Body Rot:

Well, the Scottish road salt has finally eaten my N/S inner sill .


This is it with the side step removed . . . .










Has anyone had to fix one of these before - any tips would be much appreciated. ???

Its quite a complex pressing and I'll need to replace the outer surface that's covered by the plastic trim.

I don't suppose that ready-made repair panels are available anywhere as that would be just too easy . . . go on, surprise me .

It passed the MOT last year as this isn't a load-bearing component and the chassis is OK. I can't believe I'll get away with it for much longer though.

Bob.

I think they're listed as parts if you look at toyodiy. Under body / front floor panel.

pretty nasty, plenty of ventilation there!

Amazing the difference in condition between the inner and outer sills, Bob.

That beggars belief that when there's still paint on the chassis and the body mounts look fine , is the other side the same ? Have to wonder about that tin worm bacteria or whatever it is , perhaps someone can elaborate . I don't mean to be discouraging but i'd hate to see you get it repaired only for the rot to spread and cutting out a little more than seems necessary would remove the worm altogether if that might be the cause .

The other side is intact - but I haven't hit it with my chipping hammer .

I have just replaced the diesel pipes as the spill return pipe had rotted through above the tank. The later models (i.e. my 2001 100-Series) have plastic fuel pipes which are a lot better.

I'll take it for the MOT test . . . I don't want to spend a lot of time on the sills only for it to fail on other issues (though I think it is OK elsewhere).

Its 16 years old and has spent its life in Scotland where the road salt kills cars. Even the major stuff I replaced only three years ago is now rusty.

Its running better than ever, but that's not much use if the body is dropping off .

Bob.

Mines as old as yours and the rust is superficial and even if i didn't do something about it as planned i reckon it would take at least another 10 years to cause problems . Couldn't you find a crashed truck at the scrapyard and cut out the section you need and have it welded in ?

A good welder will have no problem cutting that out and reconstructing the inner sill and floor pan out of flat sheet steel. I used to do these repairs myself on all sorts of cars in the old days, with my trusty oxy-acetylene torch!

The shape of the outer sills is more critical, because they make the body contour of the car. Then I used to buy aftermarket panel replacements.

On the cruiser, the sill isn't even a structural member, so there'll be no problems there.

clivehorridge said:

I used to do these repairs myself on all sorts of cars in the old days, with my trusty oxy-acetylene torch!

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Me too .

I once spent two weeks putting a new floor into a Morris 1000 van for a friend's Student Son. I've done sills on my own cars in the past.

I can do this one myself (I have MIG and Stick welders) but it would be easier to start with a properly formed panel or three.

The original body pressings are listed on ToyoDIY so I'll have to order some of them - bloomin' expensive though.

I've also got a load of other jobs that I must do this year that don't involve cars, but time is running out .

First, the MOT (on Monday) to see what else they find.

Bob.

Shayne said:

Mines as old as yours and the rust is superficial and even if i didn't do something about it as planned i reckon it would take at least another 10 years to cause problems . Couldn't you find a crashed truck at the scrapyard and cut out the section you need and have it welded in ?

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Check around the rear spring mounts on the chassis. And the last two cross members. If you have a towbar on you might not see how bad the rear crossmember is.

Anyway thats where mine was going at the time the transfer box exploded. Sills were fine.

I hope you have a kind or blind MOT tester as that is within a prescribed area, It's within 30cm of the body mounts and no doubt the seat belt mounts will be within the limit as well. Good luck with it.

Rob Cowell said:

Check around the rear spring mounts on the chassis. And the last two cross members. If you have a towbar on you might not see how bad the rear crossmember is.

Anyway thats where mine was going at the time the transfer box exploded. Sills were fine.

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I was in the process of treating all that with Fertan rust remover/converter when i decided i'm going to Lincomb so had the tow bar , rear bumper , inner bumper , that shelf bit that obviously supports the bumper when stood on and the tank guard all removed . Surface rust for sure but but 10 years without treatment easy . The rusts all gone now good stuff that Fertan just sprayed it on with a bathroom squirty bottle then after an hour jetwashed the road around truck to keep the Fertan moist , i did that a few times as it was a very hot day . Leave it overnight then just jetwash the rust away .

tim falce said:

I hope you have a kind or blind MOT tester as that is within a prescribed area, It's within 30cm of the body mounts and no doubt the seat belt mounts will be within the limit as well. Good luck with it.

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Well, it passed without comment .

I'll replace the sills, but I now have some time to get organised and do it rather than being in a rush.

For some reason the new Tester didn't like my additional rear & brake lights in the rear wing light units (its a common-enough mod ) and removed the bulbs after initially failing it.

Nothing was said when I collected it and it wasn't until I got home and was filing the paperwork that I saw what had happened.

I did that mod about three years ago and its never been mentioned before.

MOTs are a bit of a Lottery (with no prizes).

Bob.

That's the trouble with mot's personal likes or dislikes shouldn't come into it , but they do . I have the same mod but must admit i hate following vehicles ,especially in the rain that have high mounted brake lights

Good news the truck passed though

Interesting, I have that mod too, and the tester I use has said every 90 series should have it.. There ya go..

Bob said:

Interesting, I have that mod too, and the tester I use has said every 90 series should have it.. There ya go..

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My small box trailer (actually an 8'6" X 4'3" body on a twin-axle chassis) obscures the bumper lights. It has decent lights of its own but I do like to know that the towing vehicle rear lights are visible in the dark should a trailer bulb fail.

I'll be sounding out Simon Holton about body panels in August .

Bob.

Good to hear of the pass Bob, despite the circumstances. The test is a very strange combination of regulation and opinion. At least now you have time to sort the rot out at your leisure.

BobMurphy said:

Well, it passed without comment .

I'll replace the sills, but I now have some time to get organised and do it rather than being in a rush.

For some reason the new Tester didn't like my additional rear & brake lights in the rear wing light units (its a common-enough mod ) and removed the bulbs after initially failing it.

Nothing was said when I collected it and it wasn't until I got home and was filing the paperwork that I saw what had happened.

I did that mod about three years ago and its never been mentioned before.

MOTs are a bit of a Lottery (with no prizes).

Bob.

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It sounds like you got the blind or more likely dumb tester. The nearest reason for a fail on the additional lamps would be "obviously incorrectly positioned" but they are not incorrectly positioned so not sure on his reasoning other than he likes making things up. As for the rust, even if he misses the fact it's close to structural parts then an advisory for corrosion would be on the cards.
Well done anyway and MOTs sometimes seem to be a bit of a lottery