25 replies to this topic

[tb205gti]

Right my mini has the horrible oversills fitted. They appear to be in good nick though. After they were fitetd the previous owner gave them a very solid amount of Tectyl through small 4mm holes that has been drilled. However I do not quite like the oversills - but what can I do to make them last as good as possible? As long as they are in good shape I see no reason to remove them and fit new genuine sills.

Should i drill some holes where the sillvents are on the normal sills, or should I just leave them as they are - completely closed?

[steven]

the thing with oversills is they look good on the outside but it's only when you take them off will you see the full extent of the rust that they have caused

[rally515]

Best bet would be to take them off & relace with the proper macoy 4" ones,but if you insist on keeping them you could open up the inner sides (furthest under the car) were the original flutes would be by grounding down the welds in parts ?.

[garrymacmini]

as above oversills are the devils work, take out your rear pocket bases and have a look see what condition they are in, will give you an idea of what is going on behind those sills!

[tb205gti]

The bottom is in good nick still. The pockets are fine - no sign of rust here.

The previous owner fited them, but he gave it a good Tectyl inside once he fitted them.

I'll try to get some pictures of them and the door pockets etc.

[Big_Adam]

If it ain't broke, don't fit it.

[rally515]

If it ain't broke, don't fit it.

But it is broke ! ,the longer you leave it the worst it'll get speading into further more rotting of the doorster/frame ect... costing more money

[Carlos W]

What about getting one of those inspection cameras with the flexible guides in there to have a look?

[Carlos W]

http://pages.ebay.co...id=170969579679

An endoscope, like that

[Shifty]

Depends what you want to find.....

[miniyellowmini]

Apart from a hole that I could see starting near the rear subframe mountings mine looked ok, till I poked some more and this appeared



Wasn't till I removed the oversill the true horror appeared.



It's why they are so notorious for hiding rust, everything looks great from the outside. If you have the means to remove them then I would, the longer they are left the worse the damage.

I caught mine just in time and as bad as it looks once cleaned up was mainly surface rust and actually pretty solid apart from a few places that I had to weld in new metal.

[rally515]

What about getting one of those inspection cameras with the flexible guides in there to have a look?

I've got one of these,has built in lights aswell is only about the width of a 5 pence piece.Mainly used for looking at tooth fillings & inside ears ect..
Used it once on automotive related stuff,it plugs into laptop via usb very simple very good

[Carlos W]

What about getting one of those inspection cameras with the flexible guides in there to have a look?

I've got one of these,has built in lights aswell is only about the width of a 5 pence piece.Mainly used for looking at tooth fillings & inside ears ect..
Used it once on automotive related stuff,it plugs into laptop via usb very simple very good

I think I'll buy one, then I can have a look down the A Pillars, in my ear etc! Nowhere near my @rse tho, not into stuff like that

[CityCharlie]

Besides using an endoscope for checking the structure of the car you can also use it for diagnosing otherwise inaccessible parts of the car (Hard to get to areas around the engine bay, or in my case my engine in an old Porker 944 was diagnosed as being goosed (read a scrap cylinder).

Don't a number of suppliers sell oversills as an alternative to original sills (I.E to go in place of the original sills?) If so, there is a chance that no horrors may lie beneath, but that they were changed to save on cost (I know of a few people who shy away from the price of Heritage panels, even on a Mini where the prices seem reasonable!).

[Carlos W]

I nearly fitted oversills instead of original sills but the box section created isn't as strong and any moisture in there cannot escape so will sink to the lowest point and possibly rot the floro and sill. There have been loads of threads on this topic with people doing diagrams explaining things better than me