I find myself carrying out a repair I hadn't expected to do - but I suspect that is naive of me as the outer sill as notorious rust traps - but most DS owners remain blissfuly unaware of the corrosion hidden away behind the sill trims until it is very advanced.
 |
| Replacing the outer sills |
When I was starting work on the car, back at the farm in 2014, it became clear that at least one of the front jacking points was corroded and would need some kind of repair.
 |
| Rot in the right hand jacking point. |
You can read about that repair HERE.
It was barely visible but under all the road dirt and grime, but at some point in the cars past, someone had tried to jack the front of the car up from the outer sill on the left hand side and had damaged the sill cover.
 |
| Hard to spot: telltale damage to the sill cover |
I guess this was either before my ownership or when I owned it but it was sitting abandoned at the farm. The car had been moved around several times then by 'non-DS' people, finally ending up tucked away in a corner.
Fast forward to December 2019 and I was beginning the work to replace both jacking points. Over the Christmas break I removed the carpet and trim from the sills to give me better access to the base of the 'A' posts.
I started by removing the dented lower stainless cover from under the sills. This was dirty and the screw heads were rusted in.
The screws holding the spring mechanism for the rear door had to be removed. The main bracket straddles the 'B' post and is held in place by two large dome-headed screws on either side, released from the outside of the sill.
 |
| Retaining screws for rear door spring mechanism |
On the top of the sills, pulling back the Pallas carpet revealed a row of screws holding the carpet finishing trim to the sill top surface. The sill trim was held down by this.
 |
| Screws are hidden under the carpet edge |
In some places the edge strip was simply holding the main sill trim down, but there were a couple of screws. Again, the screws were rusted in and the heads corroded. particularly in the corners by the rear seat.
 |
| Rusted screw head |
In most cases I needed to resort to an angle grinder to remove them. Access was limited and some collateral damage to the stainless trim was inevitable.
 |
| Angle grinder damage |
The vertical edge of the top trim sits in a groove above the bottom white, rubber, door seal. Removing that strip......
....gave me access the the stainless steel trim on the vertical face.
 |
| Removing the finishing strip helps to release the vertical face trim |
Removal of the outer trim revealed the extent of the jacking damage. Luckily it was just a crumpled outer sill.
 |
| Crumpled outer sill |
Thankfully the outer sill is non-structural as there is an inner box section that gives the chassis it's main strength. The outer sections provide convenient 'ducts' for channeling pipes, cables and rods between the front and back of the car.
 |
| Construction of the sill. Left side from rear door forward |
Removal of the trim also revealed the almost inevitable corrosion along the underside of the outer sills where the trim fixing screws had been. That rust undoubtedly weakened the outer sill too. This rust is pretty typical for a DS.
 |
| Typical rust areas in DS sills |
The rust here probably weakened the sill and so further reduced the likelihood of it bearing the weight of the car when it was being jacked.
In my case I judged that just about the whole bottom edge - most of the length of the car on both sides - would need to be patched with long, thing strips wellded-in.
 |
| Just about the whole bottom edge was rotten |
That represented a lot of welding as far as I was concerned. And there was also a high risk of warping and distortion. And I would need to do it lying on my back. I decided, like others before me, that it would be simpler - and provide a longer term fix - to totally replace the outer sills. It's not a decision I made lightly as I want to keep as much of the original car as I can. However these pieces were on their way out, were tucked away out of sight and, as the outer sills are not structural, I decided to replace them. The replacement parts were ordered up.
 |
| A box of goodies: 31 March 2020 |
When the cars were first built the outer sill panels were one piece and ran from beneath the 'A' post to beneath the 'C' post with the 'B' post sitting on top, half way along.
 |
| The outer sill is the bottom horizontal edge of the top piece... |
 |
| The original outer sill was a single piece per side (Photo copyright Jint Nijman) |
Most repairs/ replacements will only be to the between the door posts. So the replacement panels are sold in two parts and need to be cut to length - depending on how much is being replaced.
 |
| Replacement outer sill panels: two per side |
By mid May I had cut out the old sills - starting with the left side of the car.
Working from under the car I completed removal of the rear for spring mechanism by removing various circlips and springs to release the rollers and arms.
 |
| Bracket for rear door spring mechanism |
It was then a case of winkling out the bracket from the 'B' post.
 |
| Removing the spring mechanism |
Removing the sill was then a case of drilling out the spot welds along the top surface and cutting through the vertical faces of the rotten sills at the appropriate points.
 |
| Drilling out the spot welds |
In both cases, and on both sides of the car I was very carefully to avoid cutting or damaging the various pipes and cables hidden within the outer sills. I was able to get a good cut line on the back end of the left sill, but still needed to cut out the remains of the channel for the door rubber as it had rotted away.
 |
| Removing the channel that holds the door rubber |
I think capiliary action must draw water up inside the channel. Don't let anyone ever tell you they have a 100% 'rust-free car'......
 |
| Notice the pipes and cables within the sill - careful! |
The front end of the back section was more difficult. In the photo below you can see that the large aperture in the sill piece is very close the base of the 'B' post - where the channel that holds the rubber door seal is located.
 |
| The edge of the aperture is close to the vertical seam |
That would be awkward to weld. As with the back end, the door rubber channel was already rusted, so I removed the bottom section to give me a better cut point on the sill further from the aperture. That was quite destructive.........
 |
| Looks a mess but is easily repaired |
.......but gave me a little more welding room to work with.
 |
| Sizing up the replacement panels |
I applied the learning from tackling the back section to similarly removing the front section of outer sill.
 |
| Cut line on the front half of the sill |
Remember this grainy photo of the door spring retaining screws?
 |
| When replacing panels, keep this distance between the screw holes the same! |
One very important consideration when sizing and cutting the replacement panels to fit the gaps you have cut out, is to make sure the holes between the front and back patch pieces are the correct distance apart to enable you to refit the door spring bracket. Don't be tempted to move a panel slightly to make it easier to weld.
 |
| Make sure you keep this distance the same as on the original panel! |
With the old outer sills removed, the extent of the rust was clear. I could see how it was centred around some of the holes where the trim fixing screws were secured.
 |
| Rust around the screw holes |
I could also see the extent of the damage caused by the ill-advised jacking attempt.
 |
| That jacking damage...... |
I went on and repeated the same exercise on the right and side of the car - removing front and back sections of the outer sill.
With the outer sills out of the way, I got a better view of the actual box section sills behind them. And it turned out that meant more work! So my outer sill replacement journey ends here for the moment.
