12 replies to this topic

[JonnyBMX]

Hi all,

 

am currently trying to replace the inner sills in my mini.

 

lots of work left to do before i get to a point of welding them in, i brought the m machine panels however.. they seem to long by about an inch? is that normal?

 

i also assume that the flanges of the inner sill panel needs to be inside of the heelboard and inside of the flitch panel?

 

thanks

Jonny

 

 

[sonikk4]

Hi all,

 

am currently trying to replace the inner sills in my mini.

 

lots of work left to do before i get to a point of welding them in, i brought the m machine panels however.. they seem to long by about an inch? is that normal?

 

i also assume that the flanges of the inner sill panel needs to be inside of the heelboard and inside of the flitch panel?

 

thanks

Jonny

 

Yes they need to be inside the heelboard flange and Flitch.

 

Have you got the old one out completely?? and have you got access inside the companion bin??

[sonikk4]

Oh and to make them fit inside in one piece you need to remove the affected sides floor crossmember.

 

Have you bought the one to first flute on the floor??

[JonnyBMX]

sonik,

 

ive taken the companion bin completely out, and the old inner sill is gone, just when i try and put in in, it seems to be about an inch too long, i wonder if its because the cross member is still in place with the flanges from where it was attached to the old. i did take some photos but they are too large to upload!

 

yeah its the one to the first flute

[sonikk4]

sonik,

 

ive taken the companion bin completely out, and the old inner sill is gone, just when i try and put in in, it seems to be about an inch too long, i wonder if its because the cross member is still in place with the flanges from where it was attached to the old. i did take some photos but they are too large to upload!

 

yeah its the one to the first flute

 

Yup in this particular case you will need to remove the crossmember section and that way it will fit in. I have in the past cut the lat 12 inches off, fitted the larger section in followed by the off cut. I should have just taken the crossmember out to save time to be honest.

[JonnyBMX]

okay thanks for the advice, would you recommend taking the whole cross member out? or just cut the end and re weld it? the car has been braced anyways front to back and side to side

[sonikk4]

Now if it was my car i would pop all of the spot welds to the tunnel, cut across the top of the tunnel and remove the complete half section. That way you can treat the inside of the member if required and the floor section.

[JonnyBMX]

good plan i will do that! thanks for the advise, ill keep you updated as to how it goes

[sonikk4]

good plan i will do that! thanks for the advise, ill keep you updated as to how it goes

 

No problem, any issues holler out. just as a heads up, on the four i have fitted i have never had to trim things off. A slight reshape at the flitch end but thats it.

[JonnyBMX]

worked a treat, as you already stated flitch end needed to be slightly adjusted but apart from that fitted in well. 

 

before i weld it in, i think im probably going to need to replace the part where the subframe attaches, only problem is, car is on stands on the subframe. any ideas how i might be able to do this repair without taking the subframe out?

 

cheers

[sonikk4]

worked a treat, as you already stated flitch end needed to be slightly adjusted but apart from that fitted in well. 
 
before i weld it in, i think im probably going to need to replace the part where the subframe attaches, only problem is, car is on stands on the subframe. any ideas how i might be able to do this repair without taking the subframe out?
 
cheers

Are you on about the bracket that the subbie bolts to??

If that is the case then ideally the subframe needs to come out. However with a bit of lateral thinking what you need is a plank of wood that will fit directly under the heelboard. Support this with a couple of axle stands and allow the weight of the car to rest on this.

Now the option here is to remove subframe or dismantle that corner. So radius arm off, remove the trunnion. Now you can get to both sides where the bracket is welded to on the inner sill and heelboard.

[JonnyBMX]

yeah that's the bit, just a bit worried that the heel board is quite week with the inner sill gone. ill see what i can do!

 

thanks for the advice

[sonikk4]

This is a heritage heelboard with the bracket installed. Now its only spot welded to the heelboard and inner sill.

 

Removing it has no real impact on structural rigidity while you replace it.

 

This is one i did on Wills Mini Special where i replaced the heelboard end as well as the inner sill

 

Now for his car i fabricated a subframe jig to make sure the mounting points were spot on. Not essential as you can use a subframe instead. On this car i also fabricated the heelboard ends from scratch along with the subframe mounting bracket.

 

Now this next picture shows the completed heelboard end and also the spot weld holes (drilled out) for the companion bin,