you expose parts that aren't rusty spray them with etch primer, It adds to protection from the inside of the panels. every panel on this car was etch primed. Etch primer doesn't tend to burn when welding so there is no risk of internal panel fire. And generally you can weld through it.

When raising the car off the ground to work on sills, raise a side at a time not front or rear! the strength of the car is in the sills and stressing the car will make the cars alignment wrong, Likewise remove the door the side you are working to not distort the A post.