I have replaced the sills with box section on my TDi300 and was wondering whether to put the sill finishers back on. I was not going to use the plastic rivets but glue them on with PU so that I did not have any holes into the sill.

Most of the corrosion behind them is because of the plastic rivet perforations so I reckon the glue will solve that.

Is there any disadvantage in leaving them off altogether?

But I was wondering if leaving them off meant that the bottom of the doors and the door seals get hammered, wind noisy, spray leaky?

I could just give the exposed bits a coat of stone chip if the lack of finishers is not a problem.

Any body have experience to share?

Alan

if your disco isn't a hard core offroader it will look **** with our them on i have replaced and repaired the box section in the past i use sikaflex to stick them back on.

As you say 80% of discovery corrosion could be avoided if A: they didn't put holes everywhere B: they didn't put rubber grommets in were they are not needed c: people check there discos every so often and top up under-seal, stop leaks.

I am just finishing off a welding job now what looked like a small amount of corrosion in the rear door arch turned out to be massive patches on both rear inner arches N/S/R sill rebuild from b post to c post, boot floor patching, and a tiny patch on the drivers side floor obviously all the soundproof was soaking and caused by a leaky roof gutter (none sunroof model) so that got cut back, took 2 weeks to dry the interior out it was then repainted after welding then Schultz the rust in the boot was from settling water so it had rusted from the inside out, the sill was caused by the plastic clips the floor from the inside out both rear arches because of the rubber grommet in the bottom of the c post, to be fair the disco was a 1995 and this was its first ever welding but the chassis and body mounts are mint the best i have ever seen, if this water leak was attended to i probably wouldn't be welding for a almost 20 year old car i think its not bad at all !!!

No not a hardcore off roader.

Apart from the aesthetics what about the practicalities of leaving them off?

Sounds a familiar tale when I lifted the carpets I found less and less!

My sorry tale in pictures!

Disco 1 Yet another Discovery 1 welding saga - Land Rover Zone

Had your rear wheel arches gone over the top as well as beside the floor? I will be doing mine when work allows, haven't decided whether to take off the body panel to get at it or struggle behind the aluminium. I also can't decide whether to cut the floor to wheel arch joint vertically and keep the flange at the bottom of the arch or horizontally at floor level and lose the last 20mm of wheel arch....


Alan

I've left one off mainly because I haven't welded up both sides yet. But I'm having no problems. I'm going to put rock sliders on so they wouldn't go back on anyways. Plus it looks a lot better in my opinion. Paint the sills rather than straight underseal and it will look lifted to...

I also found that with them on. Every ####er stands on them to get in and out of my quite tall disco. And they kept getting smashed and broken anyways.

RKServicing said:

I've left one off mainly because I haven't welded up both sides yet. But I'm having no problems. I'm going to put rock sliders on so they wouldn't go back on anyways. Plus it looks a lot better in my opinion. Paint the sills rather than straight underseal and it will look lifted to...

I also found that with them on. Every ####er stands on them to get in and out of my quite tall disco. And they kept getting smashed and broken anyways.

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Ah that's good to hear and a good point, I took off the step because the tube frame was rotten so am likely to get the same clodhopper problem. Maybe I will undo some of my lovely new metallic paint work and weld on a steel step/slider.

I too have only done the one side so far, well back to the rear wheel arch at least…I keep telling myself the other side will be much quicker 'cos now I know what I'm doing!

Alan

Nope the rear arches had only gone right at the top were the c post attaches and if there wasn't a rubber grommet there they would probably still be solid, to look at they were still fine but after chipping away at both of them they whole was around the size of your fist i have checked the lower parts of the wheel arches and they are sound i have been throughout the whole car now with a pick and found no other rust and the leaks are fixed just time for a mammoth undersell job now and that should be it right for years to come.

remedave said:

Nope the rear arches had only gone right at the top were the c post attaches and if there wasn't a rubber grommet there they would probably still be solid, to look at they were still fine but after chipping away at both of them they whole was around the size of your fist i have checked the lower parts of the wheel arches and they are sound i have been throughout the whole car now with a pick and found no other rust and the leaks are fixed just time for a mammoth undersell job now and that should be it right for years to come.

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Lucky then! I guess the lack of sunroofs is the key. When I lifted mine out the flange to roof seals were no longer attached to the roof, which was due to age I suppose, but there was a joint inside which the guy had missed with the sealant by 10mm so it hadn't been sealed from day one!

Whereabouts was your gutter leak and how did you find and fix it?

I used stone chip rather than underseal, the advantage being you can paint over it for cosmetics and being smoother tends to hold less dirt

Alan

Yep- look ****e without them. After new sills, refitted mine with black self tappers and big black washers - loaded the small holes and unseen part of sill with waxoyl before though and put a plastic spacer between to let any water trapped run out. best part is, being screws- you can whip em off easy every now an then and check em out/ clean sills.

Cleaned out the gutter run a smear of sika flex around the gutter (if you look at the old sealant in there its likely to be cracked) the using a moist finger on a cotton glove smeared the sealant in to a nice think finish err sound like 50 shades of grey then repaired the window rubbers with it too (cracks) not sure if they would leak but thought best to while i was on all of this was done after the vehicle had sat dry for over a week it was then allowed 2 days to dry before the pressure washer and big buckets of water were unleashed on it with the interior still out after welding i can say it had no leaks but tomorrows the real test before interior goes back in as there is a wet storm coming and its going outside for the next day…. no leaks please :roll eyes:

strange thing is i work on a disco 97 plate with 250k plus miles on it twin sunroof and its solid no leaks and no rust how strange is that ! :clap2: must have been a good day in the factory for that motor :lol:

The Hick said:

Yep- look ****e without them. After new sills, refitted mine with black self tappers and big black washers - loaded the small holes and unseen part of sill with waxoyl before though and put a plastic spacer between to let any water trapped run out. best part is, being screws- you can whip em off easy every now an then and check em out/ clean sills.

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Before I thought of the glue I was wondering about rivnuts, the sealed ones rather than the open ones, and bolts. The spacer sounds a great idea, I have a box of nylon washers somewhere, so if my glue does not stand up to it I will remember that.

Have you had any problems with people treading on them as above or have you got steps?

Alan

remedave said:

snip... but tomorrows the real test before interior goes back in as there is a wet storm coming and its going outside for the next day…. no leaks please :roll eyes:

strange thing is i work on a disco 97 plate with 250k plus miles on it twin sunroof and its solid no leaks and no rust how strange is that ! :clap2: must have been a good day in the factory for that motor :lol:

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Thank you for that. I have the roof lining and most of the trim out at the moment and the only place that seems to be letting any water in is from behind the door trim panel on the drivers door , so I guess the plastic sheet is damaged. I will have another look on the inside by the gutter when it rains next.

Good luck with the test!

They always talked about a Friday night job for a bad one, maybe they have more Fridays than most in Solihull….

Alan

use these - seals the holes, wont rust and due to brass inserts will not seize. also spaces the trim slightly away from the metal work