Sill Trim retaining clips, numbers and location.

[James467]

Hi folks,

Need a bit of help, I have lost my diagram with the number and location measurements for the sill retaining clips.

I just need the location of the holes, distance from the top of the sill and how many plus the size of the hole.

Thanks!

20200108_095912

[Matt Cotton]

Hi James.

Sorry, I can't help with the reference; but I was just wondering if anyone has used an alternative to using the clips?

It is quite a large piece of trim, so I guess clips are best, but drilling through new sills seems a shame. I may leave mine off for SWU, but for VA138 I appreciate it needs to go back on for originality.

Bresco for the clips and protection of the holes after drilling and I guess that is the best you can do.

Kind Regards

MC

[Mad Mart]

I used to get my sprayer to spray the top of the black cill line 12mm. below the top of the cill. This would be to the centre of the chrome strip. I think there are 7 clips per side but not 100% sure, it's been a while.

[Tony Burd]

VA485 has still got her original sills, I can have a measure up Friday afternoon.

[James467]

Thanks chaps, if you could Tony that would be great.

[Carledo]

My Sprint (VA 26140) still has it's original sills with all holes intact, so I can measure them easily as trims are off.

The parts list shows 20 clips, part number 629647 so I'm guessing 10 per side.

I WAS going to dispense with the trim and weld up the holes, but it occurred to me that the car was Ziebarted from new and has so far effortlessly resisted the ravages of the tinworms. Welding up the holes would burn off the precious presevative goo and maybe make it rot FASTER in this case, so i've decided to retain the sill moulding for the forseeable future. I've even bought all new plastic clips for it! I got them from Fitchetts as though Brescos were cheaper on unit price, Brescos only sell in quantities that mean you either have too many or too few! Silly idea (or perhaps not!)

Steve

[Tony Burd]

There are 10off clips, 8off are the plastic 3 prong type & 2off are riveted on metal discs.

The spacing seems a bit random, be interesting to see if Steve's car has the same.

[xvivalve]

The spacing seems a bit random, be interesting to see if Steve's car has the same.

Probably not, seeings the NOS cill sections I have do not have any holes and the part number never changed.

The '73 parts book cites 20 x 629647

[Carledo]

The spacing seems a bit random, be interesting to see if Steve's car has the same.

Sorry for the slight delay, Mine is indeed completely different and a lot less random!

I also have (or HAD) 10 clips, all plastic, only one of which is attached to the wing. My printer is on the fritz so I cant reproduce the drawing but gaps (starting at rear arch and working forward) are as follows:-

Rear wheel arch to first hole 2 5/8"
1st to 2nd hole 7 1/8"
2nd to 3rd hole 7 1/8"
3rd to 4th hole 7 1/4"
4th to 5th hole 6 7/8"
5th to 6th hole 7 1/4"
6th to 7th hole 7 1/8"
7th to 8th hole 7 1/8"
8th to 9th hole 7 1/8"
9th to 10th hole (in wing) 7 1/4"

These are on the drivers side but the passenger side is effectively the same.

Distance from top of sill to centre of holes came out as 5/8" (16mm)

Hope this helps, Steve

PS, I can think of 2 reasons for the discrepancies between the 2 cars, a) Tony's sills aren't as original as he thought, or b) on his early build car, they hadn't yet got their sh*t together and by the time mine was built in 78, they had!

[Tony Burd]

Mine is a very early car VA485, so maybe by the time your car was made they had a jig or something to drill the holes.

The sills on mine appear to be original, but they have obviously been painted at some point so maybe they are OE replacements.

[Robert 352]

Steve and Tony have provided excellent summaries of the what they have measured on the bodies which they have.

Perhaps after the production settled down the factory used some sort of template which sat on the top edge of the sill, perhaps two templates which sat in the door openings.

I have checked the hole positions on the scrap Sprint VA 10810 DL body which is sitting here. I have a couple of other cars here with the trim attached but after recording the measurements here I would not expect a great deal of variation from what Steve measured.

I measured the distance from the rear wheel arch to first hole at 2 1/2".

The centre to centre distance between all the holes is 7 1/4 “ and the only significant difference to those recorded by Steve is between holes 4 to 5 which I measure at 7 3/16” and 5 to 6 which I measure at 7 1/8”.

7 ¼” seems to be the standard measurement on both Steve's body and mine. The holes are going to be hidden when the trim is clipped on so I would have thought that small variations are not likely to cause a problem.

I can give no meaningful comment to why Tony's measurements are different, perhaps as he says they were a little more random on the early cars and they used some sort of jig or template later.

Robert

[Carledo]

I'm not sure about the standard of the day, as regards the fitment of this moulding at all. In early 73 when Tony's car was built, all the Dolomite shape cars available PRIOR to the Sprint's launch were the Toledo, 1500FWD and the early 1850 cars. I'm not sure about the 1850 but the Toledo and 1500FWD definitely DIDN'T have this moulding, so it's possible there was no jig to position the holes at this early stage of development. And some bright spark on the line said "wouldn't it be a good idea if we........."

That would account for it!

I have to admit to some surprise at how far in the end clips are at both ends on the "jigged" cars!

Steve

[James467]

Thanks chaps, I managed to measure as follows, probably more accurate than BL but then thats me!!

I offered up the trim to the car, it sits 20mm +/- 2mm (about 3/4") from each end with the plastic trim pieces in. Taking into account the plastic end piece (45mm) the first hole each end is 100mm in from the edge of the panel to allow it to fit into the trim as far towards the end as possible without hitting the plastic trim. The hole on the front wing should sit almost central.

The holes along the sill are 12mm from the top as Mart said, and 17.7mm (7") apart, this gives ten holes for the ten trim clips. I drilled the sill end holes first then used a laser line to ensure a straight edge them marked out the rest.

Holes have been drilled to 4.5mm, but I think 4.8mm would be better once painted.

[James467]

James' OCD strikes again...

Must...

Have...

Neatly...

Spaced...

Holes!

[Carledo]

This only leaves me with one question, where on earth would you buy a 4.8mm drill bit?

Not that I need one as I still have my original holes to work with. If I have to work with new sills on a different car, it's highly likely I won't fit the moulding to them and save myself the rust trap!

Steve