Getting a good fit with patch panels, what are your methods?

[Joe 90]

I'd have changed the whole sill as the sills on them golfs are all starting to rot now and the rest of the car is usually perfect. It'll still probably last as long as you want it to anyway but we all are holding onto these cars now as new cars are crap and especially if you can stick a patch on yourself then a years driving costs very little compared to paying off fancy cars still giving loads of trouble that you cant fix yourself.
Most cars get the sills patched but 2 cars that usually get full sills is your golf and a ford connect.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I find sleepers work well!

Thats exactly what I do...I made a base for mine to give them some stability. The hydraulic ramps are also good but I never drive onto them because it's not easy...I just use a 3ton (high lift) jack to lift the car. The sleepers have the advantage of being very easy to store and light too. If I'm going under it I also an axle stand too.

Only difference is my car is worth less than the sleepers

 

[stichill99]

Yes it's a home made rotisserie. I have been getting on with the welding on the golf. It has had new inner half wheel tub,arches and a few patches which I have been trying to make invisible which is not too easy. Had a few cases of thinning the metal too much with air file. The golf was a 3 door 1.1 which I am building into a mk1 gtd. I have a mk2 cl turbodiesel donor for engine/gearbox. My first car was a mk1 golf diesel van and I am trying to regain my lost youth and get the kids interested in old cars!

 

[Onoff]

Yes it's a home made rotisserie.

Be interested to see some more pictures of it.

 

[BenMig150]

I'd have changed the whole sill as the sills on them golfs are all starting to rot now and the rest of the car is usually perfect. It'll still probably last as long as you want it to anyway but we all are holding onto these cars now as new cars are crap and especially if you can stick a patch on yourself then a years driving costs very little compared to paying off fancy cars still giving loads of trouble that you cant fix yourself.
Most cars get the sills patched but 2 cars that usually get full sills is your golf and a ford connect.

I did have a good look inside the sills after cutting out the rust and they looked pretty clean all the way down to the front so thought it would be overkill doing the whole sills and I wanted to keep it inside the area of the rubberised undercoating so i didn’t need so much paint afterwards. I guess it could always have full sills at a later date if it needed it but I think if it’s lasts another 5 years as it is then I’ll be happy enough to let it go by then. I think it’s actually the original seam sealer inside the rear wheel arch that breaks down over time and starts letting the moisture and dirt in, I guess if you leave it too long before repairing it then it would definitely spread the whole length of the sill which is probably what’s happening with most.

 

[Onoff]

Got to love the MK1 Ford Focus. Ford applied a 2" wide strip of seam sealer to the flat underside of the sill. The water gets in at the junction between paint and seam sealer and...

You can actually peel off the seam sealer with that bit of the sill in places. It's like the rot started between seam sealer and paint rather than inside the sill.

 

[Onoff]

I was borrowing a y2000, MK4 GTi, 2.0L to smoke around in off the BiL until I think Nov 20. Serious sill rot on that.

BiL scrapped it with Redcorn. Got about £300.

 

[GRW]

I missed out on a bargain set of car ramps off FB a while ago - & I've never seen their like before (gutted!).

Imagine a typical steel car ramp, heavy-duty. Then (which is something I know you can buy) the flat top section has a bottle jack under it, and the top plate affixed onto the bottle jack head - so once the vehicle is on the flat part of the car ramp, you can jack it up further to increase working height. (I think there were axle stand type tubes so you could put safety pins in as well from memory).

These Ramps though went a step further.... and you could remove the sloped ramp part once the vehicle was on the flat section - so you had much better access to sills etc.
"What a great idea" I thought.

I've mused whether or not I have the ability to cut up and adapt a set of ordinary ramps to make something like that myself (probably better to make from scratch in two elements that join together though? I.e. the lifting platform section & the ramp section?)

As for the OP's Sill Repairs..... I aspire to do work that tidy

 

[pedrobedro]

When I was doing the Corsa sill on the yard I jacked it up with the Bradbury Jackette I was given as scrap (a couple of O rings fixed it) and I put the ramps under the wheels back to front. It caused some puzzled looks.

 

[Nick DV]

Thats exactly what I do...I made a base for mine to give them some stability. The hydraulic ramps are also good but I never drive onto them because it's not easy...I just use a 3ton (high lift) jack to lift the car. The sleepers have the advantage of being very easy to store and light too. If I'm going under it I also an axle stand too.

Only difference is my car is worth less than the sleepers

View attachment 332463

Is that a Figaro, and if it is, are they prone to rusting? A young lady near to me had one and from a distance looked great, but close up there was rust and bubbling paint everywhere.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Is that a Figaro, and if it is, are they prone to rusting?

Yea they love to rot big time...they were never sold in the UK market so all have been imported...rust protection just wasn't up to the UK climate I think. The soft top doesn't help either....then they stuck holes everywhere to attach the chrome!

 

[Nick DV]

Yea they love to rot big time...they were never sold in the UK market so all have been imported...rust protection just wasn't up to the UK climate I think. The soft top doesn't help either....then they stuck holes everywhere to attach the chrome!

The one the young lady had was pink - no idea if that's a standard colour - with what looked like white leather inside. One moment it was in really good condition but it seemed to rust and bubble overnight! Shame

 

[Onoff]

A young lady near to me had one and from a distance looked great, but close up there was rust and bubbling paint everywhere.

The young lady or the Figaro?

 

[Nick DV]

The young lady or the Figaro?

I thought I'd got away with the comments In all honesty, IIRC I think the car looked in much better condition that the young lady

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

They only came in 4 standard colours (the Figaro that is)...there was a colour for each season (pink wasn't a standard colour).

They made 20k of them in 1 year only...to buy one in Japan you had to enter a lottery....if your number was picked you were allowed to buy the car!

 

[Nick DV]

They only came in 4 standard colours (the Figaro that is)...there was a colour for each season (pink wasn't a standard colour).

They made 20k of them in 1 year only...to buy one in Japan you had to enter a lottery....if your number was picked you were allowed to buy the car!

I thought it wasn't a standard colour or a standard interior trim. The only ones I've ever seen have been pale green like yours. I think she thought she was Lady Penelope in Thunderbirds

 

[northwest]

The title of this thread brought a completely different image into my head, as I am sure it did to a few others on here. Patch Panel:

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I thought it wasn't a standard colour or a standard interior trim

Yea colour not standard...however the interior sounds standard. All white...loaded with electric windows and aircon etc. Underneath its based on a Nissan Micra so they're actually not a bad drive.