Clamp feeding frenzy at the sill cover cut-outs

(Author: ikom Friday July 1, 2005, Jul,01,2005Jul,01,2005

Friday July 1, 2005

I continue work on the sill covers and mark the rest of the rivet holes - on the door/side pod edge and also the two ends (front and rear). I centre punch these and drill them on the drill press.

I position the sill covers and clamp them so that they line up with my previously marked registration points and carefully drill two initial rivet holes for securing the sill covers to the chassis with skin pins.

Once the skin pins secure the sill covers and they cannot move, the rest of the holes are drilled.
The next task is to bond the solid rectangular bent square rods shaped to serve as lid spacers to the underside of the sill cover panels.

While other builders apparently elect to bond them to the chassis first, I think that there would be greater control (of establishing tolerances) if they were bonded to the undersides of the sill covers and the whole assembly subsequently bonded to the chassis.

I clean the bonding surfaces with degreaser and apply a thin coat of Wurth Glue and Bond to each sill spacer and place it in position so that it sits just beyond the edge of the lid cover cut-outs by about 1 to2mm.

I then use every small clamp that I can squeeze into the cut-out to bond the spacers to the sill covers while adjusting the distance from the edge of the cut-out to the spacer, so that it is even all along the perimeter. I leave the assembly to dry - or rather until the Wurth sets up.

The result is an even lip of approximately 1mm overlapping the spacers, which is what I wanted to achieve. I will leave the panels to bond overnight; I clean up and call it a day.