Outer sills welding

[fuzzedup]

Hi all, just a quickie. I need to replace the outer sills on my van (drivers & passenger side). I've bought the replacement sills and cut out the rot of the old (not a lot but needed doing) , but I've cut down the replacement panels in length as not all the sill was rotten. My question is , for the MOT can I plug weld the bottom where the inner and outer sills seam together and then seam weld the remaining sills side or does even the bottom part need to be seam welded ??

Cheers
Paul

[DodgeRover]

Make a tidy job and no one will be any the wiser. Recreating the manufacturers method of construction should be fine

[ernie b]

20150414_194631.jpg

2018-02-09 09.20.12.jpg

Couple of pics from when I done mine. You can clearly see the spot welds on the top and bottom seams, that's how it was done from the factory.
I have acess to a spot welder but most just drill the top panel (8mm seems to work best) and plug weld to the panel behind (the mig seam looks dirty as I was using a gasless mig)

[fuzzedup]

Cheers all, i didnt think the MOT would take plug welds for the seams. Did it pass OK ??

[cherniy_chack]

ernie b,It is better to weld thin parts with "electric razors" - in one of the parts drill holes about 8 mm in diameter, compress and fill the holes with molten metal. Then, clean the welding points with an abrasive disc.
So less work and it is not so noticeable will be your MOT.
I liked your work.

[ernie b]

Cheers all, i didnt think the MOT would take plug welds for the seams. Did it pass OK ??

Plug welds shouldn't be a problem as you are just replicating the factory spots and it is welded after all. Once ground down they'd really have to be looking to find them.

The reason I'm being so particular is twofold
First that van is being restored (when I get back to it) and I want it mint.
Second I live in ireland and the tester is entitled to demand an engineers report on body repairs, usually just the chassis but as the transit is monocoque construction some of them can go bit overboard. Nothing was mentioned about it at test time so I presume he never noticed

[gotgcoalman]

MOT wise.
Welds must be as factory or better.
So.....
If it was spot welded when it left the factory thats all that's needed.
Otherwise it's full seam

Nice pics ernie b.
Transit porn

[cherniy_chack]

Guys, what does MOT mean?
Decipher, please.
I understand that it is a car technical condition monitoring service.
In Ukraine, this service was canceled several years ago due to full corruption.

[finn_mccool]

Guys, what does MOT mean?
Decipher, please.
I understand that it is a car technical condition monitoring service.
In Ukraine, this service was canceled several years ago due to full corruption.

MOT was the Ministry of Transport in the old days, and is still the name for the annual vehicle safety and roadworthiness inspection for vehicles older than 3 years here in the UK. Like the ITV in Spain.

[cherniy_chack]

finn_mccool ,thank you!
At us it was called "technical inspection of vehicles".
Liquidated.
Life has become easier, the number of accidents has not increased.