Sill damage advice

[Dpicariello]

Evening,

I'm feeling a bit of a **** at the moment. In a rush to get back in to watch my beloved West Brom go on to a resounding cup win, I hurridly used the standard scissor jack on the car as my trolley jack broke this weekend.

Anyway, the car rolled off the jack and the threaded bar of the jack got pressed against the lower sill of the car. This has and dented the lower sill.

I appreciate that I am an idiot for:

1) using the scissor jack in the first place
2) Rushing a job that I take for granted

However, now I'm faced with the problem of repair.

After a quick scout with the search function I remember GT500's reccomendation of POR15 on the underside of the car, however, I'm wondering what i can use to fill the indentation left by the jack.

I should add that the sill has in no way been creased. By the looks of it, the rippled coating looks like a foam and it's this that has been damaged.

Any advice that people could provide would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Dan

[andyg plym]

...

did the same on my old 3b,got it done down liskeard,had to be filled though,cost me £70, well worth it, it looked bonza

[Nuvo]

I've wondered about this too.

Filling it would be the easiest hassle free solution I expect. Alternatively you could cut out the damaged section and weld a new section in place. You need to respray the underbody seal for the entire sill to make it look its best.

[Dpicariello]

I wouldn't want to do any cutting or welding as it's just the coating that is damaged and not the structure of the car.
Because the finish would not have to be good I am happy to do it myself. I'm just wonderdin if I can use this POR15 over regular car filler??????

Thanks

[Nuvo]

Sorry, when you said that the sill was dented I took it to mean the metal work had been damaged. I've no idea how underseal will bond to filler.

Why not do trial application on a test area to see how it performs? (Not on your car obviously).

[Acidburn]

dan - mine sounds like yours, its the rubbery covering along the bottom of the car, I did the same thing with a scissor jack except mine did not fall off one it just scratched it when it went down.

I'm interested in how you deal with this as i'm yet to do mine as it was only a small section.

[MrBlueSky1960]

So, lets get this right, the only damage is to the body schultz along the sill?

I take it that its not painted either?

I have a body repair shop and the way I would repair this sort of damage is to sand back and feather the damaged area, apply a thin coat of filler slightly proud of the schultz and when dry block down with 180 grit until level and finish off with 320 grit.

Clean up and wipe off with spirit wipe.

Mask off the surrounding area, and apply 3-4 good coats of a 2 pack primer filler. Let dry and block down again with 500 grit wet & dry, finish off with 3M scotch (Grey) used wet over the whole sill.

Dry whole sill and wipe off with spirit wipe again.

Mask whole sill again and refinish sill complete with an aerosol schultz (I use Gravitex Black)

I suspect its more of a dark grey (The same as on my Audi 80 sill) then black, so you will need to find a colour to match or just finish it off with a aerosol satin black

It's always a problem finding an exact colour match with the factory finish... There are some aerosol paints that are supposed to match but I have never found one that is 100%

Best of luck...

Regards

MrBlueSky

[Fat Audi 80]

If you are going to do it properly Dan, you are going to have to paint the whole sill, in order to avoid a mis match and then ideally do both sides of the for continuity purposes.

That would be the way I would look at it.

I am not sure about filling the dent, but it will need to be sanded back etc as described above.

It might even end up being a body shop job!

Best of luck mate.

Cheers,

Steve.

[S2central.net]

If you are going to do it properly Dan, you are going to have to paint the whole sill, in order to avoid a mis match and then ideally do both sides of the for continuity purposes.

LOL - just in case you can see both sides of the car at the same time.

[Dpicariello]

Thanks for all of your advice guys and thanks for the detailed write up Mrbluesky1960.

Steve, I think you may have a point. I'm going to at least get a quote from a bodyshop, however I am not going to rule out doing it myself.

I'll get a pic of the damage up when I get home and will keep this threa updated.

Dan

[T2Andy]

Hi dan did my complete sill last week due flacking in a few areas, i sanded down to the metal ,the coating is a few mill thick ,treat the metal filled with knifing putty
primed then coated the whole sill in a rubber stone guard,then sprayed with satin black
ackrylic looks like new i just need to paint match the other side.

[Dpicariello]

Excellent mate,

If it's good enough for a man of your attention to detail then i reckon I could have a go.
I've attached some pics of the damaged area.
I've got the time and patience to do the job properly. What products did you use?