BJ43 rear sill & corner repair; Honest feedback wanted

[43bruiser]

Good evening mud world, I recently wrapped up major body work to my 1980 BJ43. The rear sill was damaged, rusted out and plastered with body filler a few decades ago (previous owner). I could not find a shop I trusted to do the work nor find a correct replacement sill (to stay true to its roots as a euro spec 43). I decided to fabricate my own sill and weld in the corner patches. I also had to custom make the side channels and weld in some other damaged areas while I had it ripped apart.

I wanted it to look OEM the best I could, at least from the outside. This was my first attempt at fabrication and metal work to this degree.

This opened up a can a worm's to say the least and took 10x longer. Ill add some pictures to tell the story. Let me know your thoughts and what I could have done differently. Hopefully this can inspire others to not be too intimated by metal work, it's just play doh that needs some persuasion!

 

[43bruiser]

 

[43bruiser]

 

[43bruiser]

 

[B y r o n]

All the photos are appreciated. The rear sill repair/replacement is a very complicated process. A little more narrative to accompany the photos would probably help others who are about to undertake the same job. Good work!

 

[43bruiser]

I can do that. It was tough going through the pictures and not flooding the thread. I can break it down into phases on how I attacked this if people are interested.

 

[Wasatch Jay]

I can do that. It was tough going through the pictures and not flooding the thread. I can break it down into phases on how I attacked this if people are interested.

Please do. It looks like you did a really nice job and having great photos and descriptions can help and inspire others.

 

[Chamba]

Is your spare on the right right of the rig? It's a tube frame, but right-sided. Interesting. Should help prevent the LHD Cruiser Lean.

Where in Europe was this from?

 

[43bruiser]

Is your spare on the right right of the rig? It's a tube frame, but right-sided. Interesting. Should help prevent the LHD Cruiser Lean.

Where in Europe was this from?

Yup, right side. P/O drilled holes to add a left-hand carrier, but the tire carrier supports on the inside of the tub are located on the right side which suggests a factory RH carrier. Interestingly, the original sill had holes and captive nuts for both left and right. (not sure if that's normal)

I brought it back from Spain, but I believe its originally from Germany. This one is full of oddities. 1980, but late 1979 production. Adds a mix of early and late model 40 parts. It has been a wild research ride so far..

 

[Chamba]

79/80 are really interesting from all markets: they still maintain many of the pre-'78 features (smaller spring eyes, no transmission brace, tansfer case hand brake, round steering wheel pad rather than the shield of '81-'84, no hundred thousand digit on the odometer, older weather strip mounting style for the sweeper on the front door windows, no door pin operated dome light, etc) but have the more modern features of the final iteration of the 40 (22 gallon tank under the body, squared-off bezel with the headlights moved 32mm further apart for European compliance, rounded lower rear door corners on the tub to help prevent cracking, more civilised interior features).

Yours is fascinating with the right hand side, tubular spare rack and pre-'75 lower rear doors with the licence plate bracket mount on the left rear door. I like that a lot.

 

[Living in the Past]

The way this is put together is not really different than other 40 series 1/79 and later. Made for soft top with ambulance doors and spare tire on the passenger side. How it assembled is the same as other 40 series, may be reversed in areas. I'm curious of the process of making the replacement pieces on your own.

 

[RevISK]

Looks like you did a killer job, great work.

My 40 was built in April of ‘80 and it can be a crap shoot research wise.

 

[alberta mac]

The original is a three piece assembly with a flange or sil so the barn doors can close but anyone would not know any better looking at the truck especially when the earlier 1970-75 I think did not have the rear sil which looks like what you have reproduced ! Nice work !
The essence of that complex channel is to provide structural strength as the body mounts are just below and to secure the whole body solidly. The original thickness I believe is 1/8th steel but on the 1979+ they have a 16 ga or 18ga floor plate that makes the third piece in the rear assembly which gives the sil or recess for the doors to close.

 

[43bruiser]

Sill fabrication:

After surgically removing the rear sill it took some time to reverse engineer a new piece. I started with an order from online metals, 68"x7" 16 ga. Carbon Steel Sheet ASTM A1011 ($22).

I traced out the shape and measured everything about 100 times. Bending the 90 degree I needed turned out to be quite the task. I ended up finding an old school shop with a metal brake the size of a pickup truck. I cut out the shape of the ends, bent the edges over and welded it together. Then cleaned everything up. I attempted to keep a bottom flange but ended up cutting most of it off.

I ended up adding a 22g "cosmetic piece" to the top. The radius of the 90 degree bend in the 16g metal was too large and didn't match the original. This also allowed me to recreate the recessed body bolt holes. I used a homemade dimple die using a socket, bolt and 2x4.

 

[43bruiser]

The hardest part was making sure the geometry was right and making sure the body mounts where at the correct height. I welded the 22g to the 16g, I think a quality panel bond would have been better to avoid all the finishing work.

I finished it up with a few coats of epoxy primer. I wish I took better photos of everything but here's what I got...