I’m wanting to replace the sills on my OTS roadster. Do you guys have any tips, tricks, recommendations and advice to share? Aside from severe rust on the tops of these, the car will remain on the chassis as it’s a mostly rust free California car. I plan on replacing these one at a time. Also, I’ve already removed, upgraded and replaced the old door hinges so that’s out of the way. Do I still need to brace front and rear body sections even though everything remains on the chassis? And how many spot welds/ locations am I looking at undoing here?
Can’t help you with the spot welds but as for the bracing the more the better. Without bracing, particularly in an open top car, you can be almost guaranteed of movement. Once the body slips out of position you will be cursing yourself for days as you try to get it back where it should be.
Chris,
I replaced the sills on my 120 fhc, and I do not believe it is possible to do the job as you describe. The only way I can imagine would be to replace them in sections, and I believe the result could be a mess. The proper way is to thoroughly brace the front and rear sections after removing the floors and lots of mechanical components (not necessarily the drivetrain), lift the body from the frame, cut away the old sills, install the new sills to the FRAME, replace the body including doors, boot and bonnet, then re-shim until everything fits perfectly. You can then weld the new sills in place and remove the braces. On my car, I then removed the body again to properly paint the finished underside. Needless to say, a big job - not the same as sill replacement on a unibody car like an e-type. Alternatively, perhaps you could do some good quality patching if it’s just the tops as you say. Good luck.
I am interested in this thread as it is one if my next jobs . With the rear wing (fender) off and the B post removed could the new sill be wriggled in without lifting the body ?
Thanks Jim
If you are a small bloke, as I am, and supple, as I used to be, so you can
“get in” to cut away the original sill, then it is possible. If the fit of the
door/doors is / are poor, adjustment can be effected by jacking the
bulkhead after cutting away the old sill. A small amount can effect a big difference. Photo might throw some light.
Peter B
+1. XK bodywork is considerably more complicated and difficult than bodywork done on an E-type. Replacing the sills on an XK120 is critical. Get them wrong and nothing afterward will fit. New sills fitted and shimmed to the frame, doors on, front and rear clips positioned, adjusted and finally bolted to the frame in their final positions, welded in.
Okay, I’ve had to take a detour with this sill replacement thing. With the passenger side sill completely, and oh-so-carefully cut and ground out, I had decided to do a rebuild of my door hinge boxes. Pressed out the old pins, drilled, reamed, turned a set of shoulder bolts and pressed in graphite impregnated bronze bushings sourced from McMaster-Carr. I’ll add that removal and installation of the hinge boxes couldn’t be easier when the sills are either out or a small portion at the bottom cut away. Top and bottom hinges simply drop down and out via the very bottom where the fender/ wing turns inwards. Truth be told, there was no visible wear with the hinges – and corresponding door sag – but as all of the hinge pins were frozen, it seemed like a smart thing to rebuild and upgrade them with bushings. So that’s out of the way though it did take some time.
Back to the sill. So what I’ve done so far is to go wild with the metal cutoff wheel. Cutting out the visible section in the door area was actually fun and gratifying – though very dirty. There was easily a pound or two of road dirt, two burnt out dash lamp bulbs and a few assorted fasteners buried inside. That’s the easy part. The other, I’m guessing – six hours was spent carefully cutting and grinding away the front and rear portions of the old sill. Very slow, tedious and yet well worth the effort at the end. And as peterjb alludes to, fancying myself as a contortionist is a plus. Fascinating to see dark recesses unseen since it left the factory. Anyway, once every last trace of metal secured with old tack welds was gone, installation of the new sill is done by installing the replacement sill down and forward and then moving it back to align with the mounting holes on the chassis. Removal of the front and rear packs of body shims is a big help. There’s just one caveat here though. The rear most underside gusset on the new sill needs to have it’s tack wells undone on one side, bent out of the way and then bent back into position and re-welded after installation. Otherwise, it won’t clear into the underside of the door B-post.
That’s it. I now need to finish installing my rebuilt hinges again, put the new sill assembly in again, install the packs of body shims, give everything the once over again, and weld, weld, weld before tackling the driver’s side.
I really just wanted to revisit this for the benefit of others considering doing the same. Yes, you can do it if you’re patient and don’t rush things. A body off restoration of course is the best way to go, but for this particular car at least, it would’ve been overkill as most of its existence has been spent baking under the sun of California’s dry interior. I will attach a picture or two in it’s current mock up after a general cleaning of my work area.
That’s outstanding, Christopher. I was coming back to this thread to post a note about a conversation I had with a local jag guru since posting to your question. He confirms that it is possible, as you figured-out on your own! His method is the same as you describe, although he did not mention the gusset. I would guess that the coupe would be easier than the roadster, given the thicker packing pieces. Good work.
Thanks for the details , really useful . I have bought one new sill and I am getting a fabrication shop to fold the 2 long sections so I can make the other side . I have a FHC and the sills are 52" rather than 48" on the OTS and DHC so I will post if the slide in ok. I only have one aluminium packer under my old sill but as it was a home made I don’t know how original that was.
Jim
Here is a mock up with it just sitting in place – no shims yet. While I can still take it out, now is a good time to continue with the replacement of the old brake line and in particular, the old fuel line especially. The latter had been twisted every which way over the years and cut and spliced with rubber tubing to accommodate fuel filters and a different fuel pump. Also, having access to that now empty chassis through hole makes it easier for me to stick in a length of rubber tubing and suck out any loose gravel/ road dirt that has made its way in over time. Finally, here’s a picture of one of the shim packs. Jaguar used eight in the rear and five in the front for the passenger side of this particular car. A wire wheel only did a fast and complete job of removing all of the light corrosion between shims. They were then lightly sprayed with metal etch primer followed by, what else: aluminum spray paint. Each set has been kept together as they were taken off and marked inside with a felt pen as to position in case I forget.
Others would know better Jim, as my knowledge of these cars is more '120 specific. So I can’t truly answer your question. Also, roadsters like mine have wood ply floorboards. The sides of the sills have a recess so the floorboards can sit flush with the sill tops. Threaded inserts on the recess bottoms are for the floorboard retaining screws. I’d imagine your setup should be much the same.
To answer your questions as far as I can with reference to the dhc, the metal floor is spot welded to the flange on the sill. The hole, which is only on the driver’s (RHD) side sill is for two thin looms. One goes to the rear lights, the other to the boot interior light and also the reversing light.
