Next up the N/S middle sill!
The middle sill on the N/S has the top and bottom track for the sliding door roller attached to it (the top track is part of the flange that attaches the sill to the door threshold). i wanted to avoid removing the whole sill as it’s better to repair it in situ, but ours was pretty far gone – there are some substantial holes towards the top track which would be near impossible to fix with the track in place, and the rear of the track has completely collapsed (this was what caused our door to fall out during the first few weeks of us owning the van!).
In theory I should’ve been able to mark the centre of each spot weld holding the sill in place and drill the welds out. However in practice it was a right pain as the rusty track made some of the welds near impossible to spot, resulting in me needing to either chisel it out or expand the hole I’d drilled. It must’ve taken nearly 8 hours to get the thing out (embarrassing I know!).
Here it is all drilled out, it is as bad as it looks! Lots of holes near to the top track. I think I’ll have to graft as much as I can salvage from the old sill to the new one, rather than repair the old one as such.
On the plus side the underside of the threshold is in pretty good nick. I’ll clean it up, rust treat and epoxy it.
I think sorting the middle sill will take up most of the next week or so to get it right.
