Gap between the bottom of doors and the sill

[Kiwifrog]

Hi All

 

I have a question I need an answer to. I am in the process of replacing the sills on my 4 with a pair recovered from a trashed TR6. I have been told these are the same and they even have the same new part numbers from moss.

 

I am doing 1 side at a time to keep my refences but there is a problem. I have tacked the new sill on the RHS of the car in place and trial fitted the wings and door all of which fit really well, well almost. Between the bottom of the door and the top of the sill there is a gap I can put my finger into ( about 1 -1.5cm).

 

The a and B posts are sitting where they should all the other gaps are fine.

 

When I trial fit the door on the other side where I have not started work the gap is smaller, but the origonal sill has a piece of aliminum pop rivited on to it then is smeared with copious amounts of filler.

 

My questions are this.

Should there be a gap ?

How big should it be?

 

Thanks for your help on this one

 

Alan

[Tr4Tony]

Hi Alan

 

The gap on both my TR4a and TR4 is about 5mm, so it sounds like your sill is a shade too low. East way is to check how the lower rear of the front wing fits - if this is tight against the sill and bulging its a dead cert that the sill is malaligned. Check the back too - if this is bulgy its all too tight and the sill needs to come up - you may need to relieve the bottoms of the wings as part of this process on the boits that cover the sills at the bolting surface.

 

Its also very easy to fit a sill off the square so I would suggest you unpick it all and hang it in place with either self tappers or tack welds to get it right. Ive done this and it takes a while. You may also have to grind a little off the bottom of the A and B post joints if you have repaired them to get this to fit square and tight to the door skin.

 

Might also be an idea to check your door skins and see if they are riding too high (the inside edge should be about 7mm folded inside - more and you have less door than you might need.

 

The bad news is that it might be a little of all of the above, which makes life tricky. if this is the case my advice would be to make the tops of the wings and door above the swage line sit perfectly and work your way downwards - if you end up at the bottom of the door with no further betterment, start on the sills!

 

You also need to do all this will something approaching the full weight in the car as the door gaps will settle quite a bit on a 4a and a little less on a 4 due to chassis movement - this means body mounted on, engine and box in and maybe soem extra weight on the floorpans.

 

Regards

 

Tony

[Guest harry dent]

Hi Alan,

The sills you have may be repros without the indent footprint.

These should be under where the foot of the "A" and "B"

post,s fit.John Sykes of TR Bitz, manufactures sills and they are bloody good and fit really well.You can grind a little off the bottom return lip on both post,s to jack up the sill.

Regards Harry TR5 nutter.

[Kiwifrog]

Hi Guys

 

Thsnks for the replys. I am damned glad I did the test fit after lightly tacking the sill on. It is I think a repro sill even if it has been salvaged off another car, I will follow your advice and adjust the bottom of the a and b posts to get a bit more height. I am doing the sill repars with the body on the car as I do not have any form of Jig (or anywhere to put it) to sit the body on. Thanks again for the very helpfull advise.

 

Cheers

 

Alan  

[Kiwifrog]

Its done

 

I ground no more than 2 mm off the bottom of the a and b posts and now the sill fits like a bought one! There must have been some cumlative effect throwing everything out, I also thought it best to get advice from older wiser heads than mine before atacking the origonal metal with a high speed cutty thingy.

 

BTW Tony, they are the sills I got with that treasure trove of parts I bought from you, I have lost count of all the handy little bits I have sourced from my now partly depleted pile.

 

Cheers

 

Alan