OK my Zed is now off the road and I intend on doing a lot of work on it over the winter months, plus fitting body kit then respraying

 

First problem I have is with the sills returns which are both rotted through.

 

One of the sills (off side) has also gone a little bit where it joins the sill return. Bizarrely the neaside sill is much more solid though it does ot seem to have been previously worked on and is just as old as the offside.

 

The floor pan and 'inner sills' are pretty sound (there is a small-ish hole in the floor pan under the drivers seat but it has lots of solid metal around it so should patch up OK) Other than that the car seems pretty solid underneath and wheel arches etc are sound.

 

Question is - can I buy some repair panels for the sill returns or is it cheaper to fabricate some from sheet metal, the intention is to fit side skirts after repair to 'cover' up any repair work. Iv'e seen the name MJP mentioned in other places but their website says no items in stock for 300ZX body repairs

 

Pics attached (having cut away some of the rot to see just how much solid metal remains)

It is far cheaper to make your own panels, but for ease a lot of folks purchase the ready made sections. Once you cut into the sills you are probably going to find that you need to do some fabrication, so you are going to have to purchase some sheet metal. When I replaced my sills I bought a 6' x 4' (or there abouts) section of sheet metal for about £40 which was enough to do the front and rear sill sections and the rear quarters. IIRC at the time each repair section that was available cost about £45.

They defo do the rear sills mate, I got mine from Mjp !

 

This guy Steve (07815 287018) does them too and some other panels, give him and Mjp a ring, I'm sure they'll sort you out :)

 

Also have a real good dig around behind them, as mine didn't look too bad til the outer sills came off. But a LOT welding and underseal and she'll be right for yrs :) oh one thing, whilst your in there then re route the rear targa drains, brought mine out through small hole and then clipped them to inside of wheel arch, save Nissan design fault from happening again lol

 

Hope this helps

I heard about the targas draining through pipes into the sills, but having cut away some rot I can see the rubber pipes fit into short metal pipes that then drain through a hole in the bottom of the sill and out of the car. AFAIK this is original, not after market. You can see one of the short metal pipes clearly in the second photo

 

Rich

Give MJP a call about the parts mate - his website is not always up to date with regards to what's in stock or not; and most of the time Mike will sort the parts in a few days if he hasn't got them to hand.

 

He's always your best bet for new OEM parts IMO....

 

Richard:cool3:

I heard about the targas draining through pipes into the sills, but having cut away some rot I can see the rubber pipes fit into short metal pipes that then drain through a hole in the bottom of the sill and out of the car. AFAIK this is original, not after market. You can see one of the short metal pipes clearly in the second photo

 

Rich

 

Hell of a coincidence that most rot appears at that point on most cars with the problem, including mine, my pipe was still there but all was left was something that looked like a rusty wedding ring on the end ! Lol

Maybe they block or leak maybe ?? Just thought seeing as sill being hacked away then why not get rid of potential problem :)

@scubanesh

 

Not disagreeing with you at all as you no doubt know more about this than me. I just got this impression from what I heard that the drains ending up in the sills and filled them with water to make them rot..... was suprised to see they actually ended up in a metal pipe out to the road. Perhaps someone exagerated the issue of sills full of rainwater!

 

But yeah, I will take the advice and re-route them Cheers

Edited October 8, 201213 yr by dicky96

could they be leaking from the top of the pipe? can u see that far up? might not be disconnected at the base.

just had a similar section replaced on mine, but the corrosion was not as extensive as you appear to have fella. cost me £300 inc vat to have the panel cut, new one formed and welded, small area of rust at the top of the arch cut and welded too, and the whole panel resprayed.

 

Here's a section a bought

 

Nearly completely fitted

Fabricate it. I did both sides, almost full length of sills, including the innards of the sill. I paid a mot guy i know to weld it up and all in cost me less than £250.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers guys

 

I ordered two sill return repair panels from MJP £75 plus VAT each. Anything else that needs patching up gets fabricated. Actually the nearside sill itself is pretty sound and the offside sill needs about 3 inches plating over. It's just the part beween the sills and back wheel arches that are really bad