I’ve had a couple of weekends away from the car due to being away on a work trip, but I was back on it today, and the next job was taking off the rest of that outer sill panel.
I quickly sliced the bulk of the panel off with a cutting wheel, and then went over it painstakingly with a grinding disc to remove all the intermittent seam welds I’d used to attach it in the first place (hey, I don’t remember plug welding being a thing back then!).
As you can see in the top picture, the bottom of the A-post is in a bad way (another mess I don’t seem to have addressed properly before), so I cut it all back to good metal and will reconstruct it once the new sill panel is in place.
I was optimistic that I might have been able to get the new sill straight on today, but there is a bit of rot lurking behind the A-post within the footwell that I need to sort first, and I’m also still deliberating about replacing the sad-looking outer rear wheelarch (which the rear end of the sill will be welded to), so not much more to report today.
I think before I weld the sill on properly I’d also like to do a mock-up by refitting the door and clamping the full rear wing panel into place to check the eventual panel alignment is all going to be correct, but there is still too much of the old rear wing in place, so that will also wait for another day.
