Fitting Floors and Sills

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Neil Evans
Posts: 12179
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:06 am
Committee Role: Technical Officer
Location: Boston, Lincolnshire
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Fitting Floors and Sills

Post by Neil Evans »

First things first, fit the drivers door, having made sure the hinge pins and balls/cones are in good order and all of the hinge bolts are fully tightened. Close the door and check that it gaps up ok to the wing and body side and that the waist and swage lines follow through. Remove the wing but the door should be left in place, opened back fully...

On a van, you need to X brace the shell. (Saloons have a bulkhead in the form of the rear seat back so it's not so critical)... 20mm square RHS is more than adequate...

The best place is from the top edge of the heel board/front edge of rear seat seam to the top of the B post the opposite side. Then add two vertical members to the outside, thus... IXI

Fit a horizontal brace across the bottom of the door hole from A post to B post, but inside the cab area to allow the door to be closed for frequent checking of door gaps.

Then, if you fit a horizontal brace across the car from A post to A post, via the top of the transmission tunnel, you can't go far wrong.

Once these are in you can cut everything away, back to the transmission tunnel, if necessary, though I'd advise only one side at a time and that you tackle the worst side first...

Fit the floor pans, plus inner and outer sills but don't weld anything at this stage. Just use clamps and temporary fixings (I use self drilling PK screws, then simply plug weld the holes up afterwards). Once it's all where it should be, the door still fits the hole and you're still happy with the gaps, swage and waist lines you can start to weld it all in place. Leave welding the outer sill till last as it may have to be removed to dress distortion in the inner sill once the floor to sill welds are done...
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