DIY Project 6
Reinforcing the inner sill of a British Car
by Roger Morcilla, Winnipeg, Manitoba
When I first started to restore my 1960 Austin Healey 3000 I started to look for weaknesses along the chassis, There has been many talks and articles regarding Chassis flexing on the 3000 models. Unless you want to invest on a super structure Jule chassis from from Martin Jensen. Here is what I have done to mine to correct that problem.
Materials you will need:- 1”X3/4 Flat Bar.
Step 1.. Cut 2pcs of the flat bar to the full length of the sill.
Step 2.. Place 1pc on top & 1 at the bottom.
Step 3. .Now cut 2pcs of flat bar to box the ends of the sill, the front piece will be short and the one at the will be long.
Step 4.. Now tack weld the ends together forming the shape of the sill.
Step 5.. Next step is to mark out 5 equal spaces inside the sill.
Step 6.. Now cut 4pcs of flat bar and place them equally inside the sill, once placed in position proceed to tack the pieces in place.
Step 7. . Cut the bars and shape to a V that will fill the 5 spaces inside the sill, See figure 1 above. Your pieces should sit in place as illustrated in the Figure 1
Step 8.. Now for the welding, start by stitch welding the reinforcement bars on opposite sides of the sill to reduce distortion. After completing the welding procedure, check to see the straightness of the sill. If the sill is bowed you must straighten first by placing the welded sill on the floor and gradually hammer the edges until sill is straight. After the sill is straight proceed to place the other half of the sill and proceed to stitch weld the seams; with 1 inch welds every 2 inches apart.
The final product should look like the photograph below
