This is going to sound bodgy, but hear me out.
Both of my end sill plates are holed, one more than the other.
The rest of the sill end plates are fine, its just the bottom. And the sills themselves are 100%.
3 options:
- Replace entire end sill plates, They’re about £120 each, if you ca find them. But I’m not sure they can be replaced in situ without disturbing the rest of the sill.
- Patch the holes up with welded patches. Maybe welders out there can tell me whether the rear suspension needs to be dropped to create the space
- The bodge; make some little plates, bond them in place
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By the looks of the pictures, I’d take them both off and see what is eating away behind them.
It looks to me like there might be a lot more going on and I would like to be sure instead of sealing it back up with patches.
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Very much depends on what you want from your car, if it were my Madge, a forever car, as Willer1 suggests above I’d see what is going on behind the holes and sort out the root of the problem. If funds are limited and or you just want to patch her up and get rid, cheaper options are available.
For me , I’d cut the rot out and take a look.
If treatable , great.
Fabricate new plates and refit…..I could be wrong so can stand corrected in saying probably not a load bearing section.
If not why not ‘for now’ pop rivet and bond new plate in ?
Plenty access for a look behind the panel with a snake cam type inspection camera. Looked inside mine to check alls okay a few times through the factory holes in the panel. You could get in through the rusted holes too.
What you see inside the panel might determine the way to go with the repair.
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Both sills were rebuit inside and out in 2017. Looks like the original endplates. As I said, the sills at 100%. The sills of course being the inner sections, and not the outer panels people erroneously refer to as sills. I can see right onto the sills.
It would be a forever car (had this one since 2005), but I am banned from shipping it to Thailand (where I am planning to emigrate), unless it was valued at at least £22,000, AND I pay 40% on that AND I agree to only use it on saturdays and sundays. Not happening. Its a 30 year old car with a 15 year paint job and 250k kms on it. Funds are not limited, its a matter of convenience. I don’t trust the local MX-5 specialist. It will be kept as long I need to keep it. Going to need some front wings sometime as well.
You only get so many years out of sill repairs. 9 years so far is pretty good. The sill plates tack up to the wing lip, difficult, see how they would be cleanly removed without disturbing a currently solid sill. The inner and outer wheel arches were all done at the same time, and I can still see the welding wire.
2017
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