Body Sill Madness

Well, it has been a hot minute since my last blog entry. A lot of extraneous stuff has been going on personally, but enough of that. Let's get to the good stuff, and hopefully we'll continue with a posting schedule that will work.

Today's post is about the BODY SILLS and their construction. My original intent was to create new ones (which I do have wood for), and I may do that, but for now, I'm attempting to take the ones that came with the body (made by a previous owner), and see if I can make them work.

The sills that came with the body were not re-created exactly like they should have been and actually may have been just a rough rush job. So taking the remains of the original sills, and using photos/measurements of gracious owners of other Centerdoor Sedans, I created a set of scale drawings for driver and passenger BODY SILLS. The dimensions are extremely close to the wood currently in other cars, with a tiny amount of wiggle room.

I first determined the length of the sill, which the previous owner had cut. From the sill remains, I determined that the sills needed a bevel of 11 degrees. Both to the ROCKER PANEL mating face, and the SUB SILL nailing strip area on the QUARTER PANEL mating face. There must be a nailing strip between the sill edge and the front quarter sheet metal. This nailing strip is visible in the body parts books.

I then set about creating that beveled edge. The driver side sill was very close to the right width of 5 3/4 inches wide (finished size), not including the 1/2 inch rabbet (to the inside of the sill). The passenger side, was over an inch too wide, so I cut the edge with a jig saw. Yes, in hindsight, a table saw might have been a better choice, but that saw is buried in car parts. I broke no less than 4 blades.

(driver side)

(passenger side)

I have also determined that the mortises and at least one mounting hole are either not the right size or are in the wrong place. The little spacer seen in the PILLAR NOTCH, is because the notch was cut too long. It should only be 4 3/4 inches long at the bottom (as the sill lays flat). The space between the pillar notch and the first mortise should be 10 3/4 inches and once the floorboard risers are set, that space will be (approximately) the width of the front floor board.

You might be wondering: why mortises? Well, there are three perpendicular boards that are attached in this area. Two, at the mortises, are permanent. One goes between those two and is screwed to the rabbet with six screws (three per sill side). That's the area the front seats and gas tank housing are attached.