Under sill trims

[pauljmcnulty]

Hi all,

I've got some rust around the usual bottoms of the wings and edges of the sills. I had planned a proper fix this year, but the recent brake overhaul blew the budget completely. [&o]

I was going to remove the plastic trims anyway, I don't particularly like them and they only store up more trouble. How easy is it to take them off myself, and then at least I can treat the rust and stop it getting worse whilst I sell my body to try and save enough up again? I'm assuming they come off easy enough, but do I have a row of retaining bolts to remove as well?

 

[robwright]

They are a doddle Paul just held on with plastic M6 nuts. Get rid I say they are a whole heap of trouble and do nothing for the look of the car.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

They are a doddle Paul just held on with plastic M6 nuts.

So what do the nuts screw on to? Just have visions of leaving it with a neat row of bolts underneath, or having to grind them off and doing a load of damage. [&:]

 

[simkin911]

The back of a wing bottom that will shortly receive a little bit of attention...

 

[DavidL]

I took mine off when I had some work done to my sills. The only issue is that the jacking point and the rear lift point then stick down and show. I painted mine black and you don't really notice.
I would rather have them on, it does finish it that bit better, but not really worth the potential rust trap.

 

[Lowtimer]

I am today off into Daytona CoachWorx for a substantial body rebuild and have dithered about whether to keep the trims. They are off the car at the moment, but I have them in the boot. I think I have decided in favour of retaining originality, but it was a close-run thing. The car rarely sees the wet, in my ownership, and by the time it comes back from the body shop I will have got the dehumidifier in stalled in the garage so should be OK.

 

[Diver944]

ORIGINAL: pauljmcnulty


So what do the nuts screw on to?

They screw on to a row of 10 bolts welded onto the bottom of the sill, you can see 4 in this picture. I'm not 100% convinced it's the sill trims that cause all the problems but now mine have been fixed I intend to remove them every year and clean out the mud - just in case. Takes an hour tops

 

[zcacogp]

As said, they do make the car look better but are not really missed if they aren't there. I have removed them from mine, and don't miss them. The sill trims are not as bad culprits as the wing trims (which look lovely but are a proven rust-trap) but can cause problems, mainly because they can fret through the paint in places and thus start rust.

The plastic nuts can be tricky to remove. If they put up a fight then you can cut the nuts off with a sharp stanley knife; they only cost pennies should you ever want to replace them.


Oli.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

So looking at the pic of Paul's car there, I could happily leave the bolts under the sills but would need to cut off the lugs under the front wings?

My trims are warped anyway, so don't look great. Hence me not minding removing them for now, and I'm not at all fussed about seeing the cars without them.

 

[zcacogp]

Paul,

The sill trims are held on with plastic nuts on the threaded 'bolts' sticking out (they aren't really bolts, as you will see when you look at them, but are similar.) The wing trims are held on with self-tapping bolts which go through the trims into clips on the lugs you can just about see at the end of Smiffy's picture. These lugs are part of the wing, and are pretty small - you wouldn't need to remove them.


Oli.