I've been slowly making progress on the rust repairs myself over the last while. Here's some photos of what I've done.
I knew there was rust in the driver's side sill. So I cut the side skirts off. Looks like this one had been off before and the person who replaced it had shares in Sikaflex. Such a mission to remove, but I used a long knife with WD40 as lubricant to cut the glue and remove it. The hardest bit is getting it started as there is not much room to get the knife in, but as you progress, you can bend the skirt back for better access (giggity).
Used a caramel wheel on a drill to remove the remaining Sikaflex from the car body and the skirt so I can put it back on neatly. These things are actually really effective and I'd recommend them to anyone removing Sikaflex.
This is the cause of some of the rust:
And here is the extent of the rust:
Cut up another VS (wagon) with good sills to replace the rust cuts:
Then I realised the little raised mounts the rubber trim clips to were actually at a different height to my ute. So annoying. So I cut up another person's VS, a ute this time (with their permission, of course) only to find the same issue!
So I ended up cutting the mounts off, carefully measuring the correct position and then drilling a hole in this position and welding the mounts in from the back.
Then this happened when my rotary tool's cutting disc exploded. Exactly why I always wear safety glasses!
This is the end result after welding, grinding and priming for protection. I am obviously going to skim some filler over the welds.
